In today’s blog we’re sharing everyday holistic wellbeing tips from a Certified Holistic Nutritional Consultant™ that can help shape your daily routine for a healthy body and mind.
You may think of anything regarding your body as its own “thing.” For example, exercise is likely seen as the thing you do to stay in shape; it has a start and end time. Fruits and vegetables are likely seen as another “thing” you make sure to eat during a meal to stay healthy. Drinking water, another “thing.” But all these “things” actually work together.
Research shows a clear link between your brain and your body; “stress, depression and other mental states can alter organ function.”
According to Deepak Chopra, an integrated medicine pioneer and best-selling author, “holistic health takes a whole-person approach to health and healing that includes body, mind, and soul as well as environmental qualities of everyday living. A holistic approach reminds you that the whole is made up of many interdependent parts. In the case of the individual, when one part is out of balance or neglected, it affects the other parts.”
Read on for 5 tips on how to shift your paradigm from feeling like you have separate little healthy habits to feeling like you have a holistic living game plan for everyday.
Tip 1: Make sure you’re eating a variety of foods/nutrition
Proper nutrition offers one of the most effective and least costly ways to decrease the burden of many diseases and their associated risk factors, including obesity. There are entire books on Nutritional Healing that detail a variety of alternative healing and preventive therapies and unveil new science on vitamins, supplements, and herbs.
So just for fun, imagine your body as a vehicle. If you put RedBull in the gas tank, it will eventually breakdown and won’t run optimally. Just as vehicles need the proper fuel, so do humans. If you are feeding your body processed foods, it’s not getting the nutrients it needs.
Micronutrients and macronutrients like Vitamin D and Calcium work really well together but not so well apart. This is why a lot of people say eat the rainbow; so you get Beta carotene from orange foods, anti-oxidants from dark leafy greens, etc., by eating a variety of food, you give your body many nutrients it needs to function optimally. You want food to be your baseline and you can bridge any gaps with supplements.
Tip 2: Make sure you’re drinking enough water
That means 8-10 cups a day. If you’re drinking coffee or soft drinks, then you need to add more water. If you’re exercising, then you need to add more. Lack of sufficient water intake affects your energy, your digestion, how your organs work, and the list goes on. “If I get a headache, the first thing I do is reach for a glass of water.” – Kelly Ryan, Certified Holistic Nutritional Consultant, ™ Certified Virtual Coach.
Tip 3: Make sure you’re exercising
You don’t need to overdo it (leading to injury and fatigue) but incorporating resistance exercises either with weights or doing body weight exercises will help elevate your energy, protect your bones, and assist you with maintaining weight. Incorporating something more meditative like yoga or can help your mindset, flexibility, and protect your bones. The reason sun salutations haven’t gone by the wayside after decades and decades is because they work! Lastly, some kind of cardio (again don’t need to run yourself into the ground!) but walking or jogging at a nice clip is going to help your blood flow, help get oxygen to your cells, help your organs work properly, and get everything (oxygen, water, nutrients) to their proper places so your body can function properly.
Tip 4: Work on mindset
Bringing it back to the beginning of this post, your brain and your body don’t work independently. They work together. When you have stress, it impacts your body. Regular stress is helpful; this is when your fight or flight response kicks in. For instance, when a vehicle is about to hit you and you swerve, you have stress to thank for your mind body response.
Chronic stress, on the other hand, is a whole different animal and wreaks havoc on your body. If you think about trying to run away from a bear, there are many changes going on in your body:
- It doesn’t want to digest food because that will slow it down
- It doesn’t want to fall asleep because you’re in danger
- It does want to increase blood flow so you can run, which in turn increases insulin, adrenaline, and cortisol, which can affect resistance to blood sugar. This directly impacts the visceral fat around your stomach organ;
Too much stress literally makes you fat!
Taking 5-15 minutes to meditate each morning is an amazing way to tune into your mind body connection. Check out these meditation accessories to help set the mood for your new favorite way to start the day.
Tip 5: Sleep
If you haven’t slept, your mood is different, your energy is different, your hormones are not working properly, you’re not digesting your food, you’re not getting a chance to repair your body, and your mind does not have a chance to reconcile what happened the day before. Your own sleep is so important because lack of sleep exacerbates stress, which makes sleep worse, and voila, a vicious cycle! When you have super young children, do the best you can. Consult a children’s sleep specialist or a book if you need help getting your child to sleep. For other adults, even if you need sleep aids, doing whatever it takes to get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep will help you feel like you are living a healthy, holistic life.
In Summary
It takes time to create new habits, but consistent practice is what makes these new routines stick. New behaviors create new pathways in your brain. By sharing your intention with a trusted confidant or even writing it in your journal, you can help hold yourself accountable to continuing your new routines and achieving your holistic health goals.
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