The Lifestyle Guide -

When I think of Lifestyle, I’m thinking of fashion, home organization, health, family life, and all the things that contribute to an individual Lifestyle. On this blog, our main topics are; Self Improvement, Motherhood, and Lifestyle. However, all these topics can come under Lifestyle, and I’m sure you will agree. Now you’re probably wondering why not just create a Lifestyle blog. This is a valid question hence the reason I created The Lifestyle Guide.

I consider lifestyle to be one of those topics I am passionate about because it is diverse and looks different for each individual giving me the privilege to share my knowledge from my point of view. Lifestyle is a broad topic that is broken down into many different sub-topics. I do believe in a holistic type lifestyle, and this post is about the holistic approach.

What is a Holistic Lifestyle?

A holistic lifestyle is one that focuses on the entirety and not just part. In other words, If I am living a holistic lifestyle, it means I am making sure to cater to every part of my being that makes up the whole, and not just parts such as the physical body.

Choosing the holistic approach is about maintaining balance. A balance between what you may ask? You are maintaining a balance between the different areas that makes you a whole.

1. Mind, how we think influences our actions. 2. Body, our bodies will respond to us based on how we care for it. 3. Spirit, we’re spiritual beings. Just as the physical body needs to be cared for, our spiritual self also needs just as much TLC. Although we cannot see it, it is what moves the body. 4. Emotion, we’re emotional beings. We experience happiness, sadness, etc.

Maintaining the balance between all these areas of ourselves is what a holistic approach looks like.

Why we should live a holistic lifestyle.

We should strive to live a more holistic lifestyle because we’re a whole and not just a part. We see the physical body but there’s more to the physical body than meets the eye.

How can a person say they’re eating healthy to lose weight if their mind is not in the right place to believe they can lose weight if they choose to eat healthier?

Living a holistic lifestyle is rewarding because we not only get to heal ourselves, the correct way, but, we also get to learn ourselves.

How I grew up I know about falling, getting a bruise, and then being told “Get up, you’ll be ok, don’t cry”, and on goes a plaster. But was a plaster all I really needed? What about my emotions experienced after the fall? As simple as this incident may seem it clearly shows how fixated we are on the body, leaving every other area to suffer.

Five ways to make your lifestyle holistic.

Before going into these 5 points. When speaking of the holistic lifestyle, It is important for us to understand every outcome has or had an input.

For example, if you are having stomach pain this stomach pain is your body responding to something you may have put into it. Instead of taking a pill to ease or stop the stomach pain, the holistic approach will consider everything you consumed to see what resulted in your stomach pain. Once this is determined, you either decide to stop consuming or keep consuming.

Since the holistic approach focuses on supporting our mind, body, spirit, and emotion which make up the whole being; the following 5 points will be centered around these.

Spend time in nature.

Spending time in nature not only energizes the body when we breathe in fresh air (oxygen that plants give, that the human body needs to survive). It also heals the body.

The sea water being rich in magnesium makes it an ideal option if we have muscle soreness. The sun supports our bodies in the production of vitamin D which is great for our bones as well as it supports our immune system.

Eat and drink healthy.

I personally think this is a controversial statement because eating and drinking healthily looks different to everyone. However, I am referring to the consumption of foods that came from the earth, plant-based without too many introduced chemicals.

There are too many studies linking to the negative effects dairy products, alcohol, and highly processed foods have on the human body. When we seek a holistic lifestyle, we’re trying our best to remove foods (in this case), that have a potential negative effect on the body, which in turn creates disease. To avoid something, we have to take the necessary precautions.

Eating and drinking healthy supports the body by giving it all it needs to strive and remain alkaline when done the correct way.

Spend time with loved ones / Crying is okay.

We’re emotional beings, and we express that the most when we spend time with the people who matter to us the most.

When we achieve something great in life, we feel the urge to be around family and friends, this makes us happy and we’re able to share this joy with our loved ones. We may not always notice, but by living in that moment we’re supporting our emotional self.

Circling back on the part where I’ve mentioned falling and getting bruised; instead of being told to stop crying. One way to support our emotional self in that scenario was by allowing the tears to flow because, in that moment, that is how I expressed my emotions. I was sad and hurt because I fell, and I expressed that by crying.

When we suppress our emotions, we’re suppressing that part of the being that basically needs just as much attention as the physical body.

As we grow older one may wonder why am I not good at expressing my emotions. Well, it’s because you haven’t learned how to express it. When we learn how to express it we learn how to deal with life situations.

Meditate.

Meditation calms the body; it stills the mind and it focuses on our spiritual self.

A lot of our focus is on the physical (outer) world that we live in. The outer world being our focus, causes stress, anxiety, depression, and worry.

When we slow down to focus on our inner world, the way we view and even live in the world, changes.

How you focus on your inner world is by; sitting comfortably in silence. Temporarily forget about the world around you. Do not suppress whatever thoughts come to mind but at the same time, do not entertain them but allow them to pass (similar to moving cars passing by). When we practice this often, it gives us peace, clarity, and gratitude.

Despite the chaos that is happening around us, we learn how and when to silence the noise, so that we can make sense of the noise around us.

Dedicate time daily to spend with our Creator.

Spending time with our creator daily supports the holistic approach to our lifestyle because it supports the whole being and not just part.

Being a part of the world, makes us focus on obtaining the material side of life which in turn accompanies stress. Having certain materials satisfies our wants and needs. However, the more time we spend with our Creator we’ll realize most of the stress that we place on our bodies, our emotions, our mind, and even our spirit can be avoided when we build a relationship with our Creator.

Spending time requires nothing materialistic from us, but instead, we go as we are.

The Lifestyle Guide is your sign to start incorporating more holistic habits into your daily lifestyle.