Living Life Holistically

When we think about the word ‘holistic’, there are often so many different ideas about what this term means, and much more about what it doesn’t. To understand the concept of holistic health, a few realisations about health need to happen.

The first is that your body is a complex, interconnected system, involving communication between multiple organs, muscles, and other tissues. Understanding the complexity of our body allows us to appreciate each ‘cog’ in this wheel.

The second concept is that our nervous system is the means by which all these elements communicate, and in turn, operate. Our spinal cord is so essential to our survival that it’s the first tissue developed in-utero!

The final idea to appreciate is that these systems, tissues, and organs are all designed with the intention to keep us alive and healthy. When talking to patients, it is often this last point that people struggle to grasp. We are constantly flaunted with the idea that living a healthy life is often unattainable or impractical. For example, would it be easier and more cost-effective to make a nutritious and healthy dinner with balanced macro- and micro-nutrients? Or simply order McDonalds via Uber Eats?

Unfortunately, in our society, choosing the healthy option is not always that attractive. But it’s choices like this that explain why we’re currently seeing a rise in lifestyle-related conditions such as obesity, type II diabetes, and high cholesterol.

Considering all these points, holistic living encourages us to widen the scope of our health-lens, to fully appreciate not only the ‘cog’, but instead the whole ‘wheel’.

Holistic health is a balance between nutrition, psychology, and physicality; and how each of these facets of health impact on your entire body, especially your nervous system.

Now, living a ‘holistic lifestyle’ does require time, effort, and energy, which is often the price to pay. However, the benefits to achieving this can result in not only living a long life, but more importantly, living a better-quality life.

Having a holistic health practitioner will provide you with strategies on how to achieve this balance, and encourage you to always put your health first. Chat to Dr Liam or Carole about your lifestyle habits next time you’re in the Centre, and they will be able to give you some great advice on how to achieve a more holistic lifestyle!