HOLISTIC LIFESTYLE & HOLISTIC HEALTH

When discussing a modern lifestyle, especially if you live in the big urban centres, you might have heard some interesting words: hectic, stressful, restless… holistic, probably not often. Nonetheless, if this frantic modern lifestyle of yours is taking a toll on you (and it will be), this “strange” option might be the one you need to consider.

A holistic lifestyle, or living, considers that all aspects of our life are inter-related and that for a plentiful life, all these aspects must be in the right balance. Specifically our physical condition, our emotional status, our social life and even the professional and spiritual aspects of it.  Also very important to a holistic lifestyle is that we reach beyond our self and have a responsible and conscious relation with our environment. The objective: a healthier, happier and more fulfilling life. And if all things are in place, probably, a longer one too.

The concept is simple to understand: if you don’t sleep enough, you will be cranky and your friends won’t be happy with you, or, if you eat too much birthday cake, your body will warn you of your excess (and punish you a little) by making you sick. In extreme cases, if you suffer bereavement, you won’t be in the best state to perform at your job. Key word: Balance.

The primer requirement of this holistic lifestyle is a proper diet, full of natural food, fruits, vegetables, organic produces, free of pesticides and chemicals that damage us slowly. It requires maintaining physical activity, doing exercise, maintaining an adequate weight, resting enough, managing your stress, detoxifying regularly. But also, on a more individual point of view, making conscious and responsible decisions that lead to an optimal health and functionality, and taking the lead in your life.

In essence, adopting attitudes and habits that are GOOD for you, and focus on discarding things that have no positive contribution for your body, mind or soul in your life.

You can start today with small steps and make the bigger changes along the way, they will only seem more natural and simple as you go and has perks start showing: better skin, better mood, better energy and libido, getting ill less, and in extreme cases even getting cured for the so called “chronic diseases” that are nothing more than your lifestyle spoils.

Easy? Sorry to break the news like this: Not really.

While taking care of ourselves seems a natural thing to do, the way we are brought up in a modern society makes it more challenging than we think. Our lives follow the rhythm of stress, we are highly exposed to pollution in every sort of way, and we eat, without thinking, processed food, full of sugar and chemicals that our body doesn’t recognize and is not engineered to process, to outline a few examples.

In this scenario, when someone chooses to focus on eating healthily or quit drinking, the rest of the bunch will put on the ‘weirdo” face. Been There? Done That.

But like in any major decision in life, strangeness fades at the sight of benefits. Your good results will only inspire others to follow.

Holistic medicine is nothing more than the application of this holistic concept to the approach of healing and maintenance of an optimal health and wellness.

It is based on two major principles from which the whole health approach derives. The first is, again, to consider the individual as a system of inter-related parts. Holistic medicine focuses on identifying the real root of the health imbalance, instead of treating symptoms that are but signals of a dysfunction in the overall system.

The second principle is the one of promoting natural healing: our body has an innate and very effective healing and disease fighting mechanism - our immune system – that needs to be nurtured and strengthened, so that it can do its work: keeping us healthy and strong.

Here’s for an example: if you have persisting headaches, a holistic practitioner will try to identify the cause of the headaches, which can be varied (stress, other health problems, improper diet or sleep habits...) and fix the problem at its root; instead of simply prescribing you pain killers.

Another very important basic of holistic medicine is that one is considered ultimately responsible for its own health and wellbeing. Therefore, we all have an active role in the identification of the root causes of our health issues and in the selection of the most adequate therapies for our personal case, working as a team with the practitioner.

Holistic Medicine is an integrative discipline and comprises a varied range of holistic, alternative and natural healing promoting therapies, such as Detoxification Therapies, Oxygen Therapy, Therapeutic Massage, Acupuncture, Naturopathy, Medicinal Herbs, just to mention a few.  These therapies aim to restore the natural body balance, keep us healthy and fight the damage in our body and spirit that causes premature ageing.

Nonetheless, as an integrative discipline, holistic medicine does not discard conventional medicine. While the holistic approach can provide treatment options for patients not responding to conventional treatment, and even avoid undergoing invasive and costly procedures, holistic and conventional medicine can work complementary for the best results whenever necessary.

Cell Therapy is the ultimate stage in this path to health, wellness and rejuvenation. Restoring the damage of our hectic lifestyle, directly at our cells level, and allowing the body to do what it does better - heal and regenerate - with the help of healthy stem cells, it’s the future of medicine and it’s happening as we speak. More and more advances in this therapy are disclosed every day and they bring a new dimension to the holistic concept of wellness.

As a last note, is never enough to remind you that the base of the all holistic concept is an integrated relation between all parts of the whole. All holistic therapies in the world won’t be able to bring you the balanced, happy and healthy life we all wish, unless we do our part with a clean diet, regular exercise and a responsible attitude towards the others and the environment.

Try it. You will like this changes…and the new you in the mirror.