Total Body Wellness
What does holistic mean in mental health?
The word holistic gets tossed around a lot these days. Perhaps you use it when searching for non-conventional products or practitioners. Within mental health, the word holistic can infer some sort of safety.
For instance, if your psychiatrist’s practice name has ‘holistic’ in the title, you might believe prescribed medication is safe and effective. That the medications they prescribe work with body naturally and without negative side effects or long term problems.
However, true ‘holistic’ psychiatric treatment would first look for root causes. They would do extensive and time consuming intakes. Order lab work or other tests to get data on inflammation, endocrine system health or gut health. Psychiatric medication would usually not be prescribed at the first visit.
Defining ‘holistic’
The word holistic is defined, by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, as
“relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts.”
When we apply the term holistic to mental health it would literally mean considering your ‘whole’ body. A holistic perspective would look into interconnected systems and external experiences and environments, rather than just the brain.
For example, a holistic psychiatry practice would explore if you have dysfunction or deficiencies within systems throughout your whole body. Using an organic chemistry and neurobiological lens to determine if cells or systems are dysfunctional. Additionally, they would consider emotional and psychosocial elements.
Why total body wellness is important
An integrative or functional medicine professional can assess symptoms through a whole body lens. Exploring interconnectedness rather than dissecting symptoms and disorders into isolated parts with diagnostic labels. This way, improving the function of interconnected systems can not only improve mental health. Taking a holistic view of mental health will lead you down the path of total body wellness.
By embracing the complexity and connected of the human body, rather than dismissing it and isolating parts, we actually simplify our quest for wellness. For example, you might be able to significantly decrease fatigue and depression by increasing your intake of clean water and going to bed earlier. Consequently the increased level of hydration could also improve your strength, elimination pathways, and cognitive functioning.
These improvements can be considered side effects. Positive side effects that contribute to a better quality of life.
Mindfulness is key
A key to assessing your body’s total wellness is a mindful connection to your body.
Do you know when these symptoms first started happening? Have you also felt any discomfort in your belly? Or joints that are achey?
Feeling tired, bloated and achey are signals. It is your body’s way of communicating something needs attention. Becoming mindful of your body’s somatic signals can give you important data to inform appropriate treatment.
Additionally, putting aside diagnostic labels can propel total body wellness. For instance many that have trouble falling or staying asleep get diagnosed with Restless Leg Syndrome. This diagnosis implies restless legs will always be with you. A prescriber might prescribe sleep medication(s) and imply you would have to take it for the rest of your life.
By diagnosing and treating restless legs, you might be able to fall asleep better. However you won’t feel rested when you wake up due to the medications. Negative side effects could be worse than interrupted sleep.
Total Body Perspective and Mindfulness
A total body wellness perspective would look at sleep challenges differently. The perspective would look at ALL current symptoms and timelines. Only treating restless legs for insomnia seem frivolous since many variables impact sleep. For instance, deficient or dysfunctional digestion, hydration, and thyroid function can impair sleep. Furthermore, the lack of exercise, sleep hygiene and/or exposure to toxins can also impair sleep.
Cultivating mindful awareness of your somatic and mental health symptoms is imperative for a total body perspective. Your mindful curiosity of what you are feeling and when you feel it can help inform the safe and sustainable treatment. Perhaps the first step for total body wellness is to cultivate mindfulness. Developing mindfulness takes practice but it is simple, free and easy. For instance, committing to a daily 5-minute breathing meditation can cultivate mindfulness and lead you to total body wellness.
Wholesome lifestyle habits
Here are some ideas for how to jumpstart total body wellness.
1. Turn off your devices
Before smartphones and the internet kept us inside and glued to a screen people used to play, read, create, cook and share a meal or just relax. All of these activities nourished the body with movement, connection to the outdoors, and each other. Just because we can play and socialize, alone with our phone or laptop doesn’t mean it’s good for us.
Try easing into total body wellness by turning off your device. Instead of scrolling, step outside for a walk . Or arrange a device-free game night with friends or family. Even better, prepare two meals a week at home using whole, clean ingredients.
2. Focus on quality sleep
Restful sleep can contribute to total body wellness. How much sleep you get is not as important as the quality. This means if you feel refreshed after sleeping 6 hours, your sleep was a good quality. Achieving restful sleep is not easy in our modern world filled. Blue light from screens, EMFs from cellular and Wi-Fi signals, and fast foods can impair sleep quality.
There are many apps to help you find ways to improve your sleep. One of our favorites at Flourish is the OURA ring . It is worn most of the day, collects data about your heart rate and other markers. It uses bluetooth to upload the data into their app. The app analyzes the data to give you guidance on what you can do to help yourself get optimal and restful sleep.
3. Stay hydrated
Ensuring you are properly hydrated isn’t necessarily a lifestyle habit since it is really a necessity for survival. However, Americans are severely dehydrated due to stress and drinks that are filled with sugar and synthetic ingredients.
Hydration is key to total body wellness and it is best to drink at least 70 ounces of clean, purified water a day. A great start would be to drink 16-20 ounces of clean, purified water when you first wake up to get your day off to a great start. It is important to note that water that comes in a plastic bottle or from the tap contain toxins like plastics, chlorine and fluoride. You will need an advanced filtration system to remove these toxins and your fridge filter or Brita pitcher only removes a small percentage of toxins. For great tasting and clean, pure water explore purchasing a Berkey or a counter top water distiller.
4. Nutrients for well-being
Instead, shift to mindful awareness of nutrients. Read labels of the foods you are now eating. If they contain long words you cannot pronounce, don’t purchase it or eat it. Stay away from fast foods that contain dangerous fats and toxins such as PFAS. Instead buy real ingredients, preferably organic, and make your own meals.
Supplements
Agricultural practices over the past hundred years have depleted the soil of the essential nutrients we used to get out of our food. Even if you eat a 100% whole-food diet consisting of clean produce, animal products, and purified water you can still be deficient in some nutrients. Supplementing with essential minerals like magnesium and zinc can improve mental health and sleep. Taking vitamins B, C, D, K, and E can keep your immune and nervous systems operating optimally, including your mental health. A strong immune and nervous system can help your body recover more quickly from colds and viruses.
However, it is important to note that not all supplements are created equally. There are many different forms of the minerals and vitamins noted above. Many are not independetly tested for quality or verification. Additionally the frequency and dosage on the label may or may not be appropriate for you. For instance, some folks do better with magnesium glycinate than magnesium citrate. Or some need methylated versions of the B vitamins but this version isn’t sold at most stores.
We believe it is best to consult with a functional or integrative medicine professional first. They spend time to assess your current state and may recommend testing so they do not have to guess where to start. A professional can also put together a protocol designed specifically for you, including quality supplements. Click here to schedule an introductory meeting with one of our functional nutritionists.