Five Reasons why Concentrating on Holistic Health is Crucial

The ancient healers believed that healing is most effective when the entire body is considered a unit instead of looking at it as a combination of parts. Rather than curing specific illnesses and healing particular body parts, the cure is more effective when the body is looked at holistically.

In the 4^th century, Socrates described holistic healing of the body by saying that parts of a body cannot be healthy unless the whole body is well. This implies that holistic health is a state of maintaining balance instead of just a mere absence of illness.

On the contrary, modern-day western medicine looks at health in parts. It works to cure the symptoms displayed by each body part and doesn’t recognize the body as a system.

What is holistic health?

Holistic health stands on the belief of looking at the interconnectedness of mind, body, soul, environment, and intellectual fitness for achieving health in its true sense.

Even long before penicillin or x-rays became pervasive to control and diagnose disease, ancient healers recognized the essentiality of harmony between spiritual and emotional wellbeing to achieve the physical body’s health.

Holism principle means the whole is greater than the sum of parts. All the pieces are connected with an intimate interconnection. Hence, one cannot understand the details without considering the system as a whole.

Treating the body through holistic health and wellness approach implies using multiple healing ideas, complementary medicines, and alternative medical practices.  The idea is to combine them with modern-day western medicine to bring about healing of the body.

Alternative healthcare practices that often contribute to a holistic approach to health are mentioned below. You might be familiar with and use them in your daily life already, not knowing their essential role in your health and wellness.

• Yoga
• Massage
• Therapy
• Acupuncture
• Medication
• Physical therapy
• Chiropractic
• Energy work (reiki)

All of this and many other practices come together with modern-day medication to ensure holistic health. Ultimately, they leave a profoundly significant impact on you to live a joyful life.

Benefits of holistic health

1. It takes everything into consideration

Humans tend to think that lifestyle and health are different aspects of life and tend to classify them. We often fail to recognize the impact of mental health on our physical health and how we conduct our life. This leads to neglect on our part to take preventive measures for ensuring health.

On the contrary, holistic health considers all the aspects of human life and the body. From the number the hours of sleep to the stress you feel to the kind of diet you eat, it considers everything before recommending a solution.

2. It helps you to find long term solution

A common aspect related to modern-day medicine is that it cures the symptoms only. For instance, if you have a headache, the modern concept of healthcare would prescribe you a painkiller and get relief.

Holistic health looks at the causes instead of symptoms. Therefore, it is in a position to offer a long-term solution to your problem. This way, it will recommend a painkiller and look at the causes of the headache simultaneously.

3. Takes into account the external environment

An indispensable aspect of holistic health is integrating the environment and how the body interacts with it. It looks at how external factors can impact or deter the betterment of your health and wellbeing.

For instance, a drug addict cannot cure addiction by simply coming off drugs in the long run. If the surrounding factors are not supportive, the chances are that the addict will go back to the addiction.

On the contrary, a drug rehabilitation center will look at a drug addicts’ lifestyle outside the center and look where there is a need for change for making a lasting impact.

If the cause of addiction is an escape from life problems and stress, a holistic approach may suggest destressing and ways to build a calmer lifestyle.

4. Positively impacts your mental health

Your emotional health plays an essential role in maintaining your overall health by looking at how you feel. The concept of holistic health stresses that emotional wellbeing plays a vital role in promoting the health of the body.

Too much stress can negatively impact your body in the form of high blood pressure, heart issues, and the like. The approaches to maintaining mental health through holism include counseling, energy healing work, mediation, etc.

5. Improves social wellbeing

Human beings are social animals; thus, they cannot live without social interactions. A holistic health approach improves social wellbeing by focusing on your interconnectedness with people around you, such as family, friends, and peers.

The practitioners of holism teach their patients about the importance of societal relationships and how sharing and catharsis act as therapy. A positive effect of such counseling is that it reduces social stress and anxiety when encountering a new situation.

Conclusion

Holistic health offers you an alternative way of looking after yourself by treating both symptoms and causes of a problem. The concept; Whole is bigger than the sum of parts is the guiding principle for such an approach to health. Therefore, it reinforces the idea that healing one part of the body and not considering others will not result in proper healing.

The holistic approach of looking at health includes five perspectives: mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual, providing holistic solutions to your problems. This interconnectedness and wellbeing of all the aspects of the human body help you live a truly healthy and happy life.