How Do You Define Holistic Health?

When the world went into lockdown this year, I never in a million years expected it to be as difficult as it was. Yes, there was the obvious worry of a global pandemic happening all around us, but as time went on and our lockdown extended, my need for human connection and community was deepening but ignored.

Yes, there was Zoom and FaceTime, but as a person whose core love language is physical touch, the lack of physical human connection (outside my husband) took a toll on me mentally, physically and emotionally.

I missed hugging my family and friends.

I missed sitting around the community table together drinking wine and sharing meals.

I missed talking, laughing and sharing stories.

I missed my community, my people.

I thought I was doing okay and coping with all the stress and changes in my life, but one day I realized how I was coping was actually me pulling away from my community completely.

I went into my own internal lockdown in order to self-preserve.

But one day a little voice inside my heart told me to unlock and connect.

I made plans to physically see (safely) my friends again.

I started reconnecting with my community and speaking my love language again.

And today, I saw my best friend, my dear dear friend of 25+ years who I had not seen since March.

We hugged. We cried. We laughed. We had a deep and heart-filled conversation.

She has always been one of my biggest cheerleaders and has been part of my health and wellness journey since day one.

As we started talking about health coaching, she has complete understanding about my passion and why for my coaching business, but she bluntly asked me…

‘How do you define holistic health?’

I looked at her and responded warmly with, “being healthy and balanced in all areas of your life’.

The thing is, health and wellness is not just about food and exercise. It’s about all the things- your family life, work life, spiritual life, community and more.

Holistic health encompasses all the things, and when one area is out of balance it affects all the other areas of your life.

My own internal shutdown affected my overall health (mindset food, body, and being) and threw me off balance for awhile.

But the important thing is, we can always course correct and get back to balance, you just have to be willing to make the internal shifts to take the external actions.

For me it was getting back in balance with human connection and community. Maybe for you it might be something else. If you took a holistic audit of your life, where could you cultivate better health and more balance?