A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO HEALTH AND WELL BEING

We hear a lot said today about the need for more 'holistic' approaches to health. Increasing numbers of people are now awakening to the true value of a balanced state of health, which after all, is probably the main prerequisite for a happy and fulfilled life. Without health, we are restricted in so many ways. As we know, wealth is of very little value, when it comes to improving personal health and well-being. A million pounds in the bank still won't provide the means of curing the common cold. And material wealth happens to be a very limited resource when it comes to dealing with the psychological and physiological effects of some of the chronic illnesses and more serious dis-eases of our time.

The premise, on which a more holistic approach to health is based, is the idea of unity, the perfect ‘wholeness' of life, the harmonious and natural ‘balance' of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of ourselves. Within this perfect ‘wholeness', often buried deep within the daily preoccupations and distractions of life, lies the ‘uniqueness' of our true self. The journey through life may push us into uncomfortable close encounters with aspects of our physical, mental, emotional or spiritual levels of being. However, it is often through such challenging experiences of 'imbalance', that we may journey on to heal, understand and eventually accept our own uniqueness or personal truths, as the basis for living healthily, happily and productively throughout our days.

A single lifetime offers a golden opportunity to embark upon a unique and unrepeatable journey of self-exploration and development as a human being. Our state of health at any given moment in time on this journey, is often indicative of the progress we are making to becoming whole. And it is often through some sort of 'imbalance' or personal health ‘challenge', in ourselves or someone close to us, that more insight is gained into the 'preciousness' of life. A challenge to our health can often be a ‘gift in disguise' if the experience causes us to pay closer attention to what's going on in the mind, body or soul. In time we may be offered further opportunities to begin redressing the balance, that is, if we are brave enough and ready to listen to the message being sent to us.

In contemplating the idea of balance in our own life, might we consider ourself to be a 'person of balance'? Thinking about our own physical, mental, emotional or spiritual aspects of being, would we say that we live in a state of balance? And if not, are we aware of what it is in life, that might be blocking that pathway to ‘wholeness'? The commencement of a personal healing journey, frequently triggered by a challenging health imbalance, is often an acceptance of that 'gift in disguise', a sacred moment when attachments to and preoccupations with things external, cease to dominate and direct these precious moments of our days.

Accepting that we don't always manage our stress levels too well, understanding what it actually is that causes us to be stressed in life, learning to be easier on ourselves and to relax more, engaging in work or activity which makes us feel happy and more fulfilled, having the confidence to discuss with our doctor, the many alternatives to prescribed medication in order to become well again, undertaking regular exercise, especially in the fresh air at all times of the year, sleeping and resting when we need to, spending more ‘quality time' with those we love, understanding how easily we can become dehydrated during the day and learning to rehydrate with fresh pure, clean water, learning more about the foods in our shopping trolley which are nutritious and life sustaining and reducing or eliminating those which might actually be doing us harm – these are all practical simple ways of making a start in moving towards a more ‘holistic' approach to our own health.

In listening to clients, I have become more interested in the ways in which people spend their time and what effect this has upon their general health and well being. One area of research has been to consider how a person's health is affected by their daily work routine? On an average day in the U.K. for example, how many people are working in a state of dehydration or fatigue? These two factors are particularly well-researched causes of stress-related illness in the working population. What proportion of the workforce is aware of the relationship between a quiet focused mind and workplace productivity for example? And last but not least, how does boredom, frustration or lack of purpose, not to mention the experience of intimidation or bullying (2 million people bullied in the workplace in the UK today, a major cause of work related stress), detrimentally affect someone's state of health. I often ask clients to self-assess their own level of satisfaction at work, by posing the question 'Am I in the kind of job, which brings me stimulation and also makes me feel happy and fulfilled? Many respond without hesitation and cite their job as a major source of stress in their lives. Current HSE research statistics on work related health problems, (over half a million individuals in this country last year reported they were experiencing work related stress at a level that was making them ill), confirm these client responses. The higher ranking occupational groups affected by stress related illness, interestingly and ironically include those people working in the human services and professions of teaching, health and social care.

A large proportion of those identified within the HSE statistics are likely to be those struggling to find their own health balance. In the first instance they are most likley to have sought help from their doctor and for many, the outcome would have been prescribed medication following a brief consultation with their G.P. There are about 12 million people in this country taking anti - depressants at the present time. We know that primary care services function primarily within a powerful hierarchy of vested interests. Through the transparent dynamic of conventional healthcare, we witness a booming, technologically advanced, pharmaceutical industry, capitalising on a ‘growth market' of health decline. Essentially, this is an 'industry' focused on symptom-led treatment regimes, where the dis-ease and its effects take priority over the patient and the possible cause or causes of their health imbalance. In addition, the inclusion of any sort of spiritual component within health care is largely ignored in most conventional treatment settings, perhaps with the exception of patchy and more innovative community based healthcare provision in mental health and to some extent the holistic practices of some of the more enlightened forms of palliative care.

As a professional holistic practitioner, I'm committed to working with the ‘whole person', in the context of her or his own lifestyle. In my approach with clients, it's essential to respect and accept the 'model' of the client's world , as the starting point for the activation of any self healing and personal development process. If our work together is going to be meaningful and productive then any agreed plan of action is based upon a comprehensive 'holistic' assessment of the person's life situation which includes the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of life. In engaging with a client in this way, my intent is to honour and respect their individuality, in some ways to walk beside them, at least for the early part of their unique journey back to balance and health. The returning journey is a learning process for both of us and where the client feels empowered to take more responsibilty in moving forward to better health and perhaps, a new way of living and being.

Author Details: Heartways.co.uk