Holistic Living 101
Hey! Welcome back to the blog. This week, I really wanted to put a face on what it means to live a holistic lifestyle. It is a fairly common phrase that can harbor many different meanings to various people, so I wanted to provide you with the definition that I live by, and how it applies to (single) motherhood.
If this is your first time to my blog, welcome. My name is Desiree and I am the mother of Mojave. We are living our lives with intention in the Colorado Rockies and we are so glad you’re here!
I wanted to add the disclaimer that I am in no way touting any sort of perfection in mastery. That is the true beauty of this life adventure. None of us are, nor will ever be perfect, so let’s all take a deep breath together and just relax. If you don’t already know me yet, you will come to find I have quite the laid back energy required for living this life longterm. Mistakes happen. We get back up again. That’s life. I always say we should shoot toward improvement and self-betterment for the sake of a life journey with significantly less stress. Not perfection. Sounds awesome to me, how about you?
What is holistic wellness?
I liken the pursuit of holistic wellness to life’s great balancing act. It is when we are able to balance three spinning wheels with practiced little effort. These three wheels are the mind, the body and the spirit. I have found that many online coaches will address one aspect of wellness, but neglect the others. This does not do the trick. We are in complete harmony with our energetic being when we are fully integrated, holistically.
To live a holistic lifestyle means we are applying awareness in these three areas in order to mend anything that may be out of balance. This is a daily practice. But don’t worry. Once the awareness is truly ignited, it’s hard not to live there. Awareness is a state of understanding and acceptance of the current moment. There’s rarely ever getting caught up in thinking about what you’re going to do after baby is done feeding, how someone may have taken something you said to them last week, or numbing it all with a happy hour (or three? Been there, too. Pre-baby life was wild).
Taking the intentional deep breath. Thinking before speaking a response. These are examples of when we stop to live in that moment, automatically. It comes natural. But having consistent compassion and grace is where the rubber meets the road. These are areas where we could apply more daily practice in awareness. When we live in awareness, it becomes a lot easier to maintain that spinning balance.
How do the wheels get off balance?
Here are just a few ways.
Our Minds:
Daily stresses, both physical and emotional.
Childhood traumas.
Adult past or current traumas.
Being under intense pressure to meet deadlines, pay bills or other obligations.
Unforgiveness toward someone/s who have wronged you.
Jealousy toward someone else, their belongings or current situation.
Disconnection from Source.
Our Bodies:
Stagnation in physical movement.
Overstimulation from substances (this includes, and especially means caffeine).
Mental and emotional needs gone unmet for prolonged periods of time.
Disconnection from Source.
Poor diets.
Our Spirits:
Disconnection from Source.
Unmet physical, mental and emotional needs for prolonged periods of time.
Overextended periods of not doing the things that make you happy and bring you life.
Self-betrayal.
How do I put them back in balance?
These wheels can become better balanced with proper attention and awareness spent within each realm. Here are just a few ways.
Our Minds:
Daily awareness meditations with focus on your breath.
Forgiveness of those who have wronged you.
Acceptance of your life and current situations.
Outside counseling when necessary.
Maintain daily spiritual rituals such as prayer, worship or however you communicate with the Great Spirit.
Our Bodies:
Drink clean water.
Daily awareness with any physical sensations your body does to counteract mental pressures (ie clenching your jaw, tightening your fists, holding tension in your shoulders) and actively releasing.
Daily or routine movement, exercise or stretching.
Daily awareness in what toxins you may be breathing, eating, drinking or using that are counteracting your body’s natural ability to self-regulate (ie flouride toothpaste, chemical heavy cleaners, foods high in preservatives, etc).
The use of daily natural supplements to help your body to do what it does best (such as adaptogenic herbs).
Maintain daily spiritual rituals such as prayer, worship or however you communicate with the Great Spirit.
Our Spirits:
Maintain daily spiritual rituals such as prayer, worship or however you communicate with the Great Spirit.
Maintain healthy diets, free of toxins such as preservatives, the “bad” fats and pesticides.
Remove flouride from your water and toothpaste.
Take daily moments to embrace what is and cultivate an energy of gratitude.
Engage in self-love rituals.
As you can see, they are all very well connected through a network of energetic awareness that is at the soul of what it means to embrace this lifestyle.
As in-depth and overwhelming as this all may sound, I can assure you it is not difficult to obtain with the right guidance. This is why I decided to start offering my 1:1 holistic coaching this year.
I was tired.
Tired of seeing everyone I love, including myself and even those I hadn’t yet met, walking around with so much discourse. I’ve likened it to running down a perfectly good engine by using the wrong tools or liquids to make it run properly. One or two times you may still make it to your destination. But when it becomes a consistent and habitual lifestyle to live in this condition, over time it will cause erosion and eventually the potential for real damage in all three spinning wheels.
It literally pains me, I feel it inside my chest cavity, radiating from my heartspace when I see someone in pain in any of the three areas, mind, body or spirit. As an INFJ personality type, it’s been difficult because in my core, my desire is to help people. As an empath, it’s been especially challenging. When I look at a person, I can often not only feel the intense emotional pressure they are under, but I can see it (in my spirit), like a weighted sandbag sitting on their shoulders. Talk to any empath and most will tell you creating the psychic bubble is necessary, but we will all tell you we want to genuinely help you from a place of the purest intentions deep in our heartspace. There is no selfishness involved, no ulterior motives. Consider us your personal Grandmother Willow Tree. Your big sis or a best friend. Empaths are simply authentic, caring individuals, which is why we typically make such great moms. We carry a deep maternal instinct that we are naturally born with.
So maybe you are someone who finds all of this sounds like a bunch of taboo mumbo jumbo. That’s okay. I’ll leave it on this point:
New strides are being made every day in the legitimate fields who’s reputations you respect, to study and try to utilize those of us born with empathic abilities. In the psychology circles, empaths are synonymous with HSPs (Highly Sensitive Persons). The article I linked above about the empath comment is from PsychologyToday.com. It is a well known phenomenon that’s being scientifically studied, and now added to the mainstream acceptance of our current reality. Just like many other aspects of human acceptance in the recent generations. And for that, we all say thank you!
Overall, when being a single mother, applying these principals to your life can be extremely beneficial. If you are like me and often worry if you are providing the very best for your child, using healthier, non-toxic alternatives in your home removes a whole slew of potential headaches. And when we tend to our minds, bodies + spirits in an intentional way, we are providing an optimum example to our children of how to function with ease through this life, no matter what it may throw at us. When mama is happy, baby is happy. When baby is happy, mama stays happy. Everyone wins.
Let’s work together.
My coaching sessions are designed to find current weak spots in all three areas with the purpose of setting you up on an upgraded and more balanced lifestyle. A well oiled-machine. Notice how I didn’t say “new”. We are not creating a new you. It won’t be as if we work together for a few weeks and one day you wake up suddenly a different person. On the contrary, we will be discovering parts of your inner child, embracing them and allowing you room to stand in their truth. We will be addressing what current habits you may have that could be tweaked and adjusted to work in your favor and I offer creative ways to do this. We explore what toxins may be living in your environment that are contributing to your current state. We create a plan together that’s designed to improve your mind, body + spirit utilizing essential oils, healing stones and meditations specifically crafted with your unique situation in mind and I encourage you through as you execute it. I am available for unlimited questions, concerns, pep talks, “talk me off the ledge”’s and general motivation during our time together, as well. I’m just here to guide you.
What you get out of your sessions is in direction correlation to what you put in. Transformation is possible and it WILL happen. But we will be doing it from a place of inner strength, honoring your entire person in the process. This is why I decided to charge for this service. When you are willing to invest into your health, it is an incredible form of self-love and I have found people will take their time and energy on doing the work more seriously than someone who got it for free.
I am willing to offer you, however, an absolutely free consultation. This is a great way to gain more information about you in order to come up with a unique plan, custom built for you. I will let you know what sort of protocols I would put in place, should we work together, and you can decide from there if you’d like to continue, absolutely no obligations. If you are interested in this offer, visit my page here.
There are entirely too many talking points when it comes to holistic health, so be expecting more blog posts in the future about different ways to incorporate this lifestyle into your own. Do you already try to live holistically? Reach out to me this week and tell me your experience and how it has benefited your life so far. I’d love to hear from you.
And be sure to check out some of our videos on the vlog, as well as some of the other blog posts, too.
Until next week, may the road rise up to meet you.
D+Mo
