It sounds super simple: Eat whole foods, workout, get sleep, meditate. That is the key to holistic healing, and if you can just execute it perfectly, you will reach your higher self of perfection and life will be blissful… but wrong! There is a key component missing here: how we engage with these behaviors shapes our outcomes.
After spending more time consuming wellness content/ reading/ vetting studies than I did studying for my Anatomy & Physiology class, I knew every “optimal” protocol. I knew the order in which to eat your food for best digestion, I knew which vitamins were the purest or most beneficial, and you just know I could deconstruct a food label like I had written it myself.
Despite all this, I was not feeling my best. There was something missing.
I was trapped in a cycle of chronic stress, trying to maintain a “perfect” life while my physical performance and energy levels plummeted. To get out of that funk, I had to stop following the trends and start focusing on these underrated shifts:
Here are the top practices that helped me out of this funk and into a sustainable, healing era for my body and mind.
desensitize any food triggers
True “clean eating” isn’t about being all-or-nothing. If there are specific foods you can’t touch without spiraling, the food isn’t the problem, the restriction is.
Until you disarm your triggers, the compulsion will consume you. I had to learn to keep indulgences in the house without them causing a “food relationship dilemma.” When you desensitize yourself to “forbidden” foods, they lose their power over you, and the disordered compulsion fades. Don’t give up on your day of wellness just because you ate something “bad”. Being mindful in all you do (including/especially eating) will prevent spirals and tangents from your goals.
by all means necessary, lower your stress
With all the natural stress that occurs through one’s life, our modern way of living is rampant with self stress-inducing behaviors. i.e social media overindulgence, the dopamine loops, sedentary routines, routine drinking, just to name a few. If we reshape our lives around avoiding all the easily avoidable stress sources, we will be better equipped at dealing with the real stress. We will build the resilience necessary to handle the unavoidable ordeals. Becoming privy to this also opens your eyes to the amount of micro-stress we are capable of causing ourselves.
think of cardio and mobility work as essential self care
I used to view exercise through a lens of vanity. I enjoyed lifting to enhance certain features, but my endurance was shot. Now, I see particularly cardio and stretching/mobility as essential self-care. There is a specific, unmatched joy in seeing your body master a new movement, or in
feeling the alignment that comes from consistent mobility work. Also, getting your heart rate up isn’t just about “cardio”, it’s about the mental clarity and systemic calmness that follows. It feels good knowing you have the earned endurance to keep up with an active lifestyle. Workout for function, not aesthetics. The aesthetics are just a nice side effect of the body’s physical mastery.
prioritize nature walks
Don’t always do the convenient but ugly walk to get your steps in. Take a break from the pavement, street noise, and monotonous suburban neighborhood walks. Find places to walk that feed your body’s innate desire to connect with the natural world. Even if you have to commute to a nature preserve, the extra effort is worth the meditative state you are allowing yourself to fall into while exercising.
understand that nurturing friendships is nurturing your health.
It is now well documented that loneliness manifests physically as disease, fatigue, and generalized negative health outcomes. Don’t fall for the social media obsession of seclusion and “locking in” all the time. A healthy social life will work in conjunction with your other habits to create a life of alignment and wellness for the whole self.
The answer does not lie in strict, well abided by protocols for every area of life. The key to healing is more nuanced. Its the conjunction of fueling the body with the whole foods it desires, laughing with your friends more than you scroll, spending as much time outside as you can, and seeing as many sunsets as you can. Exercise, stretch and practice mobility. There is no greater joy than in seeing your body and mind become capable of new things- all that create calmness, alignment, and even energy.
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