A Guide to Total Body Wellness
It’s important to look at your health from a holistic standpoint. Wellness is like a Jenga—everything is connected and interrelated. If one piece is comprised, the entire system becomes wiggly and under risk of falling apart. This is not something you want for yourself.
Take care of yourself from head to toe considering all dimensions of your health—physical, mental and emotional layers. Practice a total body wellness approach to prevent disease, improve ailments and experience overall health and wellness.
What Is Total Body Wellness?
Total body wellness is a holistic approach to integrative health and health management. It’s a lifestyle method that takes into consideration all aspects of your wellbeing. If you pay attention to your body’s needs and integrate all facets of your health, including your physical, mental and emotional wellness, you can achieve higher levels of vitality and overall health.
Total body wellness is essential to prevent disease, reduce the risk of chronic and acute injuries, successfully treat existing conditions and become a more productive and happier person.
Benefits of a Total Body Wellness Approach
Approaching your wellbeing from a total body wellness standpoint helps you identify less obvious underlying causes of disease. It can take care of emotional causes of physical disease or physical problems leading to mental or emotional distress. It can identify and correct imbalances within your body and in your life overall.
Instead of simply trying to fix problems, a total body wellness approach aims to create true health and prevent future health concerns. Unlike less integrative approaches to health, total body wellness is not a band-aid. It’s a multidimensional strategy that provides whole healing helping you to lead a happy, healthy, productive and fulfilling life.
The benefits of a total body wellness approach include:
- Preventing disease
- Avoiding acute and chronic injuries
- Increasing longevity
- Boosting emotional and physical wellness
- Achieving balance within the body and mind
- Creating long-lasting lifestyle changes
10 Steps to Total Body Wellness
To integrate a total body wellness practice into your life, you need the right tools. Total body wellness tools target different aspects of your emotional, physical and mental health, helping you to instill well-rounded health practices that optimize your body from head to toe.
Try these 10 steps to total body wellness for deeper integration into your daily life:
Breathe
Your breath is your most powerful tool to health, yet it’s free and easy to use. Breathing techniques, such as alternate nostril breathing, abdominal breathing and 4-7-8 breath can reduce stress and anxiety, improve your cardiovascular system and achieve relaxation that promotes wellbeing.
Eat Healthy
Don’t worry. Eating healthy is not about rabbit food and doesn’t have to be complicated either. As Michael Pollan said, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Reduce or eliminate processed foods, refined sugar and artificial ingredients. Focus on real whole foods, preferably organic. Greens, vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains are your friends. Pay attention to your body. Eat what makes you feel good, healthy and energetic.
Stay Hydrated
Most of your body consists of water. You don’t want to get dehydrated. Make sure to drink plenty of water, 8-10 glasses (8 oz) each day. More if you are very active or its really hot outside. While green tea, green juices and kombucha are healthy, they should not replace water. Eliminate sodas and sugary drinks. Reduce or eliminate coffee and alcohol
Exercise
Exercise is absolutely important to your health, which should be your primary goal. While inactivity can lead to health issues, over-exercising can also cause health problems, injury and exercise-addiction. Find the balance that’s right for you. Exercise shouldn’t be a chore either. Neither should it hurt you. It should be challenging, but not painful. Find the right exercise forms for you that challenge your body and you enjoy. Mixing up your routine with various forms of cardiovascular and strength training activities is your best bet. As always, listen to your body.
Sleep
In our busy world, it is easy to skip sleep. Don’t do that. Plenty of regular sleep is essential to maintain your physical, mental and emotional health. Aim for 8 hours of sleep a night if you can and try not to go under 7 hours too often. Finding the right mattress and pillow can help you sleep deep and wake up rested each morning.
Pay Attention to Your Posture
Good posture can help you appear more confident helping your social life and uplift your mood as a result. However, good posture is even more important for your physical health. It increases muscle strength, correct imbalances, increase the range of motion and support organ structural and organ health.
Good posture can help with various pains, including headaches, neck pain and muscle aches. Good posture involves a chin parallel to the floor, a neutral spine, even shoulders, hips, knees, braced abdominal muscles and evenly distributed body weight. Ergonomic office furniture, the right office chair, standing desks, seat cushions, lumbar cushions can support a good posture even while you are working or driving.
Stretch
Regular stretching can benefit your posture, balance your body, improve your range of motion, reduce your risk of injury and improve your performance. It can help you after a long day sitting at your desk at work. When stretching, focus on your entire body: your neck, shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, fingers, back, hips, knees, legs, ankles, feet and toes. Use active and static stretches.
To help you stretch safely and properly, try the following stretch and therapy support products:
Take Care of Your Oral Health
Oral health is extremely important for your overall health. Your digestion starts there. An unhealthy mouth can also be breathing ground for bacteria and other unwanted bad bugs causing body imbalance. Avoid sugary foods and drinks, acidic food, and too much citrus. Use a straw to less direct contact between the liquid and your teeth, especially if you have sensitive teeth. Floss and brush your teeth regularly. Visit your dentist for regular check-ups and cleaning.
Socialize
Humans are social beings. Even introverted individuals need time to have regular social interaction to help their mental and emotional wellbeing. Meeting like-minded individuals and having a good time can increase your energy. Laughter and hugs can lift your mood and reduce stress. Join a local community group, take a class, invite your friends over, go for a walk with family, do volunteer work and reach out to lost friends to experience regular, meaningful human connections.
Take Time for Yourself
Balancing responsibilities, work and family is difficult and you may end up sacrificing yourself to take care of everyone and everything else. But having ‘me-time’ is absolutely crucial for achieving total body wellness. It can recharge your batteries, increase your happiness and help you to be there for others more effectively.
Schedule time for yourself. Leave your worries behind. Get offline for a moment. Take a walk in nature. Relax in your recliner. Read your favorite book. Color. Do some arts and crafts. Complete a crossword puzzle. Take a relaxing bath. Practice some self-massage techniques.
Take Control of Your Total Body Wellness
Remember, slow and steady wins the race. Creating small shifts consistently are better than massive changes at once. Small, doable steps create changes that stick and can lead to powerful changes in the long-term.
Start thinking holistically. Be proactive. Feel empowered to create a difference in your health. Take control of your total body wellness today, tomorrow and for the rest of your life.
What changes will you make this week to create total body wellness in your life? Share your goals, steps and experiences with us. We are here to support your goals. Make sure to check out our shop to find ways to support your posture, strength, flexibility and overall health.
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