Holistic Perspective to Wellness and Herbalism at a Glance

Why Should We Consider Health from the Holistic Perspective?

When we consider health our own responsibility it becomes essential to get ahead of illness, to see it coming or better still prevent symptoms from ever manifesting. By tuning in to your mind and body you can begin to notice signals or signs. For example last year I discovered a food intolerance to one of my all time faves tomato. For a day or two after eating tomatoes my tummy swells up and where I sweat itches like crazy. Up till that point I blamed my bloating on breads and pastas. Though diet as I might I just couldn't shift the bloating. The itching prompted me to start making my own lotions, convinced I was allergic to EVERY brand I've ever purchased. Three weeks after removing tomatoes the itching went away and it looked like I lost 20 pounds despite it being only 5 pounds. Recently I realized that when I'm having a bad day my idea of comfort food always has tomato featured prominently. In my emotional upset I somehow want to punish myself into tomorrow with cravings that lead to unwise choices. Therefore without awareness my emotional state can affect my mental state which in turn causes physical inflammation and distresses my body’s systems. However when we are mindful of all four aspects of health we can clearly see the domino effect happening and stop it in its tracks. Choosing instead to create a self love discipline that respects the whole person. Practicing daily wellness activities like exercise, regular sleeping patterns, meditation, other stress management techniques and mindful nutrition ALL help prevent illness and disease. By incorporating herbs into your diet you can support your body and is systems to keep yourself strong. Even when viruses strike herbs and preparations will support you as you heal, let the herbs do some of the work allowing the body to recuperate efficiently.

Four Aspects of Health

What are the four aspects of health? These are the considerations we use to define wellness Emotional, Mental, Spiritual and Physical. Holistic medicine offers us something modern science does not… whole body wellness! Think about medicine today with neurologists, dermatologists, cardiologists, podiatrists and so on and on it goes. Medicine today treats everything as separate even farther mental and emotional health are a different science seldom associated with medicine though they are associated with pharmacology. As for spirit it is left out of medicine entirely and is instead left to individuals to care about or not.

So medicinal sciences break the body into a thousand specialties and treats individual areas of the body. While the first consideration with the holistic approach is often what is going on in your life right now. Understanding and accepting what you are thinking affects how you feel emotionally and how you feel emotionally affects how you feel physically and often when left unaddressed leads to overall spiritual vitality decrease. This leads to symptoms of all kinds thoughts become manifest and you can treat all these physical symptoms without discovering the source of illness.

Consider the following to understand any ill health more fully.

How do you feel? Emotionally what are you thinking? Do you feel connected to your spirit? Are you being honest with yourself? Being as openly honest with yourself as possible go through your feelings… emotional state, mental state, physical being, your connections with spirit. For a deeper understanding scan these aspects of health regularly throughout each day. Use breathing techniques and positive affirmations to change negative feelings into positive feelings. Where your mind goes energy flows. Therefore I believe that what you think and feel can and DO affect physical bodily health and vice versa.

Herbalism is defined many ways, as the study of herbs or the study of plants as medicine. My favorite definition: herbalism is chemistry combined with nutrition. There is no magic plant, the magic is the human body. The plants are simply our friends they help us balance the system. All life is chemical in nature we can maximize the human potential by studying the chemistry of both humans and plants especially the way we interact.

When studying herbs and the actions they have in their natural environment you can see what actions they will perform in our lives both in our bodies and our homes. I think we can absorb the powers of plants I like to practice eating my local weeds to gain their power of endurance. Weeds are inherently hardy to the point of being invasive, in short they are hard to kill, I too wish to be hard to kill.

For myself I enjoy learning about the nutritional values in addition to the medicinal uses. I like adding herbs to my family's daily diets for the vitamins, minerals and nutrients. It makes a lot of sense to bulk up the nutritional value to everything we eat, especially these days with over farming contributing to lack of nutrients in soil. The great thing is herbs steal nutrients from soil so they are packed with extra goodies. Unlike the daily multivitamin ,which lets face it mostly results in very expensive urine, herbs are absorbed by the body in a take what you need way, also this form is not as likely to cause unwanted after effects. Pharmaceuticals make one rather large mistake, whether you're talking vitamins or medicines, the high concentration of chemical derivatives is toxic! Plants are medicine in whole form containing a balance of chemical constituents reducing any chance of overdose or side effects.

In conclusion the Holistic perspective to me is figuring out how to use herbs, meditation, exercise, and mindfulness in daily life to support whole body wellness. Prevention is the number one cure. I believe in the healing powers of our own bodies but when illnesses arise the plants are our friends ready to jump into action, supporting the function of either an individual system or the body as a whole. Herbalism is the original science, a vast wealth of knowledge is out there ready to be discovered by anyone willing to look, listen and feel the world around us. To sum it all up why should we consider health from this perspective? To get a better view of the whole self and maintain optimum health. Viewing the Big picture for a well rounded health and wellness routine to achieve maximum Happiness!

#holistic #herbalism #plantmedicine