How to Live a Holistic Lifestyle – Complete Beginner Friendly Guide
Holistic living can sound like an extravagant way of life, however, in my humble opinion, it’s the most practical and natural way to live. Looking at my health and life through a holistic lens has been so beneficial to me and has helped me feel my best.
If you are wanting to learn how to live a more holistic lifestyle and are unsure where to start, I hope this guide can give you some inspiration and ideas to take and make your own.
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What is Holistic Living?
Learning how to live a holistic lifestyle takes into consideration that all parts of life are interconnected and designed to work together – that they affect our body, mind and spirit. Rather than just focusing on one part to fix, it considers all parts of life as a whole and acknowledges that it’s more than just the food on our plate that impacts our health and well-being.
Benefits of Holistic Living
Things changed for me when I started taking intel of how the things in my life impacted me and made me feel. I had much more clarity and felt compelled to change things once I learned more about things that could be negatively impacting my health as well as things that I could incorporate into my life to improve it.
Becoming more aware to the environment I was living in, things I was putting in my body and the routines that I was habitually stuck in helped me consider what changes I could make that would benefit me in the long term. I have been more at peace knowing that I am doing my best to take care of my health without it overtaking me – and I feel well too.
Tips on How to Start Living a Holistic Life
1. Eat More Whole and Nutrient Dense Foods
Changing my diet to incorporate more whole foods took time when I first started my holistic health journey because I didn’t know how to cook and was not sure what to eat. Gaining the skills to make healthy meals has changed my life the last 13 years. I have never felt better since changing my diet to incorporate less processed foods.
When it comes to clean eating, I have found that focusing on my gut health, building balanced meals and not striving for perfection are the most important factors in staying on track long term.
2. Stay Hydrated
Proper hydration is one of the simple yet looked over habits in my health routine. It seems to always fall on the back burner, but it’s so important for so many functions in my body.
For me, having maison jars handy helps me drink enough water through the day. Filling a big 32oz one in the morning of filtered water is a sure way to start me off on the right foot. I always filter my water and then remineralize it with some electrolytes. This is the current water filter I use that filters out heavy metals, PFA’s (forever chemicals), microplastics, VOC’s and chlorine.
3. Add Movement Into the Day
Walking is my favorite way to get movement in. I find it doesn’t get the applause that it deserves. Anytime I am overwhelmed or too tired to do an entire workout at the gym, a walk always refreshes me. Exercise doesn’t have to be complicated.
4. Focus on Getting Good Sleep
There is a difference between getting sleep and getting good restorative sleep. Having a nightly sleep routine offered me so much that I did not realize when I first started living a healthier lifestyle.
There are a few must haves that I have in my bedroom for a good nights sleep, like black out curtains, mouth tape and a really cold room.
5. Being Mindful of Relationships
When I first started moving my life to be more holistically minded, I underestimated the impact that relationships had on my overall health. I learned that there is a balance with being social, with whom and also balancing time I need to be alone and recharge.
I definitely feel my best spending time alone (I may enjoy self care more than most people haha), but I also know that healthy relationships with healthy communication have impacted my well-being is a very positive way.
6. Manage Stress
Stress can come from a lot of areas of life. I have learned to focus on the things within my control and practice letting go of the things that aren’t.
Taking a bath, sitting in from of my red light, going for a walk, getting creative and doing pottery or painting all help manage stress for me. Prayer, reading my bible and journaling have profoundly impacted my mental and spiritual health as well and are something I try to never go a day without.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7
7. Detoxifying Home Environments and Everyday Products
Reducing my toxic load is something I always try to consider even though I can’t always tangibly notice it right away. This includes small things like products I use and put on my skin, reducing pesticide exposure from foods and finding non-toxic product swaps to use in my kitchen. Check out this post for some non-toxic kitchen swaps.
Keeping a healthy home environment with things like air purifiers, salt lamps, EMF protective products, water purifiers, and other things help me feel good about the environment I am cultivating around me.
8. Find Joy In Every Circumstance
Hectic and hard times in life have helped me realize that finding joy in every circumstance is the way that I want to live my life. I find being thankful for seemingly small and mundane things has made me so much happier.
I am thankful for my morning matcha routine, thankful to have a job that I enjoy and thankful for the life that I have been given. It may seem silly, but being present in each small moment of the day has worked wonders for my fulfillment and joy in life. I am reminded constantly that this life and everything in it is truly a gift.
9. Get Outside in Nature
Nature does something for my soul. A beach walk with my feet on some sand or just sitting outside listening to some birds chirp in the morning always uplifts my mood and helps regulate my nervous system.
Practical Tips for Living a Healthy and Holistic Lifestyle
- Start small. Choose one area you feel called to ‘upgrading’ as I like to call it and start there. Living a holistic lifestyle is more of a journey to go on rather than a goal to be reached.
- Don’t reach for perfection. After being in the health and wellness space for a long time, I’ve found it’s easy to get sucked into the trap that every meal I consume, product I use and water bottle I drink from need to be perfect and non-toxic. Living a healthy lifestyle without it over consuming your life is real freedom. Not doing everything non-toxic and organic is totally okay!
- Focus on upgrading your routine rather than completely changing it. Overhauling your routine all at once can cause more pressure and stress. Instead, opt for making small tweaks and improvements in your current routine. If you want to upgrade your skincare routine, start by changing one regular product that you use when it runs out to a more non-toxic product. I’ve found this to stick longer rather than adding in 4 brand new steps that are completely foreign to me.
What to Avoid to Live a Healthy and Holistic Lifestyle
- Perfection: as mentioned above, this will just cause more stress so be gracious towards yourself.
- Jumping on every new health and wellness trend: living holistically should give us peace and freedom, not create more chaos in our lives with more things we need and routines we must to live up to.
- Focusing on the world and what others are doing: social media is something I have drastically reduced the last 2 years and I’ve never felt better. My life has not even changed that much, but I have never felt more appreciative towards the life I have.
Wrap Up: How to Live a Holistic Lifestyle
Holistic living shouldn’t feel like a new goal that you have to reach. It can be a journey that you take where one step at a time transforms the way you live.
If you’re a beginner starting to incorporate holistic living into your life, find an area that sticks out to you and start there. Enjoy the journey and remember that choosing this way of life should be freeing and not another to-do list that lands on your lap.
