What is holistic wellness?

Wellness: From the Head to the Toes

Maintaining mental health and overall wellness is crucial in today's fast-paced world. A holistic approach to wellness not only enhances mental health but also improves physical and emotional well-being.

There is an inherent interconnectedness between mental health and diet, sleep, physical health, and self-care. We will delve into how caring for these parts of our well-being contributes to a balanced and healthy life. We’ll also review practical tips and insights to help you achieve optimal wellness.

Understanding and integrating these wellness practices into daily life can cultivate a harmonious state of being. Some ways to improve wellness include connecting with others, practicing gratitude, and prioritizing our physical health.

Now let’s dive into the different areas that encompass wellness.

Diet and Mental Health

There are many wellness benefits to balanced, healthy eating. Improved mental health is one of them. New science connects food with mood and suggests that food choices have a direct impact on mental health. This critical factor is often overlooked.

If you're looking for things that you can do to improve your mental wellness, nutrition is one of the most important levers in terms of overall lifestyle health. Nutritional psychiatry science tells us that food choices and dietary patterns influence our mood and symptoms of mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).^{1, 2}

Research has found that nutritional changes, in combination with other treatments, lead to better mental health outcomes. In recent randomized clinical trials, individuals with clinical conditions, like depression or anxiety, were given some form of dietary counseling in addition to their treatment. The results demonstrated that teaching patients about nutrition and healthy food choices can change their behavior and positively influence their mental health.^{3, 4, 5}

Here are 5 tips to help you eat for your mental and physical well-being:²

1. Eat whole foods: the foods we grow on farms and fish out of the ocean.
2. Eat fewer processed foods and sugars like food dye, chemicals, and processed meat. If you are going to eat processed foods try to ‘upgrade it’ with some nutrient-dense foods on the side. For example, if you’re eating pizza add some fresh veggies or anchovies on top!
3. Avoid most vegetable oils, other than olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil. Data suggests a high concentration of hydrogenated oil, or trans fat, can double your risk for depression.⁶
4. Eat more plants, particularly the skin of fruit or vegetables—that’s where most of the nutrients are.
5. Limit caffeine intake and reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption.

Work on feeding your brain with these tips to guide you! Even small changes can make a difference when it comes to nutritional eating. Setting small, achievable goals with regards to nutrition can improve the likelihood of longer-term successful behavior change. If you’re struggling with nutrition or mental wellness, a licensed nutritional psychiatrist or health and wellness coach can help you work toward overall well-being.

Exercise and Mental Health

Regular physical activity offers numerous benefits for mental wellness. Exercise stimulates the production of endorphins, which are chemicals in the brain that act as natural mood enhancers. Engaging in physical activity has been shown to improve sleep quality and stress level, which is often linked to better mental health. The benefits of physical activity also include a boost in self-esteem and cognitive function, making individuals feel more alert and capable.⁷

Activities such as running, yoga, or team sports provide opportunities for social interaction and a sense of community, which can further support emotional well-being. Additionally, the routine and discipline associated with regular exercise can foster a sense of control and accomplishment, which are important for mental health and overall well-being. For optimal mental health results, shoot for about 30-45 minutes of low-intensity physical activity 3-5 times per week.

Understanding the difference between healthy and unhealthy exercise is important. Here’s how to distinguish between the two:

• Healthy exercise should have multiple benefits, and not be primarily focused on changing how you look or what you weigh. Rather, it should be about energizing you, having fun, helping to improve your mood, blow off steam, and maintaining physical fitness which is not the same as needing to look a certain way or weigh a certain amount.
• Unhealthy exercise is often super rigid and doesn’t have variety in the type of exercise or the intensity. It’s needing to push yourself to your limit every single time in an unsafe way.

Regularly moving our bodies, in a healthy way, is essential for our overall physical and mental fitness. If you or a loved one are struggling with exercising appropriately, a licensed therapist can help.

Sleep and Mental Health

Insufficient sleep may have negative effects on one's mental health. Getting enough sleep is a vital part of self-care. Most adults need seven or more hours of sleep a night, but life can sometimes get in the way of getting the recommended hours of quality sleep.⁸ Sleep deprivation can occur when one doesn't get enough sleep on a consistent basis. Sleep deprivation may lead to increased irritability, lack of concentration, difficulty in making decisions,

and forgetfulness. It may also contribute to additional physical health problems.⁹

Here are some tips that may help improve the quality of your sleep:

• Create a quiet, cool, dark sleep space.
• Avoid electronics before or while in bed.
• Avoid stimulants like caffeine late in the day.

Some lifestyle changes that can also benefit your sleep and mental health include:

• Create a calming routine before bed, such as taking a warm bath, reading a book, or doing a relaxation exercise
• Try to keep a consistent sleep schedule, waking up and going to bed at the same time each day, even on the weekends.^10,11

Changing a few simple habits and making sleep a priority can be a winning combination for your wellness.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of focusing on the present moment and allowing yourself to notice your current feelings, thoughts, environment, and sensations with curiosity, openness, and acceptance. This type of focus, noticing without judgment, can positively impact your overall wellness.¹²

Mindfulness techniques can help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. Research shows practicing mindfulness can even reduce blood pressure, manage chronic pain, and help us sleep.¹³

Mindfulness can be practiced on your own or can be learned through various educational programs such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) classes, or in conjunction with talk therapy. Many employee assistance programs (EAP) and local recreation departments or health clubs offer mindfulness courses.

There are many different mindfulness exercises to try including meditation, body scan, nature walks, and breathing exercises. Mindfulness is just like any other skill, it takes practice. It’s ok to feel awkward at first and it’s natural for our minds to wander. The important thing is to keep trying and find an approach that works for you.

Social Connection

Human beings are naturally inclined to seek out connection and companionship. Spending time with friends or family provides us with a sense of support and reduces feelings of loneliness. There is strong evidence that social isolation and loneliness can be precursors to developing mood disorders later in life.¹⁴ When we feel lonely or isolated, connecting with others becomes crucial. It takes courage to reach out for the companionship and support we all occasionally need. Interacting with loved ones can greatly boost our spirits and well-being.

Research shows that social connection not only helps improve our overall mental health but also our physical health. Several studies focused on the impact of social connection indicated people with strong support networks had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, and people with diabetes had better control of their blood sugar.¹⁵

Simple activities like grabbing a coffee with a friend, going for a walk, or making a phone call can significantly improve our mood. These interactions remind us that we have people who care about us, enhancing our overall well-being.

Self-Care

The beauty of self-care is that there is no one right way to do it. Self-care is a way to promote mental wellness. Mental wellness has multiple aspects, including our level of self-awareness and our ability to understand our context, our history, and how our own brain works. It is also the management of common issues including anxiety, mood changes, sadness, depression, and relationships that are important to us outside of ourselves. Mental wellness at its core, is an element of self-care.

If you’re new to self-care, ask yourself: When do I feel my best? What are the things I need to do to find that place and how do I manage that in an ongoing, consistent way? These might seem like difficult questions to answer at first. Here are some basics of self-care, and practical ways for you to begin discovering how to best manage and maintain well-being.

1. Move your body. Regular physical exercise improves our mood.⁷
2. Eat a healthy, nutrient-dense diet. The foods we eat affect our mood, energy level, and sleep.^{3, 4, 5}
3. Avoid smoking, alcohol, and other recreational substances. Unhealthy coping mechanisms have a significant impact on physical and mental wellness and can lead to substance use conditions.
4. Develop a mindfulness practice, like meditation. Daily gratitude reflections are other ways to improve our mood and well-being.¹⁶
5. Drink more water. Ensuring you drink enough water daily may seem simple, but it is often overlooked. Staying hydrated is essential for our health.
6. Get enough sleep. Not getting enough sleep can lead to overwhelm, burnout, and even serious mental health issues. Quality sleep is such an important element to a self-care practice.⁸
7. Prioritize social connection. We need human interaction to thrive. Spending time with friends and loved ones helps boost our mental and physical health.

It can be difficult to get into a self-care routine. It takes daily effort and self-awareness, but you deserve to take time to care for yourself. Self-care looks different for everyone. Find what works best for you and keep doing it, even if it can only be for five minutes some days.

Setting Goals and Making Changes

Get good sleep, eat healthy, make friends, get exercise, take time for yourself - this list might feel overwhelming and another “to-do” to add on top of navigating demanding, busy lives. However, even making small, incremental changes can positively impact your wellness.

Try to set goals for what you want to do, rather than what you want to avoid. For example, if you want to eat less processed food as snacks, set a goal to eat nutritious snacks instead, like fruits and vegetables. A successful goal-setting strategy is to identify learning goals versus performance goals. For example, instead of striving to master meditation, set a goal to try a new meditation technique each month.

Another effective goal-setting tool is setting SMART goals:¹⁷

• S: Specific
• M: Measurable
• A: Achievable
• R: Realistic
• T: Timed

An example of a SMART goal is “I will walk for 20 minutes, 5 days a week for the next 4 weeks.”

Finally, practicing self-compassion, meaning being kind to ourselves in times of pain or struggle, is shown to be helpful to our overall well-being. How we treat ourselves in times of disappointment or life challenges can also impact our motivation for change. So contrary to what some may think, being kind to ourselves when we don’t quite hit the mark with our personal goals, builds resilience, not weakness.¹⁸

Summary

Maintaining overall wellness involves balancing mental, physical, and emotional health. By focusing on proper nutrition, regular exercise, quality sleep, mindfulness, social connection, and self-care, you can significantly enhance your well-being. Making small, incremental changes can positively impact your life. Try setting small, achievable wellness goals.