Leila

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Living a holistic lifestyle isn’t just about being more natural and organic, turning to alternative healthcare and using organic products and food. While that can be a big part of it and all of those changes are wonderful to add to your routine, holistic health is a balance between your body, mind, and spirit.

It is within this delicate balance that you are able to live a fully healthy life where total wellness is the goal.

One of the best things you can do in order to find this holistic balance is by creating daily routines. This allows you to fit each component of holistic living into your life without becoming overwhelmed.

1 – For the Body

The first category of holistic practices are mostly for the body, though of course they benefit your mind and spirit as well. Here are some holistic habits to add to your daily routine for your physical health:

Natural Supplements to Take Daily

While there are many vitamins and supplements you should take each day for optimal health, the ones we are talking about specifically for holistic health are for preventative health. This means you are working hard to build up your immune system and try to prevent illness.

Some natural supplements that can help build a stronger immunes system that are great for your daily routine include:

  • Zinc
  • Elderberry
  • Ginger
  • Garlic
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin D3
  • Quercetin
  • Turmeric
  • Multimineral supplement
Practice Yoga

When it comes to exercise and moving your body, there is no wrong way to do it. But for holistic health and Ayurveda practices, yoga is one of the best you can participate on a daily basis. Even when you are taking a rest day from your regular workout routine, yoga is really easy on your body.

Use Natural Skincare & Haircare Products

Now is a great time to commit to more natural and organic products, especially those you use on your skin or hair. Companies are providing more natural options than ever before, so you can avoid things like chemicals, dyes, sulfates, parabens, and animal testing. Just a quick check of the labels will tell you everything you need to know.

Replace Coffee with Herbal Tea

A very simple switch you can make in the morning is to have herbal tea instead of coffee. Most tea does have a little caffeine, but much less than coffee or energy drinks. Not only do you have less stimulants in your body to prevent that caffeine crash in a few hours, but you also get the added benefits of natural herbs in the tea.

Types of tea that typically have caffeine include:

  • Matcha
  • Other green tea
  • Black tea
  • White tea

If you don’t want the caffeine, consider rooibos, chamomile, or peppermint tea.

Eat Nourishing Meals

Another big part of your holistic health is eating more nourishing foods. You want to try to eat as many  foods in their whole, natural form as possible, including fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds. When choosing meat or seafood, go for the kind that is humanely treated and organic, and reduce processed foods as much as possible.

2 – For the Mind

Next, you have holistic habits to add to your routine for your mind, including emotional and mental health. These include:

Write in Your Journal

It doesn’t get much better than journaling when it comes to your mental or emotional health. For holistic habits that improve your mind, writing down your thoughts and feelings is extremely beneficial. This can be a therapeutic experience that is easily done in just 5 minutes a day.

Some things to remember about journaling:

There are no rules – Feel free to write as much or as little as you want, use any type of notebook you have on hand, and don’t worry about your spelling or grammar.

  • Try different methods of journaling – There are many different forms of journaling, including using prompts, brain dumps, stream of consciousness, and daily journaling similar to writing in a diary. Feel free to experiment with what works best.
  • Express gratitude – Every time you write in your journal, try to write a few things you are currently grateful  for in your life.
Take an Epsom Salt Bath

The reason we included this in the mind section and not body is because many of the benefits help with your mental and emotional health. Epsom salt benefits are wonderful for releasing toxins from the body, but they also release them from the mind. After just one bath, you feel rejuvenated, stress-free and with reduced anxiety.

Many people find that with at least one Epsom salt bath a week in their routine, they feel more relaxed, and at a much calmer mental state.

Practice Breathwork

Breathwork is a term for any type of breathing exercise you do. Breathwork can also be very healing, helping you to work on healing any traumas you have in your life, reduce stress, and calm the mind and  spirit. Adding breathwork to your daily routine is a wonderful way to start the healing process.

Use Essential Oils

Essential oils are another great way to improve your mental health and nurture your mind. There are many ways to use essential oils in your daily routine, including in your bath, using a blend that is applied to the skin, adding them to your diffuser during meditation, or lighting aromatherapy candles when you need to relax.

3 – For the Spirit

Holistic practices for the spirit encompass your body and mind, physical and mental health, and really working on your spiritual side. It is the final piece of the puzzle for total wellness. The holistic habits for your spirit include:

 Be Mindful

Mindfulness is going to help every area of your life, but particularly with your spirit and emotional health.  Being more mindful is something you can do at any time of day, whether you are eating, walking, reading, playing with your dogs, resting, or even watching TV.

Mindfulness is about being present in the moment, without judgment. You don’t think about the past or  what your plans are next, but just live each moment fully. During a meal, if you sit down in silence and just really savor each bite, thinking about the colors, textures, and tastes of your food, you enjoy it and appreciate it so much more. This can really light up your spirit.

Try Meditation

You can also nurture your spirit with a daily meditation practice. Before you begin, you may feel a little intimidated, but don’t worry; nobody is perfect right away. In fact, you don’t have to try to clear your mind and be in a meditative state. You can start with just a few minutes of deep breathing each day, and allow your thoughts to come and go naturally.

Use Mantras or Affirmations

For more holistic spiritual habits, try using mantras or affirmations each day. These are really easy to add to your daily routines, and allow you to change your mindset overtime. You can use the same ones each day or alternative them based on each day’s intentions.

Spend More Time in Nature

Similar to other holistic habits, being outside more in nature not only helps your spirit, but your body and mind as well. This is a really therapeutic activity that costs you nothing and only takes a few minutes each day. Get outside in any capacity you can, from just going out to your patio or balcony, spending time in your garden, or heading to a nearby park or forest.

The more time you spend outside in nature, the more you will start to feel more connected to the earth and understand how much it benefits you.

4 – Create a Morning Routine

Now that you have an idea of the practices for your daily routines, let’s go over some of the best ones to do in the morning. While you are not limited by doing any of these habits during a particular time of the day, this does help you to get them added to your routine.

Holistic Habits for Your Morning Routine:

Herbal Tea – Naturally, switching from coffee to tea is best to do in the morning with your first beverage. This also makes it easy to get your body used to not having as much caffeine, so eventually you can switch to just plain water if you prefer.

  • Mindfulness – While mindfulness is easy to do any time of the day, adding it to your morning routine is an easy way to get started. Be in a mindful state when you first wake up in the morning and until you get started on the rest of your routine. Those few minutes of quiet and calm really help to set up your day in a relaxing way.
  • Yoga – Days get hectic very easily, so if you want to add yoga or any exercise to your routine, doing it in the morning helps you get it out of the way so you don’t have to worry about it.
  • Using affirmations – There are many ways to use affirmations and mantras in your daily routine. If you have never used them before, try saying the affirmations out loud in the morning during your morning routine as a way to set intentions for the day.
  • Spending time in nature – An easy way to add spending time outside to your daily routine is by doing it first thing in the morning. After you go through your basic hygiene practices in the morning, bring your cup of tea outside on your patio or balcony to enjoy the fresh air.

5 – Create a Nighttime Routine

There are other holistic habits that tend to fit in a little better in the evening, and provide more benefits when you do them at night.

Holistic Habits for Your Nighttime Routine:

  • Journaling – You can definitely journal in the morning as well, but morning routines get busy and crowded very easily, so when you first start out, save it for the evening.
  • Meditation – Meditation in the evening before bed is a great time to practice since it helps to relax your mind and get you into a calm state before bed. You may notice that you sleep much more soundly and have more calming dreams.
  • Epsom salt or essential oil bath – Enjoy a nice relaxing bath in the evenings as you get ready for bed. This can be with Epsom salts, other types of healing salts, or essential oils.
  • Breathwork – Lastly, doing breathwork in the evening near when you do meditation can also be really calming for you before bed.

Creating daily routines with your holistic habits isn’t about being perfect, but doing so intuitively and adding practices that feel right for you.

All too often, many people, both men and women, sadly live their entire lives without ever really knowing or fully understanding who they truly are or knowing themselves entirely, and that is a sad and tragic thought on which to ponder because the reality is that knowing one’s true self is key to us as humans finding inner peace and serenity.

The famed author Shannon Alder has been quoted saying “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself”, and all too often many of us do unknowingly and regrettably end up falling into the routine of living and behaving in a way that is for pleasing other people and not necessarily ourselves.

This is an unfortunate reality for millions of women in particular, as they are expected to play multiple roles as mothers, sisters, bosses, employees and everything in between.

The end result of donning these multiple “hats” so to speak is that the true self, the person that you need and want yourself to be, becomes lost in the maze of duty and responsibility that we feel we owe to other people. Continue reading

Helping other people by volunteering your time and talents is a way that you can practice self care. By reaching out and giving of yourself, you also gain. When you’re investing in the lives of other people, you’re giving yourself an outlet.

As you go through your day, you experience things that give you stress. These things can also add to your emotional burden and cause you to feel upset, anxious, sad, or even depressed.

When you volunteer, the act of reaching out to other people alleviates your stress. Many studies have shown that people who volunteer have a higher happiness factor than people who don’t.

One theory for the higher happiness level is thought to be because when a person volunteers, he or she has others around that help to combat negative feelings. When you give of yourself to other people, it causes the brain to release endorphins, which instantly improves your mood. Continue reading

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