Daddy Rodney with his pup.
Most of us will be familiar with what we need to do to look after ourselves and our children physically and mentally it gets a bit more complicated when it comes to how we look after our soul.
One of the questions I get asked regularly is what does a Holistic approach to health mean and why is it important?
My answer usually goes something like this.
“Because you are more than a body, you are more than a mind and more than a soul.
You are a combination of all of the above.
You are also the product of your experiences and beliefs, and the experiences and beliefs of your parents, ancestors & society and a holistic approach brings all of the above into consideration.”
Like the Deepak Chopra quote I truly believe that we can only experience true health and wellness when these 3 elements are in balance.
How do we bring in the soul element and prioritise it in an increasingly secular world?
Even mentioning soul or spirit can trigger a reaction, as for most of us as it is a deeply personal element of who we are.
For me that leads us to Gratitude, Kindness, & Love. Consciously focusing on these 3 elements in my life has been life changing and through my Relax Kids Classes I share these with children of all ages and their parents and Teachers.
Gratitude:
Having some conscious family gratitude practices is a lovely habit to create for yourself and your family. Here are two of my favourites:
A Gratitude Jar – everyone writes something down that they are grateful for that day and place it in the beautifully decorated jar or box. They can then be looked at, at another time.
Mindful Eating/Grace/Blessing before Meals
Bless us O’ God as we sit together,
Bless the food we eat today,
Bless the hands that made the food,
Bless us O’Lord, Amen
Many of us will remember this simple Prayer that we learnt in school or maybe you had a slightly different version either way when said with intention it had many benefits.
Personally, and professionally, I have seen the huge benefits of Mindful Eating, offering a simple prayer or intention or taking a moment to be grateful before eating food. This is a powerful way to make meal time a special time for families.
Offering a simple prayer or intention before we eat can help us to slow down & connect with our food in a different way.
It allows us a moment of pause before we begin eating, which is also great for our body and gives our senses a chance to send the right signals to our brain and onwards to the digestion system helping us to optimise our digestion and metabolism.
By using these or similar words we can connect with the path our food has taken and the many hands that were involved in its journey from farm to fork. This can often lead us to making different choices in what we purchase and how we nourish our bodies.
Kindness:
Random Acts of Kindness Jar: Beside the Gratitude Jar, place a Jar filled with suggestions of Random Acts Of Kindness that could be done and either daily or once a week each family member chooses one. The key is to keep them simple.
Kindness Questions: Our brains have an in built negativity bias, and in order to overcome that we need to choose to focus on good things. I love asking children these questions, who was kind to you today and what did they do? and then who were you kind to? Noticing this for ourselves is also really beneficial.
Love
Reading The Book “The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, was such an eye opening experience for me, and enhanced my relationships with people in all areas of my life.
Most of us show/give love how we like to receive without considering what the other person needs in order to feel love, valued and appreciated. Knowing your own Love Language and that of the people you spend most time with including your children can make such a big difference to the quality of your relationships and how you communicate and connect within them.
The 5 Love Languages are:
· Acts of Service.
· Quality Time.
· Words of Affirmation.
· Physical Things.
· Physical Touch.
Using a Love Language that isn’t a key Love Language for someone is akin to telling them you love them in a language they don’t speak. When you speak a person love language and show others how to speak yours it is truly life changing. You can check out some online quizzes do determine your Love Language. This can be a great exercise to do as family. https://5lovelanguages.com/