Why I became a holistic health advocate . . .

So what is holistic health?  And why did I shift away from design full time to pursue it? To be clear I will always love art + design and what’s important to know is that there is not really just one path in life. All the parts that make us who we are need to be nurtured which is where the “holistic” part comes in.  Put simply our health is more than what we eat and how we move our body. It is found in what we do for a living, how we handle our finances (eek), how we show up in our community, our relationships and what we prioritize in life.  It is physical, emotional, mental, social and yes spiritual (which does not necessarily mean religion, it is your belief system).

Image above is a random tablescape that includes parts of me...a shell collected at the beach, tiny wooden NYC skyline, a sweet Jizo statue given to us by a friend meant for protection, and a bowl of clementines which I love for many reasons besides the vitamin C!

There are essentially 12 parts to the so called “Circle of Life” (see image below) and when we look closely at each of them we start to see where we might need to shift focus. I found what is called “Primary” food (which is actually not food at all but what feeds us off our proverbial plate) to be fascinating. And it was incredibly eye opening to me as for years I was more focused on healthy eating and moving about!  Once I learned about each of the elements I began to see how important it was to consider how each was serving me or how I may have neglected one or more.  Curious to learn more? I will be leading a workshop soon to discover what parts of the “Circle” might need tending! Feel free to schedule a free consultation here (and mention your are interested in the Circle of Life workshop).

All the areas that make up our overall health (source: IIN)

Now some of you might be saying but wait “holistic” means focusing on the whole body so doesn’t that include food?  Yes of course!  The saying “food is medicine” rings very true. But most importantly it is looking at the whole person not just the isolated symptoms they may be having. So yes that includes what we eat, how we sleep, deal with stress, etc. So much of our medical establishment wants us to believe that what we are experiencing is “fixed” by taking a certain medicine prescribed based on a set of symptoms however sometimes if you look at the bigger / whole picture there are things in our day to day that can be tweaked that lead to longer term health and happiness.

And it should be stated that I am not a doctor nor play one on TV ; )  I am a health advocate and coach hoping to make more sense of this crazy world we live in that tells us we need this or that to be “better” – because most importantly we are individuals and there is no one size fits all when it comes to our health. And before the medical community comes after me I of course support the use of medicine for many things! This is not about that. Hope you’ll come along for the ups and downs and everything in between.