HOLISTIC SELF CARE

Holistic Self Care
is vital for integrated personal wellness.

This is an introduction and elaboration to the programs
within Holistic Self Care.

Only you can take the actions that are involved in holistic self care.  And, without self care, personal wellness is drastically diminished. I had to make a decision about introducing what can seem overwhelming, or seem “Yeah, been there, and can do that.”  I decided to go with the majority who will feel slightly to greatly overwhelmed.  Let’s start with a visual image integrated personal wellness:

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Many of these terms are familiar.  Of the ones you are familiar with you may have some negative (if not guilty) associations, such as: diet/nutrition, exercise, and health care.   If so, it is time to drop the weight of negativity or guilt, and move on (Taking these on at ANY age will provide immense benefits).  “Personality development” may be familiar if you have taken some of the standard personality tests such as the Myers/Briggs assessment.  “Wisdom” hopefully has a rather positive association, but one that you may feel is a lack in your life.  Let’s go the the next visual and expand a little on each, takes holistic self care:

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Okay, more words that may add or lessen confusion and/or confidence.  We only climb a mountain one step at a time.

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Make a written, or mental, checklist of what you may have already included in your life; and, do not judge yourself as better or worse than others.  This is just about you, and doing even better for “you.”

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So, for you start with one of the terms that draws your interest.  Just one. (even if you do many of these, treat yourself to giving special attention to one.)

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Set up for yourself SMART goals.  A SMART goal is one that is:

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely
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HERE IS JUST AN EXAMPLE, but will give you an idea of the firm gentleness in whatever you choose:

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1. Set up a specific timetable for what you choose, such as:  “For the next 3 weeks, I will buy to buy enough fresh fruit to have one piece of fruit in the late afternoon when my energy lags.”

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2. Have a goal that you can measure, such as:  “Did I remember and, grudgingly buy, or not buy, 7 pieces of fresh fruit? Did I have one of them available in the late afternoon or leave them home?  Did I eat the one I brought … or forget, or, just could not bring myself to eat what I brought?

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3. Make sure your goal is attainable, such as: “I like caffeine in the late afternoon, so I can eat my fruit and then ‘wash that down’ with my caffeine.” (attainable leads directly to the next aspect)

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4. Make your goal realistic: “Wait, I hate fresh fruit, and they can get messy by late afternoon.  I do enjoy chocolate covered raisins … okay, I will begin with these, and work my way to just raisins, and add other dried fruit for variety … that works.”

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5. Try to choose a goal that is timely: “Well this is the summer, and there is all that fresh fruit; so, I will buy three pieces of fresh fruit for the whole week, and after I eat my lunch actually just sit and do nothing but enjoy the fruit — that is like meditation or focusing isn’t it??”

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You can see there is a lot of self negotiating that needs to go on to be successful.  We really cannot ‘impose’ on ourselves, we have to work with what we have.  Also, whereas we might have great patience in encouraging others, we can be very impatient and negative with ourselves.  So be “SMART” and work patiently with yourself. Also, at the end of the specific time period evaluate your effort.  HAVE SOME NICE AND RELATIVELY HEALTHY reward for yourself, if you succeeding at least 70% of the time.  (Pressure of 100% can be defeating…)  If you are at 40 percent or less, just smile, and remember that “time” will provide you more opportunities. Decide how you can work better with yourself, and then choose another aspect that intrigues you and begin your ‘self-negotiations.’ 🙂

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So that you can even get a better idea of each of these holistic self-care aspects, here is one more level of elaboration.  You can, if you choose, make your first SMART goal to simply research one aspect of one area of holistic self care.  Be imaginative and creative in setting up your SMART goals — that is very replenishing in itself.

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SMART Goals are very useful for:

Developing all areas “body” wellness.

Developing certain areas of the “mind.”

  • They are useful for developing meditation skills. 
  • For personality development, use these goals for setting up learning about the suggested personality tests (those chosen are the most credible and have been used for years). Use the goals for when you will take the assessment, or when you will go over what the test provides.  A couple of the tests require fees, but you can use their explanations to apply that to yourself. Use the goals to record what you have found about your personality from each assessment. 
  • For cognition (the way you perceive and process what comes through our senses), the personality assessments include how you perceive and process what you encounter.  This is so important because each person has particular traits that form their cognitive skills.  There are also perceptual “filters” that have an effect.  Use your SMART goals to set up the times to learn, journal, and reflect upon your cognitive skills.  Understanding your cognitive skills is very important for your wellness.  To develop your cognitive skills, you want to move onto to meditation, which clears the barrage of thoughts that can negatively affect what you perceive and process.  (I once was entering a library, and an acquaintance leaving.  We were face to face; I smiled but saw that she was preoccupied thinking about something.  After about 15 seconds she realized someone was smiling at her.  She focused and greeted me.  While waiting for her to “see” me I saw she was carrying a book on the “Zen of Seeing.”  My smile deepened as I knew a book like that could help her.)
  • For inner healing, your SMART goals help you first identify the inner healing needed.  Going through RELADO first is essential for this.  Key clues are what I call “personal red flags.”  Irritability, anger flashes, an onset of depression are examples.  Also, powerful indicators are when there is an urge for comfort food, (research this if you are unfamiliar with the term), alcohol, or drugs.  This usually means that some experience has triggered an area of inner healing need.  Use SMART goals finding a professional to help you through the process.  Friends are friends, not therapists. Friendships can be strained for long term inner healing processes.  However, friends are excellent for pointing out inner wounds that you may have gotten so used to living with that  you no longer “see” them. Your SMART goals have to be flexibility in that finding the right counselor for you usually takes time.  You may have to meet with several before you find someone who both is professional but also you seem to “connect with.” However, your SMART goals can keep you on track to keep looking until you find the right one. Once a good professional (there are counseling centers that help low income people) use your SMART goals to keep appointments and setting time between appointments to journal and/or reflect on the questions that came up in a session, inner healing has it own time frame.  With becoming comfortable that inner healing is simply part of your journey — the unexpected and unwanted events will occur — you will have the skill to identify your “red flags” that indicate you will benefit from seeing a professional again — many times the same one.

Developing certain areas of “spirit.”

  • Use your SMART goals to read “perennial philosophy or wisdom.”  Research eastern as well as western wisdom writing.  All other aspects of developing your spirit can only be taken on in the Advanced Personal Integration.  You can certainly begin “Shape Up” and “Shut Up,” (These phrases represent a synthesis of eastern and western wisdom.)

With this introduction, you are ready to begin.  Some of this you may already be doing; and, even with that, the comprehensiveness of all this may seem overwhelming.  Use your SMART goals, and just take a step at a time.  Do not think about how long or how much you are taking on.  You will find that the first steps may be a little “wobbly,” like the first steps you stood and began to walk.  But, you will become adapt in using your SMART goals to take steps easier and easier.  And do not worry about stopping for a while for a variety of circumstances.  That is simply part of your journey.  Holistic Self Care not only increasing your personal wellness, but also has a self motivation boost as you see your quality of life improving.

Body/Physical/Physiological:

 

Diet and Nutrition — The Foundation of Being

  • Basics of providing nutrition rather than consuming “comfort food” (good choice to for some research).
  • Learning to distinguish physiological appetites from psychological ones (related to why there can be an attraction to comfort foods.)
  • Less more often (most people live in situations that can allow six small “meals” a day); and personal biorhythms (what is the best timing for those 5-6 small meals, and how “small” is small.)
  • Finding energy in other forms to ease the reliance on food intake. Understanding the psychological urges; and, be aware enough to respond to the urge with a short walk, isometric exercises (another good research topic), or short time with an ongoing puzzle game.)

 

Becoming “one” with your body — Eastern and Western:

  • Knowledge of Biomechanics (good research topic) to maximize joint integrity and physiological functioning decreases the muscular/skeletal stress; and from the Eastern health perspective, that saps and blocks charka energy flows.
  • Knowledge that optimizes your main physiological “systems:”
    1) Respiratory,
    2) Endocrine
    3) Circulatory
    4) Muscular-skeletal (especially muscle tension and joint release)
    5) reproductive (especially sexual energy and the 2nd chakra) 
  • Even with health education in school, as adults need to look at these with “new eyes” because now health issues with any and all can occur.  Children through young adults can spare themselves health problems later in life by not only learning about these, but being proactive to protect each system.  

 

Breath Training (which of the above systems is this within :?) — Maximizing Oxygen to your cells  (they are the “work horses” you rely on):

  • Learn the vital importance of optimized Breathing
  • Learn how to optimized your breathing with good Biomechanics
  • Eastern medicine offers Pranayama training for optimized Breathing

Release Work — Releasing Tensions  that Diminish The oxygen exchange, and thus your energy

  • Learn about the importance of releasing muscular constrictions and chronic muscular tension.
  • Learn and use the techniques for releasing joint compression and muscular tension through stretches; with special emphasis on vulnerable areas of neck and lower back which have been referred to as “stress rings.”

 

Exercise — Aerobic, Non-Aerobic, and Meditative

  • What is the difference between aerobic and non-aerobic? And, how to incorporate both into your personalized exercise routine.  (beware, many exercise trainers over-emphasize aerobics.  More is not necessarily better).  For instance, research the effects of running more than six miles on muscle tissue.  (Hint: after six miles the muscles in the main muscle groups used begin to tear. Even though there are those who will deny this.) 
  • Learn and incorporate meditative exercise; such as Tai Chi, Restorative Yoga (some who teach Tai Chi and Yoga place joints in positions that do more harm than good), and other slow integrative exercises that require a certain type of deep focus.  

 

Mind/Psychological/Emotional — Integrating with Body:

Please Note: below are website links.  You can copy and paste them in a new tab to access them.  The pdfs you can then download (down arrow icon in top right area). If you do not know how to “copy and paste,” use your preferred search engine and just put in “copy and paste.” That should provide all the instructions.

 

Personality Clarification — Learning More about “You”

  • Take the Myers Briggs MBTI;   https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/take-the-mbti-instrument/    This test will help you better understand  your personal characteristics and preferences that  shape choices, decisions, and life-styles.
  • Take the Keirsey’s personality and temperament assessment
    https://profile.keirsey.com/#/b2c/assessment/start   to expand the development and scope of the MBTI
  • A useful pdf that you can download for free
    http://www.stecherinsti.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/e-stimate_Personality-theories-types-and-tests.pdf    includes information about the above assessments as well as other ones.   B    enziger’s personality assessment is not free, but just reading about it may given you enough information to recognize your personality traits it assesses. 
  • DISC is another, especially useful and simple assessment that is only two pages.  ( https://heartcc.org/qa/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DISC-Assessment.pdf )  You can read more about it at
    https://jobstars.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/DISCSelfReport.pdf 
  • I do not know how long these links will work, but if necessary, just find places you can download for free.  Most websites integrate these tests in their programs, which you do not need for basic information about your personality.

 

Cognition — Learning Levels and Depths within Personalities

  • Relational  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_frame_theory  thought modes
  • Non Relational   https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/2010/12/article-the-relational-and-the-non-relational/   thought modes  
  • Analytical thinking  a good pdf can be found at https://www.csu.edu/humanresources/empdev/documents/AnalyticalThinking.pdf
  • Insight   file:///C:/Users/pheom/Downloads/Investigating_Insight_as_Sudden_Learning.pdf
Ideally, you want to develop all of these, and have a balance between relational and non relational cognition; as well as a balance between analytical and insight cognition. Maintaining and even increasing the performance level of your mind in general involves some fun options: Most “mind games and puzzles” will “sharpen” your mind.  Also, taking on new learning that healthily contributes to your life will keep your mind “sharp.”  There is a reality that once employed, learning may be diminished once training or necessary skill development has been accomplished.  This can diminish the performance level of cognition.  So, create activities, including meditational ones that will enhance your cognition performance level.

 

Mind Training — Bridging from Consciousness to the Deeper Mind

  • Rest/Relaxation as a first and primary skill, and learning personal rhythms and recognizing and responding to over-depletion. Click Here for more about rest and sleep.  Each person has their own unique ways to relax.  Review yours, and make sure that you not only have ones in place, but also that they are healthy.  
  • Meditation essentially focusing on an object (NEVER a person) or sense perception, like your breathing or music, or even yoga and tai chi,  The goal is to have a single and sustained focus.  You will find that there are numerous intrusions interrupting your focus.  For instance, simply try counting to 10 three times without losing focus.  If you succeed, then go to 5 times.  Research indicates our attention span is about 3 seconds.  So, meditation for several minutes is a challenge.
  • Using breathing to quiet consciousness. Click here for more about breath optimization.
  • Using selected music for increasing meditative states. Click here for meditative music.  Click here for using sound frequencies for meditation.

Inner Healing

  • You can download comprehensive information at  https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56dee43ee321400514f98522/t/575720410442623f70717071/1465327682330/4+COUN+402+Mag+4.pd 
  • Inner healing requires a counselor or therapist trained in “transitional therapy.”  If a trusted friend or family member has a recommendation of someone, you can always start there.  What is crucial is that you need and deserve professionals who know how to ask questions.  Remember it is the questions that you can reflect upon between sessions that open the places for healing.  A good professional will not tell you what you need to do, but will ask the questions that lead you to inner healing.

 

Soul/Spiritual — Integrating with Body and Mind

 

The Spiritual Path — Gleaning the Greatest Fullness of Being