“So what do you do for a living?”
“I work in the health and wellness field”.
“So are you like a personal trainer?”
“No, I am more into a holistic approach to health”.
“So you do acupuncture and stuff?”
That was nearly word for word a conversation I recently had with someone I just met. And this conversation got me thinking about the word holistic and I realized that many people don’t truly realize what holistic means.
I did a quick Google search for Holistic Practitioner and sure enough, the first few hits were on “alternative medicine”. Sadly, when people think of “alternative medicine” they think of things that are a little outside of what they are used to, like acupuncture.
The word holistic is defined as the follow:
relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts
It means whole. It means finding a cure. It means looking at your entire life instead of just one area. Go to the doctor with an ailment and what happens? They usually try to push a pill down your throat to fix the problem. Hardly ever do they actually look at the root cause of the problem. That is what someone who takes a holistic” approach does. They look at everything. They could know that your chronic low back pain is due to a leg imbalance which is caused by an issue in your foot. They know that your following the food pyramid exactly could be what is actually making you fat. They look at everything. They look at the whole picture. Sometimes, this does include alternatives ideas such as stress reduction practices, whole/natural foods and other ideas outside of what your doctor tells you. But obviously what you are doing now with your doctor is working real well for you, huh? And if you are asking my honest opinion, I would rather have someone fix me who is looking at everything, rather than just one area.
So the next time you are thinking about finding a training or a specialist and they tell you they take a holistic approach – they don’t want to stick you with needles. They want to change your life.
To Your Health –
~Z
Very true story Z. I always tell people that a holistic practitioner operates under the premise that the default state for your body is not sickness. The “traditional” healthcare provider is taught that their intervention is necessary to prevent sickness while the holistic practitioner only acts to build health when the body is out of balance.
Thanks Bobby! Great definition!
Side note to readers, Bobby is a “holistic” guy from southern california. Check out his website at http://www.movingforwellness.com/ for some killer information.