The 7 Keys to Abundant Health: Holistic Self-Care Practices For Women's Natural Wellness
Self-care is vital for good health, but often misunderstood.
What exactly is self-care? It’s the actions you do to care for your body, mind, and spirit.
Self-care is personal health care.
However, sometimes self-care has a negative view because people think of it as a luxury or superficial. But self-care is not just about makeovers, manicures, and massages. In truth, the most important self-care practices of all are daily actions that everyone needs.
Is self-care selfish? No, it’s essential that we take care of ourselves so that we can be able to be a healthy member of society. As a mom, it’s vital that I prioritize basic self-care so that I can be a better parent to my children.
There are certain things that we absolutely need to thrive. No, it’s not coffee or the internet. It’s the basic elements of human health that people need. It’s about getting back to the essentials.
There are 7 keys elements to holistic self-care that all people need.
Some of these are so simple that people overlook how vital they are to human health and all the systems of our body - like light. Natural sunlight is critical for immune system functioning, hormone balancing, stress reduction, regulating sleep cycles, bone health, heart health, fertility, and so much more.
Yet, the basic importance for health of things like sunlight are often so devalued today that when my eldest son went off to university and moved into a brand new dorm, I was shocked to find that the school built the new dorm rooms with no windows!
After living in a concrete box with no sunlight or fresh air for two semesters, it was revelatory for him to move into a room with sunlight. While my teenage son didn’t seem to think it was as big a deal as I did when we moved him into the windowless dorm room, he now knows how much better it makes him feel to increase daily sunlight exposure.
The 7 Keys to Abundant Health are natural daily practices for supporting wellness in all cycles of life.
They are all elements for health that can be accessed daily, as well as having infinite opportunities to deepen our experience of or have variety of expression.
For example, food is an essential key that we need each day for health. It’s a simple thing, yet it’s always changing and different and we have continuous opportunities to explore where our food comes, different kinds of foods, ways to prepare it, as well as people to share it with.
These essential wellness steps are supported by both ancient wisdom and modern scientific research, and are necessary for optimal health. They connect us to the natural world which we are intrinsically dependent upon and help us to adapt to the seasons and changes in life with resilience.
I’ve been working in the field of natural health for over 20 years as a licensed massage therapist, craniosacral therapist, birth and postpartum doula, women’s health educator, fitness teacher, and business coach - and this is the Holistic Self-Care system that I personally use to support my health, manage my stress, enhance my mood, balance my hormones, boost energy, and strengthen my immune system.
The 7 Keys to Abundant Health
#1: LIGHT
The #1 thing you can do every day for self-care is to bring more light into your life.
The healthiest light for our health and wellbeing is the full spectrum light of the Sun.
Sunlight supports our health in a myriad of ways from enriching our bodies with Vitamin D, enhancing our immune system functioning, aiding bone health and heart health, balancing our hormones, and much more.
Getting sunlight in our eyes during the day is vital for regulating our biorhythms, hormones, sleep, and moods.
Sunlight received through our eyes triggers the release of serotonin, a hormone that makes us feel happy, calm, and focused.
Decreased sunlight exposure is associated with low serotonin levels which can lead to depression, anxiety, weight gain, PMS, fatigue, and sleep disorders.
Sunlight is especially important for women's health, for optimal sunshine helps to support fertility, reproductive health, and hormonal balancing.
One of the simplest and best things we can do for holistic self-care is to get outside every day and get sunlight on our skin and in our eyes.
It's also important to bring the sunlight into our houses by opening the shades or curtains each morning.
Sunlight is also naturally antibacterial and antimicrobial. It enhances healing and is disinfecting. There are many studies that show that sunlight and UV light destroys bacteria and viruses. This is why it's so essential to open our curtains and blinds each day, because by just bringing sunlight into our homes, the light kills unhealthy microbes, even without opening the windows.
Sunlight is essential, not just for illumination and plants to grow, but for us as humans to thrive as well!
#2: WATER
Water is essential for all life on Earth, and it is essential for our bodies to thrive.
The body of an adult is 60% water and blood is 90% water.
Optimal hydration is vital for all the systems of the body to function properly.
Water helps to transport nutrients and oxygen throughout the body to boost metabolism, to enhance digestion, keep our skin healthy, and to support brain health.
Water is so important for our whole health, that if we get dehydrated our physical performance and mental functioning both start to quickly suffer. A loss of motivation, fatigue, and trouble thinking are common side-effects of dehydration. Even mild dehydration can lead to major consequences and impairment.
These are just a few of the many reasons why drinking water and staying well hydrated is absolutely fundamental to holistic self-care. I highly recommend having a large bottle or jar of water that you drink from every day, and bring with you when working or traveling.
If you don't enjoy drinking plain water, try adding a squeeze of lemon or lime juice to your water. In addition to boosting the flavor, it also will provide extra Vitamin C and help support healthy digestion, reduce inflammation, and promote glowing skin. You can also add all kinds of fresh fruits and herbs to your water for extra flavor and nutrition, such as cucumbers, berries, melon cubes, mint, or lemon balm.
Bathing in water is also an essential activity for hygiene and health.
Even more than just a cleansing activity, soaking in a warm bath has incredible healing properties, including promoting relaxation, rejuvenation, providing pain relief, and speeding up the healing process in our bodies.
Immersing our bodies in water reduces the effects of gravity on the body by 85% which allows our bodies to focus on resting.
This is one of the reasons why baths and swimming are excellent activities for pregnant women whose bodies are under constant extra pressure and strain from carrying a growing baby in their bellies. When I was pregnant, soaking in a tub or pool were my favorite places to be! Many women are also choosing waterbirth tubs for laboring and delivering in, as being immersed in warm water provides profound pain relief.
Soaking in a warm bath, or simply using a hot water bottle, is also one of the best natural remedies for menstrual cramps.
You can use the pain-relieving qualities of warm water for all kinds of muscle and joint aches.
Plus, bathing is excellent for cleansing and moisturizing our skin and hair.
In addition to drinking water and bathing in water, just being around water has profound benefits for the health of our bodies and minds. Research shows that being near bodies of water, including the ocean, lakes, rivers, ponds, and even pools, have a wide range of health benefits that promote well-being.
Being near water outside reduces anxiety, lowering stress, increasing happiness, and lowering blood pressure.
Water can energize your body, transform your state of mind, and refresh your spirit in so many ways!
#3: FOOD
Eating healthy food builds our body, supports wellness and protects us from illness.
Our bodies need a wide variety of vitamins and minerals every day that are provided by nourishing ourselves with good food.
Enjoying a diverse diet with an emphasis on organic plant foods consisting of fresh vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds, plus a moderate amount of wild cold-water finfish, pastured dairy, and grass-fed meats is the basis for vibrant health and wellness.
Today, modern diets are high in processed food and low in nutrients and variety due to industrial farming practices.
Many foods today are not only dramatically diminished in nutritional value due to soil depletion, but they are also high in toxicity due to chemical pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, and irradiation. Add to the recipe the wide-spread use of genetically-modified ingredients, preservatives, chemical additives, artificial colors, and flavors - and this is a set-up for malnutrition and inflammation.
We can reclaim the nourishing culinary traditions of our ancestors by getting back to natural foods.
Through discovering the joy of home cooking, growing some of our own food and herbs, and supporting local and organic agriculture in our own community and region. The value of preparing and eating healthy whole foods is more than just nutrition, it's also therapeutic for the mind and spirit.
Cooking and eating are full of sensory experiences. It activates the senses of touch, sight, smell, taste, and sound. It fills our life with color, beauty, flavor, and joy.
Sharing a meal around a table with family and friends also brings connection, enhances bonding, and may create joyful memories with a lasting impact. Nourishing our bodies with beautiful and delicious natural foods is a pleasurable way to bring vitality and health into our lives.
Eating well is an act of self-care. Enjoy delicious and healthy food to nourish your body, boost your energy, and feel good.
#4: NATURE
Getting outside each day, in every season, is the best thing we can do to boost our mood and our health.
The sunlight is important, but so is fresh air and exercise. Even in northern climates in the darker months, getting outside for a walk during the day has multiple benefits that will help to stabilize mood and wellness. Spending time outdoors also connects us to nature, and helps us to entrain to the rhythm of the seasons, which supports the health of our own biological clocks.
This is especially important for women’s health because 4 out of 5 people who suffer from Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder (SAD) are women. Getting outside in nature regularly maximizes sunlight, fresh air, and exercise helps to prevent SAD.
The female hormones of estrogen and progesterone are especially sensitive to light and seasons, and their fluctuations also impact serotonin and melatonin levels, leading to changes in mood, fatigue, fertility, and more during our reproductive years.
The seasonal shifts are more pronounced for women during the menstruating years and level off after menopause.
For women from ages 15 to 55, it's especially important to pay attention to our natural cycles and the seasons to support overall fertility, hormonal health, energy, sleep, and emotional balance. It's vitally important that we adjust our wellness routines and practices to optimally support both the season we are in where we are regionally, as well as in the season of our lives.
Seasonal eating is also vitally important for health.
For thousands of years, people were only able to eat food that was in season or able to be naturally stored and preserved through the seasons. Today, thanks to refrigeration and commercial shipping, modern people eat tomatoes in January and oranges in July, not realizing how out of sync with the seasons our diets our.
When foods are grown in their season they are more nutrient-dense, for when industrial farmers grow crops out of sync with their natural season, they are more likely to use artificial lights, gasses, fertilizers, and chemicals to force ripening.
Plus, fresh seasonal food tastes so much better!
Eating in the cycles with the seasons gives us more nutritional value and provides us naturally with more of the nutrients that we need to thrive through each of the seasons of the year. The more we connect with the seasons of the earth, the more we began to see the synchronicity between the seasons of our own lives.
The more you get in sync with nature, the more you support your natural health.
#5: MOVEMENT
Healthy movement is an essential self-care practice for long life. Our bodies need to move to thrive.
Movement is necessary for every system in our body to function.
When people think about movement, the first thought is often exercise, but it's much more than that. Movement is about dynamic action, utilizing the full range of motion of our bodies, and avoiding stagnant practices.
Moving our bodies regularly, fully, and in new challenging ways supports our cardiovascular and muscular health - and also enhances our ability to think clearly, process emotions, and to express ourselves.
When our bodies are set into motion, it activates a complex cascade of neural transmissions, chemical communication, fluid dynamics, physiological patterns, and cooperating systems.
Naturally, movement creates ripples of change and transformation throughout our whole health.
We were born to move. From the earliest stages of life, babies are moving constantly inside the womb. The many movements of a baby's spine and limbs stimulates the growth of the brain and body.
For thousands of years, women around the world have walked, danced, and moved to support their health, fertility, and pregnancies.
Spiraling the hips helps to reduce stagnation in the pelvis and womb, helping to relieve painful periods, ease hip and backaches, enhance circulation, and promote flexibility.
After forty, it's important for women to practice weight-bearing exercises several times a week to support bone health, as osteoporosis disproportionately affects women, and weight-training is the best way to strengthen bones and muscles.
When we move, our muscles contract, we load our bones and connective tissue, we release certain hormones, our cells signal each other, our respiration increases, and our circulation is enhanced.
It doesn't matter where you are starting from, every movement makes a difference for the better.
The positive effects of movement happen right away and the more we put our bodies into motion the greater the benefits. There are so many ways to move our bodies.
Through movement, we get to explore and interact with the world around us.
I love hiking and always am seeking out new trails and paths to explore which allow me to see new places and perspectives in the world around me.
It doesn't matter what you do, the important thing is to move consistently, regularly, daily, and to try new things to keep activating new muscle groups, movement patterns, and neural connections.
Today, we are more motion deprived than any other culture in human history due to the culture of sitting.
We sit in front of computer screens all day, at desks at work, in chairs in cars, and on couches in front of televisions at night.
If you find yourself sitting for long periods of time, as I often do while writing at a computer, it's helpful to find ways to get up every half-hour to put your body in motion.
I take movement breaks regularly while I am working to do various movement practices such as stretching, exercising with 5 lb. weights, hoop dancing in my living room, or go for a short walk.
There are many ways to move, and it's important to find ways that work for our body and lifestyle.
#6: COMMUNITY
Through healthy and positive socialization with others, we grow and flourish in health.
Research has shown that babies grow faster and stronger with touch, eye-to-eye connection, and the sound of loving voices.
All ages need human connection and touch.
Socialization, touch, and connection help to increase mental and emotional health, and decrease the risk of dementia for the elderly.
Connecting with others socially supports brain health, boosts immunity, increases longevity, and prevents loneliness and depression.
Nurturing friendships and relationships creates a cascade of positive feelings and health benefits.
It also facilitates bonding, trust, and love.
Connecting with other women and nurturing female friendships is especially important for women's health.
When women talk and connect with other women it decreases stress through an increase in oxytocin, the hormone of love.
Oxytocin is the antagonist to adrenaline, so when women gather together to talk, listen, connect, and support each other, it increases feelings of love and bonding, which directly causes the stress hormones to diminish.
This female stress-response was discovered by researchers at the University of California, LA, in 2000 who called this drive for female connection as "Tend and Befriend" instead of the traditional "Fight or Flight" stress response.
While stress stimulates the sympathetic nervous system to go into "Fight or Flight" mode for survival, women have this secondary stress response that pulls us to connect with each other, care for those in need, and tend to children and those needing support.
This desire for female connection brings mutual healing as it increases the rush of the love hormone oxytocin which helps us to feel good while connecting with other women.
Stress impacts women's health, fertility, and hormonal balance in many ways, and women are more susceptible to stress-related illnesses, so enhancing our flow of oxytocin to decrease stress is a powerful way to support our feminine health and longevity!
The more we can personally connect, the greater the mutual health and wellness benefits.
Reach out and connect with a friend, family member, neighbor, or someone you would like to get to know better today and let them know you've been thinking about them, wanted to let them know you care about them.
It may just brighten your day and theirs!
#7: REST
The art of resting is one of the most underrated, yet most wonderful, facets of whole health.
We live in a culture that pushes to do more, work harder, be relentless, go bigger, and idolizes overachieving. However, balance is essential, and regularly taking time for a full rest gives us the ability to take smarter actions with more efficiency, enthusiasm, and energy.
Resting is a time of recuperation, healing, and restoring.
While your body is sleeping it is actually rejuvenating and repairing itself. By fully resting, sleeping, or napping, your body is able to utilize all the energy that we spend while being awake doing so many things to focus on healing our cells, tissues, brain, and body. During sleep, our bodies are also busy producing hormones that are essential for regulating our biological clock, supporting health, and reducing stress.
Good rest is essential for women's health because a lack of sleep can throw your hormones out of whack, as well as decrease your libido.
In addition, sleep is called "beauty rest" for a reason. A good rest helps our skin, circulation, and appearance making us look healthier, as well as feel better.
It's also deeply healing and restoring to the body, mind, and spirit to take a break from regular activities and work periodically to simply allow yourself the time to be at rest.
A regular sabbatical from work allows us the space to appreciate the world around us, to use our brain in new ways, to take time for pleasure, hobbies, and to simply be.
Make sure to prioritize good sleep each day as well as taking a day each week to fully rest and recuperate from work and chores.
I find that when I truly take time to rest and relax that it creates space for valuable insights, gratitude, and blessings to come into my life!
Holistic Self-Care
Each of these holistic self-care practices can be done daily, or you can choose to give special focus to one of these steps on each of the seven days of the week.
The essential thing is to take action and keep cycling through all the 7 Keys to Abundant Health.
These 7 keys are a cycle that you do over and over again to support holistic wellness.
It is not meant to a one-time-only practice.
Instead, it is a routine to do repeatedly until it becomes a habitual part of your lifestyle.
This system of self-care creates a compound effect, meaning the more you do it, the better it will make you feel, and the easier it will become.
Remember to take ACTION to keep following these steps and to continue the wellness cycle!
The path to optimal health is a journey, not a destination.
Enjoy the process and each step along the way.
Wishing you abundant health!
