“There I was in my loft reading from dusty manuals of ancient antiquity. Reasoning and surmising about the structure of the universe and how the ancients did it all without our modern technology or comforts.”
The guy who wrote the above quotation.
This small work of fiction is what people consider as intellect. That example only paints what an unbalanced intellectual pillar looks like. I never had an issue with this pillar as it was and still is one of my strong suits. The problem was I focused so much on this pillar that I neglected all the others to my detriment.
Intellect does no good without a proper vehicle to operate, namely the physical body. Nor will it help when you cannot express emotions before they go awry. Like the physical pillar, this one is easier for some, but learning to not play your strengths only is important for balancing all pillars. That’s the key to Holistic health in all realms.
Isn’t intellectual wellness just IQ or mental health?
An intellectual brain?
Intellect wellness sounds super specific at first, but it encompasses much more. People may assume that mental health falls under this category. It does not as that has more to do with your emotional wellness. Intellectual wellness is not only IQ either . IQ is a a part of the intellect, but lacks the completeness of what the intellect represents. Intellect is composed of many moving parts. Logic, reasoning, comprehension and adaptability are but a few categories within this pillar.
Learning is the foundation to intellect and it’s driven by curiosity. The more curious you are, the more likely you go down the rabbit hole and deeply learn about a subject. This is practicing intellect. It is not only isolated to the mind as you also learn through physical movements.
What makes up the intellect?
brain pie chart
Intellect is the sum of all you cognitive abilities. As mentioned previously, many categories fill this pillar. Each will briefly be spoken about.
Reasoning is an ability to deduce or draw conclusions. Logic is a follow through of reasoning. It focuses on correct reasoning. Curiosity is the willingness to explore further. It drives learning. Comprehension is grasping an understanding enough to explain it to someone. Adaptability is being flexible and willing to change, such as with perspectives. Problem-solving. IQ or intelligence quotient measures for many things, but focuses on abstract reasoning and pattern recognition/prediction.
Intellect is a wide category. To balance your intellectual wellness requires working on all these aspect. Thankfully, many elements are tied into each other. For example, curiosity leads to reasoning and comprehending a situation. Reasoning leads to logical conclusions and comprehension. Knowing which aspects help each other will assist you in balancing them all.
Why intellectual wellness matters.
I’ll be honest, most people don’t see a benefit to intellectual wellness. With the advent of AI, it seems intellect is something to be outsourced. When you read up on intellectual wellness elsewhere, there is a lack of why it really matters beyond brain health. Here is how it really affects you from most to least obvious.
Better intellectual wellness helps stave off certain diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. Whereas ignoring it leads to decline.
Intellectual wellness determines your life satisfaction as it’s tied to purpose.
Intellectual wellness requires curiosity and that creates a novel view of life.
Life is easier and stress is reduced.
It clarifies and creates a better understanding of the world and how it operates.
Lastly it helps you keep your power. When you outsource your intellect you give away your power by relying on someone else. Losing your power impacts your life satisfaction as expectations fall short.
How can the intellect be better balanced?
Here are some things you can start today to bring balance. Learn a new hobby or skill like Qigong. Any new skill requires engagement and problem solving. Whether it is a new game, sport, or hobby like woodworking, learning is at the core and develops more communication between neurons in the brain leads to better intellectual wellness. Engage in puzzles. This activates the brain and prevents cognitive decline. It challenges you. Although you may not be learning a “new skill” you are problem solving. Read anything, really. Reading helps keep the mind engaged and sharp and introduces new ideas to mull over. Engage in conversations or debate. It helps to form new understandings by challenging perspectives you have.
Lastly, learn about something new. This drives curiosity. What better way to enhance your intellectual wellness than to learn new perspectives and gain a new understanding. To start enhancing your intellectual wellness, read more of the blogs here.
I traveled to a foreign country where I ate to my hearts content, but shrank my waist by two inches. How was this possible? I walked everywhere averaging 11000 steps a day. This is the power of movement. The 8 pillars of wellness were previously covered here. This article is part of a series where the focus is on one pillar. The pillar in question is the physical wellness pillar. This pillar is divided into sections, each requiring balance. Movement represents a portion, but this pillar covers much more. Methods will be provided for you to better achieve your physical wellness goals.
Physical wellness
The first section is exercise. This section contains five mini-pillars. These 5 mini-pillars are combined into 3 categories: Endurance, strength and body composition. With regards to exercise there needs to be a balance among these three. Body composition is balanced and regulated by endurance and strength.
ENDURANCE
Endurance relates only to cardiovascular endurance. Cardiovascular endurance is categorized by an elevated heart rate maintained over a period of time. Your oxygen capacity and your aerobic capacity increase, with consistent training, leading to more efficient exercise. There are two modes with this method: fat burning, or sugar burning. Many factors affect the ratios, but the intensity of the exercise dictates the predominant fuel use. Based on your goals, choose one or the other.
You don’t have to run either. Alternative methods exist that increase your cardiovascular endurance capacity such as walking. Walking counts towards your endurance. It is a great way to begin if you have little to no endurance work. Other alternative methods to running exist that are lower impact and still reap the same benefits. Some examples are:
Loaded carries
Jumprope
Jumping rope
Burpees
Kettlebell swings
Strength
The next section of physical wellness to explore is strength. Out of the previous 5 pillars, three are condensed into one: muscular strength muscular endurance (extended strength) muscular flexibility (lengthened strength)
Notice how all three relate to strength. Strength is that important. Strength has massive carryover to anything you do. Getting stronger improves your mile time. Hampered mobility indicates you lack strength in that range. Want to carry groceries in one trip? You need better strength.
Strength training is primarily a sugar burning activity during the exercise. As your muscle mass increases, fat burning at rest will increase. A higher muscle mass means a higher metabolism. A higher metabolism means you burn more fat throughout the day leading to a change in body composition. Imagine that. Some examples for strength training are: Calisthenics (bodyweight)
Weight lifting
Get strong
How to incorporate?
To enhance your physical wellness, incorporate an endurance type exercise at a minimum every 3rd day. This is usually the point where your endurance tapers off when you stop training. Go walking on the other days when you don’t have any endurance work to do. This helps to maintain your endurance to some degree.
For strength training, go lift weights 3 times a week at a minimum and make each session a full body session. Aim to balance between a press exercise, a pull exercise and a leg exercise. Focus on increase the repetitions, or the amount of weight from session to session. Monday’s numbers should be less than Friday’s numbers.
Recovery
This is where sleep enters as another section of the physical wellness pillar focused on recovery. Without proper recovery, you will breakdown. Sleep affects your mental and physical well-being. Your response to stress is dictates how well you sleep. That’s how crucial sleep is. For simplicity, there are two stages to sleep. The first stage deals with repairing the body. The second stage of sleep deals with repairing the mind. Both are important. You impact one of the two with less sleep. Sleep long enough and sleep well enough.
Sleep is foundational
Sleep hygiene. How you set up your night time routine will impact your sleep. This is how you signal to your body that it’s time to sleep. Many key factors play a role in how well you can sleep. Answer the following questions to know if you are getting adequate sleep.
1. Do you sleep in the same bed every night?
2. Do you sleep at the same time every night?
3. Do you do the same things before sleep?
All three prepare your body for sleep and for rest. Fix these first as they are foundational.
Here are some steps you can take to help optimize your sleep further.
Keep the temperature lower. A cooler temperature helps the body cool down which signals that its time to sleep. Keep the room darker. The less light there is the better you sleep throughout the night Stop using devices 2 hours before bed. This is a harder one for most people, but devices disrupt your sleep. The light emitted your brain into thinking it’s daytime. Give your eyes and your mind a rest by avoiding devices before bed. We get overly stimulated throughout the day. Night time is meant to be soothing. Get some rest and relax.
There is the more to this pillar, such as elimination, but that is a topic worthy of it’s own entry.
If you are having trouble sleeping or recovery and wish to have a better nights sleep, consider getting an alignment session to remove the stresses of life and bring you into a deeper relaxation.
What in the world is Holistic wellness and what does that mean for someone like you? The word comes from Holism. The belief of Holism is that the whole is most important as well as the interdependence of those individual parts. A common axiom said in regards to Holistic wellness, but falsely attributed to Aristotle, is “the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts”. While the axiom is true, Aristotle did not exactly write it in those words. Regardless, the point of Holism is to consider your lifestyle over all and not treat issues or symptoms individually as they arise. The key is a focus on prevention over correction. This article is meant to describe to you what Holistic wellness is.
The 8 pillars of Holistic Wellness
Holistic wellness is built off 8 pillars. Although there are some variations among those who practice Holistic wellness, the overall pillar layout tends to be similar. These pillars are fundamental to a Holistic Health outlook. Remember that Holism believes in the idea of everything is connected. Every pillar in your life is as important as the next pillar because they are all interconnected. An example is if your health declines, so does your emotional well-being. Without balance in one pillar, it will affect the other pillars in your life leading to a repeating cycle.
It is important to note, you need a balance between all 8 pillars. If 4 pillars are well balanced and 4 are off balanced, you will have a structure that falls apart. All 8 pillars are needed. Each pillar is as important as the previous pillar. Do not ignore one pillar for the sake of another pillar. If one pillar is hard to improve, zone in your focus on improving that pillar while keeping the others stable. By focusing on improving all 8 pillars, you achieve a balance that pours over into all areas thereby enhancing your life. Then delve into elevating the pillars. Let’s dive into these 8 pillars.
Physical wellness is Holistic Wellness
The 1st pillar: physical wellness is Holistic
The first pillar in our Holistic wellness overview is physical wellness. This pillar is like a mini Holistic wellness fractal. Everything about your physical state falls into this category. The first thing to cross your mind is exercise. Yes, exercise is a part of this category but it is not the whole category.
Why it matters
Like it or not, you live in your body twenty-four hours a day. Movement and exercise form a portion of this pillar. From hormone optimization to metabolism, movement covers a lot of ground. Sleep plays a large role as well. Sleep helps the body to repair and function optimally. Anything that affects your physical body is placed within this pillar. Brushing your teeth, bathing and other bathroom stuff fall in this category. Any self care routine will also be in this category. Nutrition is placed in this category as well. How and what you eat have a say in your physical well-being.
How to do it
Get active, even walking is better than sitting on a seat all day. Get adequate rest. Hydrate well and tend to your body. The impact this pillar has on your overall Holistic wellness is important, don’t sleep on it but do get adequate sleep. Some choose to separate nutrition out as it’s own category to lighten the information overload. Either way, the goal of this pillar is focusing on your physical well-being.
Emotions matter.
The 2nd pillar: emotional wellness
The second pillar is emotional. Emotions are a very human experience after all. When it comes to Holistic wellness, emotions affect your motivation and behavior thus impacting you overall. How that manifests from a Holistic wellness perspective is how you handle your emotions. Your handling of emotions can lead to a tense and stressful life. The idea boils down to whether you control your emotional expression, or your emotional expression controls you. There needs to be an outlet for these emotions. By responsibly expressing your emotions in a healthy manner, you prevent a stressful event from occurring.
Why it matters
Ever heard of the nice person that went ballistic on someone for no apparent reason? Like a shaken soda can or bottle, the bottling up of emotions increases the pressure in the body. The pent up emotions come bursting out all at once. The bodily tension exceeds the capacity and the pressure needs to release. The other party involved may not deserve it, but the person lashing out deserves to have a healthy way to express their emotions for their sake. Holistic wellness provides that outlet to bring in more joy in your life.
How to do it
Joy is important to the emotional pillar as to you. It stands as an additional metric you can use. How much joy do you have in your life and where do you find it? What activities spark joy for you? In discovering this, you will have a better balanced pillar.
The 3rd pillar: Intellectual wellness
The next pillar is the intellectual wellness pillar. For some, this category of Holistic wellness is presented as the mental pillar. The mental pillar does overlap with others like the emotional pillar. Many mental issues are balanced when the other pillars are balanced. At first you may think, why is this necessary for wellness? The mind needs exercise as well as the body. You exercise your intellect by challenging the mind and using it daily in many different ways.
Why this matters
Modern humans have technology to aid us in many ways we take for granted. While on the surface this seems like a blessing, it can be a curse at times. When ancient humans roamed the world, they had no devices to start a fire. There was no internet to find information. They had to seek out, learn and pass information on orally. This engaged the brain through intellect to come up not just with the information, but also creative solutions.
How to do it
The brain is a problem solver. When the intellect is not used, such as when technology takes the reins, it begins to fade. Take for example the fact that Alzheimer’s is lower in adults that read vs those who do not. The intellect needs stimulation to grow. Consider reading, doing puzzles or challenging your intellect in many other ways.
The 4th pillar: Holistic wellness is social
Being social and engaging in social activities is a key pillar in Holistic wellness protocols. This stems from the fact that humans are social animals by nature. People want and need to belong. The focus is on seeking engagement, building and maintaining positive relationships in your life. Real meaningful in person interactions, not internet interactions.
Why this matters
Studies show when a social animal is placed in isolation, it becomes aggressive and unwell. The behavioral patterns shift and it no longer fits in with the rest of the animals. Older adults have this issue too. Cognitive decline is found among older adults who live isolated.
How to do it
Find group activities. Plan a social night with friends or try a new social event you are interested in doing. To feel your best, it is recommended to engage in social activities every so often and nurture this aspect of yourself. After all, everyone likes having people they can call friends around.
The 5th pillar: Environment wellness
The 5th pillar in the Holistic wellness system. Your environment places a role in your wellness. Imagine correcting and balancing all facets in your life but neglecting your environment and how it can aid you. How much time do you spent at home and how can it be contributing, or destroying your overall Holistic Wellness?
Why it matters
The contaminants that exist play an impact in your health. Consider that VOCs are everywhere and you could be inhaling them now. They can affect you in a multitude of ways. Indoor pollution is a big source and it is not easily seen. Some people are sensitive to fragrances and other scents but may not even know it. The candles you buy and the cleaning product you use all play an environmental role. Within the Holistic wellness framework, another area to focus upon is how supportive is your environment for you? Does your environment support you and your goals in life?
How to do it
An environment that does not nurture nor foster care for who you are and what you want out of live constitutes a negative environment. If you are in a living situation that you feel is holding you back from your aspirations or goals, that will affect you and cause other pillars in your life to suffer. Grant yourself an environment that will aid you in life.
The 6th pillar: Financial wellness
The 6th pillar in the Holistic wellness framework is Financial. Life satisfaction is also dependent on your financial situation and the way you earn those finances. Money is a necessity in life for us to survive in our modern world. Knowing how to handle you financial situation to optimize your wellness is essential and is key.
Why it matters
Financial burdens are one of the largest and most common stressors in modern life. It impacts your mental and physical health. Money is not the only factor that can affect your Holistic wellness. How you earn that money is also a major component. Occupational satisfaction plays a role. In this case, you feel as if you are not working up to your full potential or do not feel satisfied with your work place. This could be the work environment, people, or job function. All aspects are to be considered in the Holistic wellness framework.
How to do it
Job fulfillment dictates overall wellness since a large chunk of time is dedicated working. If that environment is not fulfilling, then your overall wellness will falter as well. Do a job you love. Increase your financial understanding and work towards goals. Tiny steps lead ot big gains. For a lot of people, this pillar is a major one with a high density of information. For that reason, this pillar is sometimes split into financial and occupational to help offload the information.
The 7th pillar: Nutrition wellness
Although we covered this briefly when speaking about our first pillar of Holistic wellness, nutrition is the next pillar.
Why it matters
Nutrition plays a large enough role in your life that it has it’s own pillar. What you eat and what you drink impacts you on all levels. It can affect your sleep. Malnutrition can bring about internal diseased states. You could be chronically overfed, but chronically undernourished. Optimizing your nutrition ensures you function at the highest level. You could work to improve all the other pillars in Holism, but neglect this one and the rest crumble. Like the physical pillar, this is one of the pillars that really form a foundation to uphold and support the other pillars.
How to do it
Nutrition goes further than macronutrients like carbs or protein. Nutrition includes micronutrients like vitamins and minerals as well as secondary nutrients such as polyphenols and antioxidants. Sunbathing could fall in this category since it produces vitamin D. Eat whole nutrient dense food and get some sunlight. Ensuring you have a balance in your diet fuels the performance needed to really shine forth.
The 8th pillar: Holistic wellness is Spiritual
The last pillar of our Holistic Wellness review is all about the spiritual. You may not believe or want to believe in anything. That’s ok, read the following:
Why it matters
In life, especially during the turbulent times, there needs to be an anchor or an island of stability. You only have so much time and energy to spend in any given day. Life is chaotic and messy. Life can always throw a wrench in the cog. If you were a device, your overall battery charge is affected by the preceding day’s effects. If you are holding all the sole responsibility, who do you turn to when you need support? Having that support in this pillar is a life changer. It doesn’t have to be a deity or the Divine or anything. It can be a higher purpose.
How to do it
The point is to reach a complete and balanced holistic self, you need to be attached to something greater than yourself. Pushing only gets you so far through life. Having a relationship or connection, to something larger than you or larger than life, pulls you up. Consider including gratitude as well. Gratitude causes a shift in your perspective even for the little things. It seems like a small insignificant change, but many people from all walks of like will agree that gratitude is a game changer for them.
In conclusion.
Balance among the 8 pillars of Holistic Wellness is necessary to live a fulfilling life. The outcome in you life is positive when the pillars are improved. When they are neglected, the out comes are negative. The pillar’s interconnections enhance one another positively or if neglected, the impact on your Holistic wellness is negative. Remember that improvements made in your 8 pillars need to be small and realistic. Baby steps will get you there with enough time. This might sounds like a lot of information and it will require education on your part. At those times, guidance from someone else helps. When it comes to it, you cannot be at one hundred percent all the time. Remember to be kind to yourself. It takes time and set backs can happen as life is chaotic. So long as you are improving over the long run, the fruits of your labor will show.
Pronounced “chee gong,” Qigong is the grandfather of Tai chi that came into existence 4000-6000 years ago. Qi means “life force” while Gong means work or skill. Hence the skill of life force energy. In Qigong, the use of standing postures and moving sets prevail over seated meditation. Occasionally, one might sit and do some inner work with Qigong. The physical movements and postures help Qi flow through the body directing it. The directed Qi will go where needed. Typically, Qigong uses many faculties of the mind at once to produce the intended result such as concentration, intention and breath.
Is Qigong the same as Tai chi?
Is this a qigong practice or a tai chi practice?
Tai chi is a martial fighting system. Tai chi also explores the art of movement. Though predominately for self defense, Tai chi also includes moving meditation. The movements and sequences help induce a meditative state. Tai chi can be slow and smooth or quick. Through a combination of mind, breath, movement and intention, one can achieve a state of balance and harmony.
Although Qigong also uses mind, breath, movement and intention, it differs from Tai chi in the sense that qigong is not martial in nature. One can fight with Tai chi, but not with qigong. Tai chi uses many different movements in sequence, while qigong will typically repeat a movement over and over for a predetermined amount of repetitions. Repeating the same move several times stimulates muscle, respiration and other energetic functions in the body to attain a specific result. Qigong is considered the more spiritual of the two processes. Qigong will regulate the body’s functions. Tai chi will also regulate the body in a similar manner using a different method.
What would you use Qigong for?
Qigong has a range of applications ranging from specific to general uses. Would you like to enhance your focus? What about your performance? Wish you could get better sleep? Qigong helps in all these areas. In fact, there are many such studies that indicate positive changes on an objective hormonal level as well as a subjective sleep and depression score. Qigong helps with certain chronic conditions. Bear in mind, Qigong is used for regular maintenance as well.
Qigong works to promote a balanced lifestyle by preserving the body’s vital energy, named Qi, while cultivating and drinking from the fountain of infinity. The key focus should be the preservation of vital energy. Far too many people deplete themselves to the point of exhaustion. Unfortunately this is built into society. This stems from a combination of lack of sleep, lack of physical activity and excess stress.
Imagine, if you will, that Qigong is similar to storing up energy in a battery. A battery will run out from daily activities and needs recharging. Sleeping will recharge the battery. For most people, sleeping leads to waking up less than adequately charged. Assume you are running at about 60% charge for that day. Qigong helps close that gap. Meditation, such as Qigong, correlates with replacing sleep. The added benefit is that Qigong will not only fully recharge the battery, but also do more to enhance your quality of life.
What are some benefits?
Some of the benefits from Qigong treatments and practice are as follows:
Improved focus and concentration
Improved recovery leading to better daily performance
Better balance
Better range of motion and flexibility
Improved pain management
Better strength
Improved respiratory functions
Improved immune functions
Better circulation
Balanced nervous system leading to better rest and deeper sleep.
What is Qi or life force?
Artistic interpretation of Qi
Qi, also known by other names like prana, is the energy that makes us alive. It animates the body, regulates the functions and helps us experience emotions, Qi is an interesting concept in that it covers many different functions of the body. For example, there is qi from the food you eat. There is the qi from the air that we breath. There is also qi surrounding the body called the Wei Qi. It provides a protective barrier. Qi courses throughout the body in different forms and has cycles that run at different times of the day. Everything uses qi and it surrounds is in our daily life.
Qi ties in to many physiological functions. Although from a western allopathic perspective, no one bodily system can account nor define qi, it is fair to say that qi represents a sort of bioelectricity. However at the same time, Qi has an intelligence to it. Qi knows what to do, but Qi can also be directed. Qi is subtle. This factor is responsible for why Qi is difficult to detect despite our technological advances. Despite that, Qi still remains the foundational aspect behind the theory of Chinese medicine.
How does this work with Chinese medical theory?
Chinese medical theory forms the basis and the principles behind the construction of Qigong. Thus it works via the five element theory. The five elements being: Wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Yin and yang, also called passive and active, are woven in with the concept of five elements. Overlay these concepts onto the energetic and physical anatomy of the body and you get a basic working theory of Chinese Medicine. The physical aspect relates to the organs within the body. The energetic aspect also starts with the organs and then blossoms out into a system of meridians and points.
Think of it like this. The organs themselves would represent lakes. The meridians would be rivers. The acupuncture points are like pools or even puddles and estuaries that form alongside it.
Those areas branching off the river into pools represent acupuncture points.
How does Qigong affect the energy?
Since the mind can lead the qi, the concentration and the intention of the individual performing the practice will enhance the practice beyond simply doing the movements. An example being if you were working on a movement for the lungs, the focused intention of working on the lungs allows more of the qi to flow to that area.
Qigong movements and sequences will also affect the physical body and thus by association the energy body. The stretching and moving of the tissues will stimulate the expansion and contraction of meridians that facilitate the flow of qi. Other tissues, like the internal organs, are massaged or compressed. This pumping action allows stuck qi to be expelled bringing in the much needed fresh qi. Specific exercises target specific meridians, organs or even areas of the body.
The breathwork comes into play to affect the mind and the energy flow. Deep abdominal breathing massages internal organs, but will also allow the mind to calm and settle. A more relaxed mind will then lead to a more relaxed body. This is how the body is rebalanced.
Why move the Qi?
We want flow. Good flow ensures the body works at a high level and functions optimally. Just like blood flow keeps the cells and tissues alive, qi flow keeps the body going. With hampered flow, a level of stagnation forms within the body. Imagine you get struck really hard. A bruise forms. That bruise is a form of stagnation namely blood stagnation. The medical term being a hematoma or blood cluster.
Blood and blunt force are not the only things that affect the energy flow. Energetic issues will also cause areas of stagnation or stuck Qi. For example, someone who is talkative in a one on one setting, but goes blank in a group setting would have an energetic block that manifests in that situation. Something prevents that person from speaking, but it is not a physical malady per say.
Tack on top of this the spiritual body. We have a physical body that moves through an energetic function, but it is the spiritual aspect that causes it to move. The thoughts and the intention of the person play a critical role. The thoughts lead the mind. The mind leads the qi. This is why Qigong is an all encompassing skill of working with your life force energy.
What about lessons or sessions?
Qigong lessons are taught through online means. If you are interested and want to inquire further, book a consultation call here.
Treatment sessions are Qigong applied to the person as opposed to being done by the person. This benefits you because we tend to be unaware of our blind spots. Consider that before the advent of cameras on cell phones, the best way to learn and improve your exercise form was to use a personal trainer. The trainer not only guided you, but would point out areas you were didn’t know needed improvement.
Having a session with a practitioner of Medical Qigong or a Chinese Energetic Practitioner, is similar. What you need to improve is shown to you, saving you years of struggle and discomfort. Life is too short to live in pain and suffer needlessly. If you are ready to move past these pain points in your life, start the process and book a consultation here.
