Maintaining Our Whole Health: A New Kind of Balancing Act

This week's Lady Mama column comes from Donna Moore, an attorney, Whole Health Educator certified by the National Institute of Whole Health (NIWH) and a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) of power yoga.  She calls on her expertise to design and implement corporate wellness programs that support individuals as they make simple, sustainable diet andlifestyle changes that help them feel their best while enhancing companies’ well-workplace culture.

As parents, we pride ourselves on our ability to balance a cascade of work, family and household responsibilities.  We may proclaim ourselves “healthy” in the absence of an acute illness—but if we take a closer look, do we really feel balanced?  Do we truly feel well? 

Perhaps we need to consider a different kind of “balance” sheet: one that invites us to pay attention to the health of our whole person.  This new kind of balance sheet looks at the many factors that determine our overall health: our (1) physical health; (2) emotional health; 3) nutritional health; (4) environmental health; and (5) spiritual health (our connectionswith ourselves and the world around us).  

Remember the well-worn analogy urging us to place the oxygen mask on ourselves first so that we can then care for our children?  In the same way, nourishing our whole health is a vital investment in our ability to be engaged and effective parents. 

While many of us know what we “should” make to become healthier, we don’t do it.

We can’t improve our state of wellness until we own it for ourselves, and we can’t own it unless we understand it.  Whole Health Education offers clear-cut information about how and why our bodies and minds work, how all aspects of our whole health are connected, and how small diet and lifestyle changes can have a big impact on our wellness balance sheet.  Armed with this understanding, we take control of our own state of wellness as we make informed decisions about the changes we choose to make to nourish our whole health.  These changes can be as easy as eating a daily serving of whole grains (brown rice or steel-cut oats instead of bread or pasta) or adding a few kale leaves to a smoothie (the taste is undetectable). From there, we might include a daily 10-minute walk before lunch or meeting a friend for Saturday morning yoga.

Would you like to become a more active participant in your own wellness? Start by taking a look at your whole health balance sheet, and considering which areas might be in need of nourishment.  The payoff is becoming a healthier and better parent—a pretty great return on investment.