A holistic approach to wellness in midlife

Are you finding it harder and harder to feel really and truly healthy (and happy) as you age?

In mid-life, feeling well can be a very real struggle. This is when a holistic approach can be especially beneficial. It offers us a way toward harmony - in our bodies, minds, and spirits.

I’ve been drawn to holistic wellness practices for a long time. In the early days, I was seeking solutions. Determined to find the perfect formula. The thing is, we’re not problems to be solved. And we aren’t that simple..

I came to realize that there is no quick fix, no one thing that will make all the difference and improve our life, no secret formula.

Why? Because it's all inter-connected.

When we aren’t meeting our needs in all areas, we eventually fall out of balance. And entering or moving through mid-life when out of balance, makes the experience even more difficult. Sometimes infinitely so.

In this post, we’ll define holistic wellness, consider what’s happening during mid-life, and explore a different way of understanding and navigating this potent time.

What is holistic wellness?

A holistic approach to wellness is one that respects our whole being – body, mind, and spirit. It’s rooted in the understanding that each of these areas influences our overall health. And that they interact with each other in circular, overlapping, and interconnected ways. When we understand how they work together, we can take care of ourselves both more deeply and more wholly.

The goal of holistic wellness is to seek balance and harmony. To get to the source of dis-ease, rather than target a symptom. There’s no one-size-fits-all blue-print. This approach honours that we’re each unique, with our own genetics, histories, needs, and desires.

What happens in mid-life?

By mid-life our bodies are often habitually cycling in and out of flight-flight-freeze modes, our minds tend to be more rigid than flexible, and our spirits can feel increasingly adrift and disconnected from our truth.

In addition, our daily habits and rituals may be reinforcing these generalized states of stress, rigidity, and disconnection. Consider, for example, continuing to force ourselves through high intensity workouts when our bodies are trying to transition through perimenopause (high intensity equals more stress, and forcing equals rigidity and disconnection).

Add this all up, and we become stuck in a rut that just keeps getting deeper.

What about another way?

An alternative is to take a holistic, nervous system-based approach to our wellness through mid-life, and beyond. I call this the way. (Don’t worry, this isn’t strict, and it doesn’t mean you leave things like high intensity workouts behind forever, if you truly love them (but this is for another post).

It does mean, you start where you are, tend to yourself as a whole person, and begin with your nervous system.

During mid-life, and especially perimenopause, our bodies become increasingly more sensitive, particularly to stress. Whatever level of stimulation and ungroundedness our bodies have been managing, they can no longer sustain. This is a time of major physical, emotional, and even spiritual change.

If your body remains dysregulated, she will continue to resist and even break down during this transition. You’ve likely noticed this, but maybe not understood it. Weight gain when you’re eating less and exercising more, and harder. Sleeplessness even when you’re exhausted. Hot, cold, hot, cold.

Until your body feels safe and grounded,

she cannot fully receive the benefits

of anything else you do.

So you have a choice. You can keep doing what you used to, even though it isn’t working anymore. If it ever really did. Or you can change. You can meet your body where she’s at, and move from there. Mindfully. Kindly. Holistically.

In the beginning of “the change”, during my first year or so, I chose to keep doing what I’d always done. And I experienced weight gain (especially belly fat), hot flashes, night sweats, anger (read rage), and exhaustion. I was miserable.

Eventually, I was forced to stop. Despite being a long-time runner, who rarely experienced injuries, my feet cramped up and prevented me from even walking far. My feet. The ground. My body telling me, loud and clear, I am ungrounded. It’s no coincidence my healing began here, with grounding. I began learning, from my ancestors, other cultures, science, my body, and myself.

This is the upside; your body is finally insisting that you listen to her. Take care of her. For real. Totally. Perhaps, like me, for the first time in your adult life. And doing so can set you up for a truly awesome new chapter.

How to live another way?

The way focuses on 3 foundational strategies; grounding your body, shifting your mind, and elevating your spirit. These are amplified by habits and rituals that are proven by research to support your overall well-being.

Grounding your body -

When you move your body out of survival mode, she can find stability in this present moment. Through regular grounding practices, your body becomes more able to respond and adapt to everything else, to life.

Shifting your mind -

When you let go of limiting beliefs, you can release old patterns and identities that no longer serve you. With consistent mind-shifting, you create new neuropathways in your brain. This leads to a new mind, and real and lasting change.

Elevating your spirit -

When you open up to the version of you that you want to be, are meant to be, you come home to yourself. Commitment to your elevation, cultivates inner trust, intimacy, and a new way of being.

Habits + rituals -

This is where most of us put all of our focus when we’re seeking change. Things like healthy nutrition, hydration, exercise. While these ARE very important to our overall well-being, they aren’t enough. Especially by mid-life. They will have limited impact (or even negative impact) if your body is dysregulated, your mind is rigid, or your spirit is disconnected. Your healthy habits and rituals will amplify the effect of your grounding, shifting, and elevating.

Ground. Shift. Elevate. Support.

How to bring the way to life

As much as these ideas are helpful (hopefully!), what I know to be more helpful is having actions you can take now. Following are some easy ways to begin incorporating holistic, nervous system-based practices into your daily life.

Grounding your body -

Press pause. Throughout your day, check-IN for a moment. Stop. Close your eyes if you can. Take 5 slow deep breaths into your heart space. Just BE. Return to yourself over and over.

Hum. Humming nourishes our nervous system by creating vibrations that resonate with our vagus nerve. This promotes relaxation, reduces anxiety, and potentially improves sleep. Humming also tends to slow breathing for added calm, and it increases nitric oxide production for improved blood flow and relaxed blood vessels. Amazing!

Splash cold water on your face (focusing on nose and eyes). Similarly, try a cold water face plunge, with or without a bit of ice. This triggers our ‘mammalian diving reflex”, which slows down our breathing and heart rate and promotes relaxation. It also stimulates our vagus nerve (see above).

Actually ground. For me, sometimes this is as simple as lying down on the floor for 5 minutes to reset my nervous system. Before bed (when there isn’t snow on the ground), I often starfish on the lawn and look up at the stars for 5 to 10 minutes. By connecting with the earth’s natural electrical charge, our nervous system becomes regulated and stress dissipates..

Shifting your mind -

Anchor-in your self worth. Accept yourself unconditionally. Are you where you want to be? No. Are you worthy of love and kindness anyway? Yes. Give it to yourself. This settles your nervous system, and creates more magnetism for what you do want.

Mind your mindset. Speak kindly to yourself. Inside your head. Catch your self-talk. Consider … Is it kind? Is it helpful? Is it true?.

Be grateful. It’s been said before. But, really, look around you. There are countless things to be thankful for. The more you notice the good things, the more the good things will come to you.

Stay sharp. Try to learn or do something new each day. It doesn’t have to be big. Learn a new word or fact. Do a puzzle. Exercise your brain and build new and positive neuropathways.

Elevating your spirit -

Go outside. Time in nature, without technology, can help you get in touch with yourself, other beings, the larger world, and beyond.

Journal. Set an intention for your day or week. Reflect on your hopes. Jot down what you see, hear, smell, feel. Free flow. Connect within.

Create a vision. Find quotes and images that inspire you. Create a vision board and put it where you can see it often. Update it as your aspirations change.

Allow yourself to feel joy. Give yourself permission to feel happy. And fully savour moments of contentment and joy when they occur.

Supportive habits + rituals -

Nourish. Eat mostly real, whole foods, made by mother nature. If you’re a long way from this, try replacing something processed with something real each week, and build from there.

Hydrate. There’s no perfect amount. On average, try to work toward about one ounce of water for every pound of your body weight per day. Make sure it’s clean, filtered water, and not from a plastic bottle.

Move mindfully. Do something. Every single day. Mix it up. Find balance between moving, strengthening, lengthening, and simply strolling (not scrolling). Mostly, move in ways that you enjoy and be very mindful of how your body responds to intensity and duration. Tired or sore? Go easy, make it short. Energized? Pick it up.

Surround yourself with plants. Interacting with plants (being in their presence, observing them, caring for them) has been shown without a doubt to lower stress, improve mood, increase our memory and creativity, heal, and more..

These are just a few examples. But, as you can see, it doesn’t have to be complicated.

The positive impacts of a holistic nervous system-based approach to mid-life

When we take care of ourselves this way, we experience incremental improvements in our quality of life. Benefits like lower stress and overwhelm, more balanced energy, better sleep, mental clarity, increased self-awareness and trust, higher self-esteem, greater contentment, and a more vibrant and full existence.

This is a time of awakening.

If your body is settled,

your mind is flexible,

your spirit is open,

and your habits and rituals support you.

Some final thoughts

The journey toward greater health and wellness is about making progress, not arriving at some unrealistic "ideal". The ultimate goal is to seek balance. This takes small, consistent actions over time. We begin, test, make tweaks, and witness the transformative effects of tending to ourselves as whole and unique beings. These transformations, in turn, motivate us to keep going. Keep seeking.

Looking for more holistic and nervous system-based wellness practices for mid-life, and beyond? I cover things in more detail in other posts. Everything I write about is carefully researched and shared with the intention of helping us spiral upward. I hope you enjoy the journey.