There has been a wave in the past few years of people seeking wellness traditions. This unique trajectory has created a mass exodus from tried-and-true medical methods to more integrative approaches that emphasize the connection between mind, body, and spirit. As the movement of wellness traditions become cornerstones in the lives of many, it is clear that people are seeking methods of healing that are beyond over-the-counter means; diets of fast food dollar menus or expensive avocado toasts, and dry, sterile offices, opting instead for movement-based practices like ancient teachings in yoga or meditation, and holistic, herbal remedies as alternatives to medicine.
Let’s go on a personal journey, connecting with people worldwide to understand what they’re doing to enhance their overall well-being. Closing your eyes and taking a deep breath, let’s uncover the magic behind all these different categories of wellness: what is the Origin that is serving or what incredible catalog of curated knowledge is being served, and how can you translate these practices into your hectic, day-to-day routine?
What do these practices mean? Learn what is helping you serve your revolution on your journey through life, tuition, the abundance of human joy, and insight into who we are as beings of the Earth; and what wellness traditions of indigenous cultures and practices of hunter-gatherers (like Homo neanderthalensis) are still around today with the Hunter-Gatherers to Globe-Trotters series at Origin.
Ayurveda, a system of medicine, existed in India over 3,000 years ago. It is the ancient science of knowledge, which deals with the very essential part of human life. Today, Ayurveda not only emphasizes the long-established correlation between the physical body and health, but it also recognizes and addresses the significant relationship between the individual and the state of their mind and spirit. It is not just a way to remedy the various signs and symptoms that develop in people, but it is also a way to live in all three parts of a human being. The idea is to push medicine further back into the area of natural balancing and healing.
Each person has a body filled with “dosha,” the word means “fault” or “disease” in Sanskrit.
There are three of these doshas in what is considered Ayurvedic medical practice. They are called Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. These three words represent a combo of the five elements that everything is created from: Earth, water, fire, air (or wind), and ether (or space). These are what power all the physical and psychological functions that go on in your body every second of the day. Learning how to use this knowledge in your specific health treatment program can be great.
Reiki is an early 20th-century Japanese take on the idea of holistic healing and was founded by a man named Mikao Usui, drawing upon the same ideas as Chinese medicine’s QI or fitness fucking gurui’s guides to “harness your primal energy”—it uses the same word, just in Japanese: KI.
Reiki, the eponymous treatment, involves channeling your “KI” from one physical entity to another. The goal of Reiki can vary. For Usui himself (fun fact), his goal was “[to] heal the sick,” but he didn’t use the word Reiki for this—”REIKI” came after Usui and his systematization of his process. The process of Usui Ryōhō, Usui-Do, or whatever Usui and the people who continue his name and message are calling, Usui’s variant of the pentagram, depends on the specific tradition you’re in. But, Usui’s process does have a great name: “Reiki Ryoho,” which uses the word “REI,” or “rain,” before “KI,” to tell its users why they should buy into it. REI could be roughly translated into English as “from somewhere else,” or, perhaps more successfully, in the “magic”:” universe, you guessed it! To Reiki Ryoho adherents, this gives them the ability to learn to harness their special yet unprovable divine “KI.” Could-be faith on, Neo!
Yoga is an all-encompassing method that incorporates physical postures, breath control, meditation, and ethical precepts into a comprehensive practice. Many subsets and styles of yoga tailor practices to focus on individual features. Hatha yoga is a form that places a significant emphasis on physical alignment and foundational postures. This results in a class that tends to move a little slower, making it accessible to beginners. Vinyasa yoga classes link breath with movement and go through poses a little more quickly. This becomes more of an athletic workout that will build cardiovascular fitness. Kundalini yoga focuses on sequences determined from the start and includes more meditative procedures. This establishes kundalini yoga as an enlightening practice.
Yoga benefits go beyond the physical nature of a workout; they expand into mental exercises as well. These individuals can improve flexibility, strength, and balance. Simultaneously, they may also see that they have gained mental clarity and emotional stability. These are both potential results of the gains in mental health that come with meditation in yoga. Having spent the class, or part of it, focusing on random thoughts reduces mental noise. This can cause someone to have noticeably low tension, less perceived threat, and low anxiety. An eventual benefit of yoga is also an improved mind and sense of being.
Keeping these facts in mind, maintaining a yoga “lifestyle” can be difficult. This lifestyle works for the full-time yogi, but you cannot be that and achieve success. Good news, though, yoga is possible at home, with the busyness of multiple careers. Potential solutions are 10-15 minutes a day, using online resources (YouTubers, or using an app like “YogiApproved” on mobile). Ideally, everyone can do this; however, some simply cannot. It is still challenging to find space and mental release when activities seem to pull you along a phone cord. Alternatives are still possible: attempting yoga-embedded standard practices. Examples include slow and controlled breathing, a drink of water for a belly-focused stretch, or a simple.
There are three wellness modalities that I want to discuss because they can significantly enhance your overall well-being: acupuncture, meditation, and aromatherapy.
Acupuncture is an ancient wellness method, based in Traditional Chinese Medicine, that promotes health and well-being using super-fine needles to access distinct points on the body, from the nostrils down. It encourages good energy to flow and alleviates many symptoms of a vast variety of ailments. As a practice that reduces stress, improves sleep, and balances your emotions, it fits into any wellness routine.
Meditation, as a regular practice, focuses the mind on one principal idea: peace. A few favorable physiological responses follow, like the normalizing of your heart rhythm. A slower, more consistent heartbeat will relax you, like the effect of acupuncture. Quieting the mind (meditation) and centering the body (acupuncture) will combine with the pleasing scents of aromatherapy to evoke deeply personal memories of pleasure.
Aligned with the mood you are trying to create in each immersive acupuncture meditation session, certain essential oils used during meditation will enhance your experience. Depending on the effects essential oil elicits during meditation, through its gentle wafts during your breathing exercises, you will travel further into relaxation and gently proceed through your intuitive faculties. Oils can either raise or smooth your ego defenses, you choose, but it’s never over-analyzed.
The disruptive practices of continually introducing fine gauge needles into your body, clashing with your overt mind-thoughts at the alpha level, and introducing the subtly infused aromas of aromatherapy define your practice of peace-finding as a gently repeated and very augmentative intervention of your body’s normal mind-requests of daily work and play.
By creating your practice of Healing Arts (STOP) therapy in your home, you will begin to lower and control your pain. You will develop your range of motion while releasing emotional anxieties toward a state of neutrality. And you will do it at a reasonable price.
Recent discussions about wellness have highlighted several modalities and traditions.
Among these, the traditions and philosophies of yoga, meditation, acupuncture, herbal medicine, and more are introduced to you. These philosophies and modalities all focus on ways that you can begin to understand and realize your holistic self: tools that will help you become both physically and mentally well. Many of these modalities come from traditions that have long recognized the interconnectedness of the body, mind, and spirit and have been deeply lauded in recent years by medical traditions that highlight the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit. These tools are valuable for us all.
Ask (or read about) anyone’s wellness journey, and you’ll start to see a clear trend: It’s about the journey, not the destination. It’s about each of us learning to find our true selves and being patient and kind to ourselves along the way.
How many people have made wellness part of their own personal growth and/or discovery processes? How cool is that! Go you! I applaud you and your journey. While we journey, let’s chat on a couple of the tactics that are often used. Many of these modalities include tactics for how a person might develop an overall philosophy that is more suited to their version of well-being. One that is both rooted in better health and longevity, as well as their spiritual well-being.
To be well, truly well, in our aesthetic, we will need to know how to behave and respond to specific triggers and stimuli, as well as learn to have an emotional response and take action in response.
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