Managing Your Health Holistically.

Holistic health is an all-hands-on-deck approach to well-being. But let’s be wary of where we get holistic practices from.

Good Morning!

What exactly is Holistic Health?

Holistic health is a phrase that’s been captured by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow for marketing purposes to try and convince you that there are “natural” things you can do to make yourself more youthful after the age of forty.

Holistic health itself isn’t a buzzword, but words like “Well-Being” and “Breathwork” (shown below), which are directly attached to holistic methods, have seen increased popularity over the years.

If we’re allowed to call marketing an art form, this feels like an appropriate time to invoke Picasso (if he coined this phrase):

“Good artists borrow, Great artists steal.”

- Pablo Picasso (maybe)

Paltrow’s Goop Lab, which drew criticism on Netflix in 2020, is a prime example of stolen health marketing, or, at the very very least, repurposing.

Her uninvestigated psychedelic therapy was touted as new and revolutionary, and her practice of The Wim Hof Method was supposed to be groundbreaking.

For many, it was.

But it shouldn’t have been.

She didn’t technically steal psychedelic marketing from the Andeans or pranayama meditation practice from Hindu culture because those groups have never necessarily marketed it.

But her repurposing of it right before the pandemic was timed a bit too perfectly, and the lack of differing voices on these therapies only served to set back the fundamental mission of real, collective well-being, as The Conversation’s Nadia Zainuddin astutely noted not long after the Netflix series started making headlines.

Pictured above: Google Trends search popularity for the term “Well-Being” (Top) and “Breathwork” (bottom) over the past five years.

Holistic Health and The Individual

If the charts above tell us anything, interest had been rising in wellness even before the pandemic — which drastically piqued the collective concern for well-being.

The global wellness industry is headed toward a $7 trillion valuation by 2025.

That means that regardless of the method to achieve it, wellness will be in-demand for a long time.

Let’s rewind and define holistic health before we revert to how to avoid celebrity marketing and achieve it cost-effectively.

Holistic health is an approach to healthcare that considers the entire person, including their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Instead of treating one problem (I.E., a personal trainer just teaching a client a leg exercise for bigger legs), it addresses multiple facets of health (think of a trainer who teaches breathing techniques, recovery methods, and training).

It emphasizes the interconnection between each facet and recognizes that each person’s goals, experiences, psychology, and values are unique and impact their health.

That last sentence is the one I want to focus on for the next few paragraphs. Considering that every person is unique — how they eat, sleep, relax and play — it would make sense that holistic health looks different for everyone…right?

Holistic healthcare measures like acupuncture, meditation, saunas or cold plunges, massages, facials, and therapy are all bound to grow in popularity.

And they should.

It’s far past time that we start acknowledging all aspects of well-being. But I have trouble believing it'll be sustainable when projects like Goop Lab package them into a one-size-fits-all offer that makes a tremendous promise by attempting to group all of the above.

There is no way a celebrity or public figure would drop everything to give all their attention to their customers, sit down with them on conference calls to meet them, chat with them for an hour, build rapport, and then design a holistic health program for them that is entirely individualized.

What they’d instead do is sell you on the idea that because you’re missing one or two activities that they swear by, you should follow precisely as they do.*

*The results may vary, adherence to the program will fall off, and nothing will change.

My advice on Holistic Health, as a Health Practitioner

If you’re still unsure what Holistic Health is, that’s okay.

The lines have been blurred, but this article from Dignity Health provides an excellent synopsis in case you want to bookmark it (but you should probably bookmark my article instead).

That article also points to the larger picture, which celebrities can’t touch with marketing. Not even Dr. Oz. (Is he a doctor?)

Holistic health should be a conversation with your primary care physician, physical therapist, personal trainer, or all three if you have/had them.

Hell, even your employer should be involved in this conversation, too, as Forbes notes.

This is the newsletter's physical health edition, but a significant mental component of holism influences physical health, too.

It’s not just massages, ice baths, or walking barefoot — it’s checking in with yourself while doing these activities, too.

The above practitioners should check in with you about these things regularly to help keep you in check. And if they aren’t, then start the conversation with them.

Begin building your holistic health team, one that can pay attention to you, the person.

Enjoy your weekend!