The Facets of Holistic Health
By ÞórdĂs | Last Updated: 10/OCT/2025
Holistic health is the interplay of many aspects of life. The body, the mind, the emotions, the spirit, the environment, and nutrition – these are all facets of the same reality. If one is out of balance, the others are affected. The whole is disturbed.
These aspects are not rules to follow or boxes to fit into. They are more like mirrors that help you see the bigger picture. Some call for daily care and habits, others for specialized knowledge, and still others for experimentation, experience, and reflection. In times of great imbalance, the first step is often to create simple stability before deeper work can begin. By looking at each aspect individually – and at how they connect – you gain both insight and flexibility to cultivate your health and, at the same time, improve your quality of life.
Environment
Your environment is not an abstract cause to fight for — it is the earth you walk on, the ground beneath your feet, the air and the space surrounding you in this very moment. Too often we get caught in our thoughts — planning, calculating — and forget to notice the environment, the ground we stand on.
To love the earth or your environment does not require you to be a Greenpeace warrior or to chase the grand idea of “saving the planet.” It begins much closer to home. It begins with how aware you are and how you treat what is right in front of you — whether you pay attention to your environment.
— I call this walking your talk.
What your environment is trying to show or teach you is personal and has nothing to do with your geographical location. It is right before your eyes, waiting for your attention. You don’t have to run into the forest to “hear nature,” nor become some New Age cacao guru to receive it. Awareness of your environment is not about adopting an identity. It is about listening, here and now, to what your environment is communicating to you.
The environment does not judge where you are in life. The judgments are only mental noise — your own projections cast onto the space around you. The environment itself simply is, and it is there for you.
Being present in your environment does not mean analyzing it — it means quieting the mental chatter so that the environment can communicate with you, reach you.
And just to be clear: the environment is not other people. It is the physical and energetic space around you — the air, the earth, the walls, the light, the sounds. Your relationship with the environment is about presence, not personalities.
Nutrition
Nutrition is a major part of health — but it is not about judging or condemning food. Food is neither good nor bad; it is simply food, and it flirts with you. Food is sexy, and marketers know it. They design its appearance to attract you, to seduce your senses. But if you feel offended or defensive toward food, or toward the way the market plays with you, it drains your energy and makes you a tired warrior for a lost cause.
Food does not become part of you until you swallow it. The moment you do, it immediately begins to affect you — your body uses it and transforms it into energy for the brain, the body, and consciousness itself. If the nutrition is poor, it can affect your overall health — even your genes.
Good nutrition is not only about the food itself — it also depends on how you approach it. If you eat like a high-speed processing machine, rushing and swallowing without presence, you extract less nourishment from the food. Even “healthy” food, eaten that way, becomes heavy and difficult for the body to digest. When the body has to “chew” for you after you’ve swallowed, it gets tired.
A Snickers bar, eaten with presence — slowly, with care, with chewing and enjoyment — can be more nourishing than a salad scarfed down in stress. What matters is not perfection but relationship. Nutrition is how you meet food, how you allow it to become part of you, and how you listen to your body’s responses.
There is no diet that will save you — no strict rule that will make you happy — only the relationship you cultivate with this flirtatious phenomenon called food.
Social
The social aspect exists so you can connect. Without connection, your world becomes a closed loop — only your own thoughts echoing back at you. In connection you discover more about yourself: you find reflection, friction, gentleness, and growth.
Connection is not about showing off. It is not about seeking approval or recognition. It is about stepping into the space between you and another person, and letting that space come alive. Some connections drain you, others nourish you — and the difference lies not in numbers but in the quality of presence.
Social life is like breathing. You inhale what others bring, and you exhale what lives in you. If you hold your breath — out of fear, pride, or self-protection — you lose the flow that is essential for progress. If you breathe too fast, you tire yourself out. True connection is rhythmic: a balance between giving and receiving, speaking and listening, coming together and returning to yourself.
Social life is also practice. It teaches patience when others move at a different pace, compassion when their wounds show, honesty when hiding would be easier. What you bring into your relationships reflects back at you, and in that mirror you are invited to grow.
And just like the body, you need rest between social interactions — the heart needs solitude between connections. In stillness you return to yourself, so that your presence with others can be life-giving for you.
The Mind
The mind has the deepest influence on your whole life. When it is balanced, it supports clarity, direction, and inner stability. But when it runs wild, it can become complicated, overwhelming, even confused.
Here we focus on mental activity — thoughts, patterns, and stories. I leave emotions aside intentionally, as mixing them in complicates the picture. By observing the mind on its own, we see more clearly how thoughts shape our daily experience, choices, and well-being.
The mind is complex because it holds memories — even those we do not consciously recall. These memories connect to every part of us, tied to our senses and body. A sound, a smell, a taste, or a simple touch can awaken memories and trigger mental responses that shape how we feel and react in the moment — often without our awareness.
Working with the mind is not just about awareness but also about responsibility — acknowledging the impact of our thoughts and mental processes on ourselves. The interplay of spirit and mind allows us to see; responsibility invites us to take what we see and hold it ourselves. Together, they open a path toward transformation and a healthier relationship with self.
Mental loops are one of the mind’s gifts — if worked with properly. They can be destructive when spinning endlessly around fear, doubt, or old wounds. But they can also be creative: the mind circling again and again to refine an idea, discover a new vision, or reveal a hidden truth. Like playing with clay, repetition can either keep reshaping what is broken — or help us create something new.
The mind is memory. Memory allows us to walk, speak, and live daily life. It is the silent structure that makes the world familiar. But when memory takes over consciousness, life becomes dull — or a nightmare, with old pain replayed. When life becomes dull, it can feel “comfortable” in a strange way, but most often it drives people to break out, sabotage themselves, and even develop health problems.
Spirit
Spirit is private. It is not something to sing about on stage or display for admiration. It is personal — a quiet connection you have with yourself.
True spiritual nourishment requires neither roles, costumes, nor symbols. It needs no incense, mantras, or grand declarations. Such things can support some, but they are not the core. The essence of spirit is how you return to yourself when the world spins around you, and how you live with that connection.
When you are not connected to your spirit, life is always hard. Everything becomes heavier, more complicated, deep, and possibly negative. Without connection, even the simplest things turn into struggle.
This connection reveals itself only to you and no one else. No outsider can measure or validate it — it is solely yours. And when it is lost, people often turn to addictions or compulsions. They reach for substances, food, distractions, or endless activity, because the absence of spirit feels like a void. Addiction is a sincere but sorrowful attempt to fill that void.
Spirit is not about escaping life but about being present in it — seeing beyond the chatter of the mind and the pull of emotions, into the deeper awareness that holds them both. It is the space where you can meet yourself honestly, without masks, without judgment.
Your spiritual life cannot be measured from the outside. It shows itself to you — in how you move through the world, in the honesty of your choices, the softness of your presence, how you relate to life itself. It is not about performance but intimacy with yourself. We spend a lifetime shaping and deepening our understanding of spirit.
The Body
The body is your child. It cannot explain itself in words — it only gives signals. Hunger, thirst, tension, restlessness, fatigue, joy, pleasure. These are its cries and its laughter. Your role is not to silence it or overwrite it with thoughts and ideas, but to listen.
Like a child, the body does not need punishment. It needs presence, gentleness, and care. You would not scold a child for being tired or for wanting to be held. In the same way, the body does not need accusations of weakness when it falls ill, asks for rest between activities, movement, food, or touch. It needs your patience and respect.
The body grows strong when it feels safe. It thrives on nourishment, breath, and the simple kindness of attention. When ignored, it protests — first with whispers like stiffness or fatigue, then with louder cries like pain or illness.
Caring for the body is not about control or performance. It is about creating a relationship with the physical itself. When you treat your body like your child — protecting it, listening to it, loving it — it becomes your ally. If you don’t, it will rise against your choices, thoughts, and actions, and scream at you like a child in pain.
Emotions
Emotions are energy in motion. They seem to demand either presence — or escape routes. Emotions are complex and sometimes overwhelming — they can be vivid, fast, ever-changing, and at times far too strong. They can sweep you into a mental dream where you are either the winner or the loser.
Emotions are not for constant grabbing and analyzing — they are part of a complex inner system and serve as a compass for your health and life when you have built relationship with them and learned how they move within you.
Emotions are also tied to our dreams and memory. They move between the conscious and the unconscious, carrying fragments of the past and glimpses of the future into the present — and they flow through the body.
They do not ask permission — they simply are. Flowing like a quiet river or crashing like a tidal wave, they can carry you away or sharpen your awareness. In balance, they are a key to intuition.
The key here is presence — and realizing that emotions behave like lightning or fire. They can warm you or burn you up. They can touch you softly — or strike with great force. If you are someone who feels deeply, I recommend learning about emotions in a logical way, to understand their essence. The “New Age” discourse on emotions will only confuse the mind — and may even make it defensive. And when the mind takes over, emotions take flight. Nobody wants that.
In Closing
Holistic health is a multifaceted process where the physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, social, and environmental weave together. Some areas can be approached with clear guidelines, others require expertise, and still others call for experience, reflection, and creative solutions. In times of great imbalance, it is important first to build stability. In this way, we see that holistic health requires a flexible approach, where balance and well-being arise from the interplay of many factors — not from a single solution.
ÞórdĂs HĂłlm FilipsdĂłttir
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