How simple can health be? Paul Chek is a pioneer in the health and fitness industry and has identified six health foundation principles. Being holistic health coaches ourselves, we believe and practice these foundations and wanted to share them with you all. These holistic health principles are based on key areas of your body and are integrated into your life in order to create a foundation of health and wellness; bring you towards homeostasis. The six holistic health foundations are also broken down into yin (feminine) and yang (masculine).
Ho·me·o·sta·sis
/ˌhōmēəˈstāsəs/
noun
1. The tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.
Homeostasis comes from the Greek words for "same" and "steady," which refers to the process life uses to sustain necessary conditions for survival. Walter Cannon, a physician, came up with the term in about 1930. He is the author of a book titled, The Wisdom of the Body, which describes how the human body maintains stress levels and critical nutrients to maintain steady optimal health. These elements could include macros and micros, water, oxygen, and many other parts and elements of the body.
The Six Health Foundation Principles Quick Look:
Yin Principles (energy in)
Sleep and Rest
Nutrition and Eating
Water and Hydration
Yang Principles (energy out)
Fitness and Movement
Thinking
Breathing
1. Rest
Rest is a yin principle, meaning energy in. Just like you recharge your phone, computer, or any other device, sleeping is how we re-charge our bodies. It's when repair happens. There are many factors that can affect your sleep patterns, otherwise known as your circadian rhythm. We'll save that for another blog post!
2. Nutrition
Nutrition is a yin principle as well, again meaning energy in. You can think of this as like building blocks to your cells. This is a lot of where we thrive or develop diseases - Dis-Ease in our life. If you think about your muscles, organs, eyes, hair, etc. and you eat let's say pasteurized, homogenized, milk from cattle that lived a life in confined areas, developed illness and disease, what do you think is going to happen to you? This is why good quality food is of utmost importance. You are what you eat, digest, and absorb. A much better choice, your optimal choice, would be to drink Raw milk from pasture-raised and grass-finished cattle. That unless you have an allergy or intolerance of course!
Nutrition is an area we can provide a highly specific plan for your bio-individuality. If you're interested in that, please shoot us a message!
3. Water and Hydration
Hydration! Good water into your body brings life into your body. Water is a diverse subject and there is a lot of research on what's good and not good. The most important thing is that you just drink some dang water. The general rule of thumb is to take your weight, divide that by two, and drink that many ounces of water daily.
Example: 150lbs ÷ 2 = 75oz of water daily
4. Fitness and Movement
Movement is a stressor, it takes energy to do it and therefore is a yang principle. But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing! All of the principles go together like white on rice. We must find a balance between all of them. Movement doesn't mean just weight training in the gym. It means literally any activity where you're moving your body. When done properly, less is more. Sometimes our bodies can become imbalanced producing many difficulties in our life that's why getting very specific is important.
We can provide a highly specific plan for you that tells you what muscles specifically to stretch and strengthen. If you're interested in that, please
5. Thinking
Perhaps the most important health principle of them all. If you get your mind right everything else will become a little easier and balanced. Here is the formula:
Your thoughts become words and your words become your deeds.
There are studies that have been done that prove visualization is just as powerful as doing the actual thing and can improve learning even more. There are also studies that prove negative self-talk will manifest in your life. Whatever you think say and do has a profound effect on your body and life. Love yourself and as Young Jeezy said, get your mind right!
6. Breathing
Seems like breathing could be both a yin and yang principle right? Maybe! But it is indeed a yang or masculine principle. We breathe about 22-25,000 times a day so imagine if our technique isn't optimal. That's a whole lot of micro-trauma to the physiological effects happening in our body! This could produce issues in your digestion, visceral health, detoxification systems, and posture. When that happens it could lead to an increased stress response Aka No Bueno. Stress is the silent killer! When was the last time you experienced a deep belly breath?
Try 'box breathing' for yourself (read first, then do):
Inhale through your nose and into your belly then chest for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, and slowly exhale out through your nose for 5 seconds - repeat if you want.
Thanks for reading! We hope this was informative and piqued your interest to learn more! If you're looking for a holistic health coach who can provide guidance in balancing your six health foundation principles, we'd love to help! Send us a message by clicking here!
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