Demystifying Holistic Strategies to Enhance Wellbeing

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Hello and welcome to this month’s episode of Zevo Talks, demystifying holistic strategies to enhance wellbeing. It’s a bit of a mouthful, but in essence, we’re just going to explore some of the most common holistic practices, their key benefits, pitfalls and safety considerations, and how they, in essence, can be applied more in the workplace for the benefit of employee health and wellbeing.

My name is Sarah Keene, a wellbeing consultant and integrative health coach with Zevo, and I’m really excited to be speaking about this topic today as I know the huge power and potential it holds. I hope to share some insights and ideas that will support you not only in your work life, but in your personal life too.

One of the main reasons we’re exploring this subject is that while employers are increasingly adopting a whole-person approach to employee wellbeing, some very important avenues of enhancing our health remain somewhat on the fringe and are only beginning to be integrated in the workplace.

Spiritual health and mind-body connection, for example, are among some of these more abstract components of wellbeing that are getting far less attention than other aspects such as exercise, nutrition and sleep. Yet they can impact our life experience in profound ways, making them of equal, if not some would argue, even greater importance and certainly worth giving far more consideration to.

So, part of the reason these dimensions of wellbeing have not yet got as much airtime is because these other areas are much more established, there’s more research and investment in cataloging their benefits. We often find that whatever is not fully understood tends to be avoided or sometimes even feared.

So today’s exploration intends to just shed some light on the benefits of integrating these elements to enhance our wellbeing, both in our professional and personal lives. And although we’ve no doubt seen the rising popularity of holistic practices in recent years, such as yoga and breathwork, to name a few, they’re often siloed as stress management tools.

But in truth, that’s only the beginning, and there’s so much more they have to offer in terms of enhancing things like our creativity, concentration, and most importantly, our sense of connection, which of course is vital right now.

We really need to draw from everything we’ve got to try and counter the concerning trajectory of growing mental health issues, loneliness, chronic stress, burnout, that’s happening globally, not only in adults but in our children and teens as well.

Also, at the other end of the spectrum, we can see how these practices can really prime us for peak performance and enhance adaptability in this rapidly evolving world we’re in. So to begin, it’s important to first clarify what is meant by holistic strategies and adopting a truly whole person approach.

The importance of our physical health and emotional wellbeing has become widely appreciated in recent decades and the influence of social and environmental factors as determinants of health are increasingly recognized.

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However, the domain of spirituality remains somewhat of a gray area. Within the context of today’s conversation, when we refer to spiritual health, this encompasses an individual’s values, their sense of meaning and purpose in life, as well as their worldview and sense of identity, which can of course encompass their religious beliefs.

And when we speak about mind-body connection, it is that increased awareness of the interdependence of both how our mental state impacts our physiology and vice versa, and how we can in essence become more adept at steering our states more deliberately.

So when we refer to holistic practices, these are in essence avenues that we adopt to more consciously recognize and integrate the value of mind-body connection and spirituality in our daily lives, and how these in turn can affect our choices and behaviors as well as shape the quality of our whole life experience.

There can sometimes be a little bit of uncertainty when addressing this aspect of wellbeing due to the diverse range of perspectives. It’s more abstract than other dimensions and personal beliefs in this area can actually be quite strong and often rooted in long-standing tradition, thereby deeply cherished, and in some instances maybe quite private for many people.

This can make spiritual health feel almost like a taboo area or something that only feels safe to address in certain environments or with certain groups. So we hope today to dispel this tendency and open up the dialogue and embrace this essential aspect of our existence.

Also, it has to be acknowledged that the domain of holistic therapies has sometimes been subject to controversy, especially in recent decades when certain individuals may refuse medical treatment in favor of more natural or non-invasive approaches and miss out on what could otherwise have been very beneficial or in some cases even life-saving intervention.

Fortunately though, we’re seeing huge progress in this sphere and that either or mindset is dissipating with the rise of the likes of integrative medicine and functional medicine, which are really amalgamating the best of both to optimize patient care.

According to the National Center of Complementary and Integrative Health, over 50% of adults in the US use alternative and complementary medicine and mind-body practices are among the most common form.

The good news here and what’s so important for us to recognize that to really make ground in this domain, we don’t all have to agree on the right way in order to reap the benefits and give this aspect of our wellbeing more attention.

There are many, many dories to the same place and that place is ultimately a state of being where we have far greater self-awareness, a much greater capacity for presence in the moment and we’re more conscious and intentional regarding the choices we make and how we respond to life.

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So I’m gonna briefly run through 10 of the most popular and evidence-based approaches with a focus on mind-body practices right now. And it’s likely that you’ll be familiar with many of these, but there may be a few that are new to you and might pique your interest as something you’d like to try out or learn more about. So to begin with number one, meditation.

So when we think of meditation, most people will instantly think of the traditional type of seated meditation, but even within that, there are different categories and types.

If we were to oversimplify it, maybe to some extent, there’s kind of broadly two main categories, focus meditations, which give the mind a very clear focal point, whether it’s a mantra or perhaps something visual like a candle to focus on. That approach to meditation can be very supportive of, of course, enhancing focus and concentration.

Another approach is much more taking the observer angle where intensities and emotions may rise in the body, and it’s much more about observing the ebb and flow through the body without attaching meaning and defaulting into analysis. So that form of meditation may be considered as more kind of expansive and linked to greater creativity and innovation. Stats on meditation and the prevalence of it.

Just very briefly, some of the largest scale population studies come from across in the U.S. And in 2012, approximately 4% of adults were meditating regularly. In 2017, that had jumped to 14%. In the UK in 2020, it corresponded with that. There was about 15% of adults in a survey, about 1,000. So it’s growing in popularity. There’s no doubt about that.

And apps like Headspace and Cam are certainly facilitating that. So meditation is number one on the list. Number two, mindfulness, which of course is in essence a form of maybe more dynamic meditation. So bridging that meditative state into our waking lives as we go about our daily tasks.

It became a real buzzword over the last decade and very much brought to the forefront in certainly Western countries by the likes of John Kabat-Zinn and teachers such as Tich Nhat Hanh who brought their various approaches and teachings in a more dilute and simplified version, which was easily accessible to so many of us. Number three is breath work.

So for some people, particularly those who struggle with meditation and maybe mindfulness, breath work can be a great way to physiologically prime the body to drop into those deeper relaxed states. There are different types of breath work as there are different types of meditation.

But again, if we were to broadly categorize them into two main branches, one is the type of breath work that we would do taking two, three, maybe five minutes to help set self-regulate throughout our day. And then our prime ourselves for perhaps meditation or a workout.

And then there’s the deeper dive breath work that tends to be much more prolonged and would be best advised to do with someone who is a trained facilitator.

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This can often have a more therapeutic focus and can be facilitated in groups or one-to-one. Number four is yoga. And just like breath work and meditation, again, there are many different forms from fast-paced, physically demanding ashtanga yoga to ultra slow, deep release work with yin yoga, holding poses for much longer lengths of time and serving a different function and purpose.

In essence, yoga is pairing our breath with conscious intentional movement and heightened somatic awareness, a term in essence for greater attentiveness to sensations in the body. Many people might be deterred by the idea that you have to be super flexible in order to get the benefits from yoga or that it only suits certain people, but really in truth, it’s for everyone.

And if a certain form of yoga doesn’t appeal, there are so many other variations to explore and to choose from. Number five on the list is progressive muscle relaxation.

This form of relaxation technique is, again, strongly evidence-based and proven to help both relax both mind and body through deliberate contraction and holding of muscle groups, followed by a release of that tension and often follows a very specific sequence, typically going from the head towards the feet. Yoga nidra is similar to progressive muscle relaxation.

It’s possibly the most passive form of yoga, kind of like Shavasana and you’re just lying there where you drop into, again, a deeply relaxed state. You’re on the verge of sleep, but still conscious and alert and attuned to the body.

Autogenics is a very brief intervention based on a similar concept to progressive muscle relaxation, except with a greater focus on simply reaffirming statements that the body is heavy, warm and relaxed.

This was created by a medical doctor in the early 1900s who wanted to come up with a brief intervention to help heightened patients who were in a heightened state come back into that more relaxed and present mode. I mean, he found it highly effective. Autogenics, again, is less than a 10-minute intervention and some instances can be done much faster than that.

So like breath work, these can be adapted for a quick recalibration or indeed a deeper, more prolonged immersion. Number six is biofeedback. So biofeedback is a field of mind-body medicine that harnesses the use of various measurement tools to gauge changes in our physiology relative to changes in our mental state.

And they can be really useful to help individuals develop and strengthen their ability to shift states intentionally by seeing immediate corresponding changes in these various physical measures. The most simple form, look at changes and tracking in our heart rate or heart rate variability, but more complex forms look at things like muscle tension, brainwave activity, and even skin temperature.

As mentioned, this can be really helpful in those early days when individuals struggle to deliberately control their capacity to drop into that relaxed state.

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While organisations are increasingly adopting a whole person approach to improve employee health, some aspects integral to wellbeing remain somewhat on the fringe, especially in the realm of spiritual health, mind-body medicine and energy therapies.

While yoga, tai chi and breath work are surging in popularity as effective stress management techniques to improve emotional self-regulation and restore a greater sense of calm, these practices also serve as peak performance primaries, enhancing not only creativity and innovation, but also life quality and satisfaction. Simple changes can have the greatest impact.

Zevo Health has a number of trainings that will assist you and your organisation on a journey to a stronger wellbeing policy for your organisation. Contact us today to start your workplace wellbeing journey www.zevohealth.com

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Number seven is visualization. This is an incredibly powerful tool that again has many different applications depending on the context. Guided visualizations, for example, are often used to assist meditation and are a great entry point for beginner meditators.

So you may be familiar with the likes of the guided meditation onto the beach or into the forest, drawing from sensory cues to help bring focus into the body. Creative visualizations are an avenue to explore the unconscious and allow more for organic visions to arise rather than being instructed on what to imagine.

Other applications of visualization include the classic vision boards that can be used as an effective aid to assist individuals in shifting their attention away from maybe problems or what’s going wrong in their life and orienting their focus towards goals and preferred outcomes.

Visualization also has applications in sports psychology as athletes can mentally rehearse skills and also even in healing contexts to help patients accelerate and optimize their recovery. So there’s very broad applications of this particular form of mind-body practice. Number eight is hypnotherapy.

This may be an intervention that people are a little bit more wary or guarded around certainly because of its application in entertainment spheres. And it can be associated with vulnerability and surrendering your will to the commands of another.

But in truth, in its clinical application, hypnotherapy can be of great benefit in addressing psychological issues, particularly phobias and addictive patterns such as smoking and even assist in the management of chronic health issues. For example, in the case of digestive imbalance, hypnotherapy paired with the FODMAP diet has been proven to help individuals effectively restore digestive health.

So working both physically and mentally to restore balance. Number nine is sound bats, which again are growing in popularity in many different forms and what’s sometimes referred to as sound healing and it’s becoming increasingly accessible.

And with sound bats, a facilitator uses a variety of musical instruments, but most commonly gongs and chimes to create an immersive acoustical experience and aid again with that meditation and dropping into deeper relaxation. Again, this may be particularly helpful for individuals who struggle or find it very challenging to meditate alone. And again, often more typically facilitated in groups.

Number 10 is flow state activities. And I’ve thrown this in because this refers to time spent doing things that help to suspend the critical thinking perpetually judging part of our brains and allow space for a more liberated and fluid expression.

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Flow theory was first brought forward by Hungarian researcher Mihaly Csikszentłaje, who began researching this phenomenon in the seventies.

And in his research, he found that the happiest moments in our lives typically aren’t passive and where we’re kicking back on a beach, sipping from coconuts, but actually much more these moments where there is a meaningful demand, so some sort of task that has deep meaning for us and our capacities rise to meet that demand in this kind of perfect challenge skills match.

Research on flow and individuals who access this state more frequently and consistently demonstrate its benefits for improving our health and wellbeing. So spending more time doing what you love and what brings you alive for the joy of it is a quick win. And there’s so many channels for people to access flow from creative arts to poetry, writing, music, surfing, dancing.

In essence, mind body practices don’t all have to be associated with seriousness. They can be just as easily about fun and pleasure to reap the benefits.

So while in this list, we focus primarily on personal practices and mind body techniques, there’s a multitude of other popular holistic therapies from hands-on approaches that involve physically working on the body, like reflexology, massage, or acupuncture, to hands-off methods like Reiki and bioenergy to name some of the more common and popular forms.

Just like with hypnotherapy and the likes of sound healing or biofeedback, some people really find it beneficial or even require assistance of a facilitator or therapist to guide them when they cannot experience much with mind body techniques on their own. And of course, there’s a whole host of other reasons.

People would seek out these different modalities and working with a therapist can serve to really give fresh insight and see past personal blind spots. Yet it has to be acknowledged that many people shy away from exploring holistic therapies because of reported charlatans or too much woo-woo and pseudoscience. And here we have to address the quality of the client-therapist relationship.

It strongly comes into play. Research shows that the therapeutic value of holistic interventions is strongly influenced by the relationship between the individual and the facilitator, that the quality of the connection plays a big part in the benefits gained.

This of course is built upon the experience and knowledge of the practitioner, but equally their own capacity for presence and providing a non-judgmental safe space to assist and guide the individual into a more relaxed and calm state. This process of course can be incredibly vulnerable.

And so if someone’s opting to work with someone outside of a more formalised healthcare professional sphere, there are a few things to consider which we’ll touch on in a moment. But first, we’re just briefly gonna discuss the many benefits of integrating these approaches into your daily routines or weekly schedule.

So for each of the individual techniques that we’ve mentioned, there is mounting evidence of the multitude of benefits.

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And broadly speaking, the strongest evidence is in the domains of better emotional self-regulation. Better pain management, sleep improvements. reduced anxiety and depression, and improvements in the symptomology of a whole host of chronic health issues.

If we were to boil it down, the common denominator across all of these practices is that they ultimately serve to really help relax the body and mind, activating our parasympathetic nervous system, or what’s sometimes called our rest and digest mode. And with that often comes this immense release of tension, quality of expansion and lightness in the body, and a quality of openness.

It could be described as shifting gears from defensive to receptive mode. And in this more relaxed state, recalibration and rebooting across all of our systems is optimized. In essence, the body can enter repair mode far more effectively than it can when we are in a contracted and tense state. Our body’s innate intelligence can do its thing.

This has been verified by research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology, which explores the impact of our mental state on different systems of the body, from our nervous system, endocrine system, and immune function.

For example, the link between even low grade chronic stress and elevated inflammatory biomarkers, such as interleukin-6 or C-reactive protein, reaffirms this profound and often acute impact of our mental and emotional state on the physical body. And so methods and practices that enhance our agility to shift gears between stressed and relaxed are invaluable for our health and wellbeing.

We definitely do not want to lose our capacity to get stressed, but we certainly need to strengthen our ability to recalibrate and reboot after those stressful moments. Though this is an oversimplified explanation, the effects of many of these practices are indeed quite universal. And this is promising because it means there are many, many routes to take.

If someone doesn’t love meditation, then breath work or yoga or an assisted approach, such as acupuncture, may be much more appealing and effective. This capacity for deep relaxation serves as a strong foundation for greater presence awareness and intention, that bedrock of conscious living and empowerment.

In the domain of peak performance research, meditation, mindfulness, and breath work in particular have been shown to enhance our focus and concentration, as mentioned before, our creativity and innovation, but also benefit our communication.

There’s mounting evidence supporting the benefits of courses such as mindfulness-based stress reduction, nonviolent communication, acceptance and commitment therapy, which all are derived in essence from Buddhist teachings and their application in the workplace has served to greatly enhance relationships, communication, leadership skills, innovation, and much more.

So I mentioned a moment ago, if you’re working with a therapist, there are some things to be aware of. There are broadly some common pitfalls that people can slip into when it comes to holistic strategies.

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And these are just some key health and safety considerations to keep in mind. Number one is that if there is deep trauma in an individual’s past or other psychological or medical conditions, it really is best to work with a trained professional and experienced therapist. My body work can certainly bring old wounds to the surface in order to be processed.

And this is why creating a safe space and really guiding that integration afterwards is paramount. Number two, if working with a therapist or a facilitator, be aware also if they are contributing and supporting in a way that serves to really empower the individual rather than getting them to become reliant on them as a primary source of relief.

It’s important to advocate for empowering approaches or practices. It’s also important to be aware of the driving force or motivation in seeking assistance in the first place. If it’s driven from a motivation of wanting to be fixed or healed by the other, this instantly may set the individual up for a more disempowering dynamic.

But that said, it’s always wise to veer away from absolutes and appreciate that context is everything. So it really depends on the situation. Next, it’s important to be aware of gentle transitions between states and allowing time for integration. Deep mind body work can require time to process and readjust.

And you see this a lot when people attend immersive retreats and then suddenly go back home to their normal pace of life and they can feel quite discombobulated or overwhelmed.

So it’s really important to give space and put buffers in place, whether it’s allowing five minutes after meditation before you jump into a meeting or allowing a day or two after a retreat to consider the changes you’re gonna make. And also to have some form of ongoing connection, maybe with a facilitator or group. These are all important considerations.

Lastly, it’s also important to realize that there is a wide variety of new methods and systems continually emerging. Many of these holistic modalities rebrand the wisdom of ancient traditions. And while it’s really good to stay curious and explore them, the advice would be to be very discerning about what is adopted.

In my personal experience, it becomes less and less about the specific bells and whistles of modality. And over time becomes simpler and simpler and ultimately about what is it that supports accessing this state of deeper relaxation and presence in the most effective and impactful way.

So in the final segment, we’re just going to explore integrating holistic strategies in the workplace, some of the common challenges and also the opportunities. As a business owner or people manager, holistic strategies can greatly enhance the employee’s work life experience, but may feel daunting or overwhelming knowing where to start or how to possibly address or integrate them in the workplace.

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Starting with what might be perceived as the more challenging aspect first, addressing the domain of spiritual health, it does not have to be such a mountain to climb. And the more esoteric or ethereal aspects of the subject do not have to be tackled in order to embrace this domain and really reap the rewards.

In essence, spirituality ties into deep-rooted aspects of an individual’s role at work and is inextricably linked with feelings of fulfillment, meaning and purpose. It’s an integral component of major drivers of performance and wellbeing. And it’s been well-established that sustained wellbeing is strongly associated with employees having a sense of autonomy and purpose in relation to what they do.

So how to facilitate that was psychoeducation on the importance of understanding our personal values can be a key part to support this and assist workers to become more aware of what really matters most to them and how this might align with the company vision and mission.

There are many well-established evidence-based courses such as the aforementioned MBSR, NVC, ACT, which can be effective ways for groups or teams to learn and evolve together. moving through a process over a set period of time.

While this may not be overtly considered spiritual, many of these approaches really are because they enhance the individual’s self-awareness and cultivate that presence and intentionality.

When it comes to religious beliefs and practices at work, honouring the diverse needs of employees is important, and recognising if spaces could be provided or working schedules restructured in order to accommodate an individual’s personal requirements and preferences in this domain. It may be much more important for some employees than others, but a consideration across the board nonetheless.

When it comes to mind-body practices, again, education can be an effective way to introduce concepts that may be relatively new to many employees, but also there’s other practical considerations to take on board, such as are there spaces allocated for meditation? Are there classes available for employees to learn and practise skills?

Is there access to facilitators for that additional one-to-one support or who can guide breathwork and meditation groups? All of these are simple things that may lead to big differences in the long run and really support your employee in addressing this domain of their health and wellbeing.

If you are an employer and interested in learning more, we have many offerings in this area that you might find supportive, from talks on the basics of breathwork, mind-body medicine, surviving to thriving positive psychology skills for life, to workshops and experiential deep dives like Mindful Body and Chair Yoga, as well as courses like Values, Meaning and Purpose and Stress-Reducing Mindfulness.

Please reach out to us if we can be of some support. And otherwise, I hope the information contained in this podcast today has planted some seeds and given you food for thought. And that may lead to new innovations in your own workplace or personal life. Thank you for listening.