Holistic health and wellness – let’s flourish

Holistic health is an ancient approach to life where we consider the whole person and all aspects of that person and their environment.
How do you define your own health?

In yogic terms, we have the koshas. You might think of the koshas as layers or sheaths of our being.

• Annamaya Kosha: our physical form or food layer of being
• Pranamaya Kosha: our energy layer or pranic layer where our vital energy force is processed
• Manomaya Kosha: our emotional/mental layer where we feel our emotional states of being and process meaning around those emotions
• Vijnanamaya Kosha: our layer of deep knowing, intuition and wisdom
• Anandamaya Kosha: our bliss layer where we enter the state of oneness with all that is

In the quantum model of holistic health, we find the same layers with slightly different names:

• Physical Body: our dense layer of matter that is nourished and developed by nutrition and material nourishment.

• Vital Body: more subtle, sustained and nourished by the breath and constituted by prana or life force. This is where you will find the chakra system and meridians – channels through which prana flows. The physical body is the representation of this layer. This is why breathing practices and prana kriyas are so important; you could say they feed into the physical. You might think of this field like a blueprint for the physical form.

• Mental Body: where your thoughts and mental patterns influence your wellbeing. Negative thoughts, disturbed emotions and limiting beliefs all work through this layer. Wrong mental meaning and rumination over past negative events create inner turmoil and conflict, which will result in dis-ease over time.

• Supramental Body: the realm of intuition and wisdom, deep inner knowings and a high level of discrimination. This is the realm of higher archetypal processes and where we can understand them and make meaning of these roles in our lives.

• Bliss Body: transcendence of the ego, deep mystical experiences; the limitless bliss body

The current medical model works from the bottom layer upwards. For example, they treat the condition you walk in with and not the person as a whole.

The quantum model of health works from the top layer downwards because, as you might see from the model above, we can effect change in the subtle layers with mediation and breath work, and those effects will filter down through the layers and improve physical wellness.

Working from the top down is much less invasive and supports one of the basic principles of natural medicine: use the minimal amount of product or therapy that will produce the maximum effect.

To know these layers is to get to know yourself more deeply. In future posts, I will share with you how to manage these layers, including practices and tools that you can use to improve your wellness.

I’d like to leave you with a challenge for the next fortnight: practice a technique called Brahmari breath or humming bee breath. It has been a huge help to me recently in dealing with pain and has many benefits! Check out my latest YouTube video for more.

Let me know how you get on and I look forward to sharing more of this fascinating journey into holistic health over the coming weeks.

Namaste

Sarah