My graduate thesis was all about the merging of disciplines together to create the most optimal wellbeing. My paper began with this quote by Aristotle…“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. The definition from Dictionary.com says that holistic means incorporating the concept of holism or the idea that the whole is more than merely the sum of its parts, in theory, or practice.
So what does holistic mean to S.A.G.E.?
We believe that living a holistic life means that you are willing to see ALL the different beautiful pieces that make up the whole of who you are. Sometimes these parts will be humming along and working well together…other time there may be dysfunction in some areas. We believe that a holistic view of your life is being courageous enough to look at all those parts and willingness
How do you do holistic?
We, here at S.A.G.E., want to say it out loud…we give you permission to use this term however you would like. We acknowledge the freedom you have to create your own definition. We believe that your way is better than “the right way”…in fact, your way IS the right way.
A note about Perfection versus Progress. We think this is important to cover because we definitely don’t want to have the pursuit of living a Holistic life turn into a pursuit of perfectionism. A great quote by Brene Brown says, “Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction and life paralysis.”
What do you think about this quote? We think it’s a great reminder to make sure we are actually striving for healthy living and not the constant critic that tells us we are not doing enough because we are not doing it perfectly or ALL the way.
What do we do then?
We put one foot in front of the other. As Mark Twain said, “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” So let’s make sure we have our sights set on balance when we are working toward this holistic life…and it’s not going to look like doing everything perfectly, that’s for sure. We are stumbling along on the path ourselves…but we are moving in the direction we know we are meant to be.
We would love to hear about ONE thing that you are focusing on in your life right now to live a holistically balanced life. Please leave us a comment below.
