7 Principles To Living Holistically
When it comes to health, the pendulum has swung too far from natural remedies to quick fixes, pills, and fast diets. We are at a turning point where our quick-fix mentality towards living is neither sustainable nor much fun.
Growing numbers of Americans are dying from diseases of excess, like obesity and heart disease, while others are suffering from mental illnesses, feeling disconnected and alone. For the first time in nearly 100 years since WW1, our life expectancy has actually been decreasing, mostly due to opioid death and suicide rate increases.
As the cofounder of Kensho, a holistic health platform rooted in science, I see the tide changing first-hand through holistic results across the team and with our customers. We have curated a community of thousands of the world’s top holistic health providers Through their knowledge, science-backed research, and personal experience, we have identified seven principles for living a healthy, happy, more connected, purposeful life.
1. Be present
Find time to be alone and quiet in an intentional way. In a time when we have more notifications, emails, worries, etc. pulling our attention in all directions, it’s vitally important to take time for yourself. Allow yourself space to just be, think, and feel. One of the truly remarkable things about spending intentional, caring time with yourself: you will inevitably begin to get more comfortable in your own skin and love yourself even more. To me, this is the most important principle; all others will fall into place from here.
For a start, meditation works wonders, and it’s easier to do than you might think. If it feels like everyone is talking about meditation today, there’s a good reason: there have been recent longitudinal (big, well-researched) studies that show that meditation may keep your brain young, and reduce age-related mental decay. Meditation has so many benefits — from reducing anxiety, IBS, and high blood pressure, to increasing grey matter for your brain’s power to process new information.
Like anything else, meditation takes practice. I typically meditate about twenty minutes each morning, but if you are new to meditating, ten minutes is a great way to get started. I incorporate different types of meditation, from mantra-based to loving-kindness to mindfulness — it all depends on my mood. If there’s a style that appeals to you, start with that. There are some great apps to help with meditation, including 1 Giant Mind, Insight Timer, and Waking Up.
There are many other ways to be present including taking long walks, spending time in nature, traveling alone, writing/painting, or simply spending intentional solo time to reconnect with yourself.
2. Stay curious
Studies suggest curiosity is linked to joy on the job, social skills, and even a happy disposition. In an academic context, greater curiosity generally predicts greater success for students, and in a work setting, more success as well.
For me, I am deeply curious about existence, our origins as a species, our purpose here, and the mystery of consciousness. For me, curiosity requires consuming profound and creative information. The best form I’ve found for this is typically a book (or audiobook), where you can really go deep into a subject. Typically, I read a novel or some type of fiction on the topic, as well as nonfiction. For you, it will be something different. Some people will prefer the Wikipedia wormhole, listening to podcasts, or following interesting people on social media.
Finding purpose and meaning — in life, career, relationships, you name it — can be found simply through staying curious.
3. Whatever you love, do that
I spent years working in careers that didn’t light me up because I thought it would set me up for the next level of my career. Then I realized, I don’t even want my boss’ boss’ job, nor would I be happy if I spent my career doing this. So, I tried something new in which I had a deep interest and helped launch Brami. The difference was passion.
Passion in our jobs can be difficult to find, but interest is certainly attainable. To make it easier, try to find a job that has:
1) Skills that you want to develop
2) An underlying vision of a company or industry that you share
Personally, I am launching a company called Kensho with a dear friend, Krista Berlincourt, that allows me to develop skills I am interested in developing — entrepreneurship, management, creativity — with a mission that truly resonates with me — making natural health accessible and approachable for more people. I hit the proverbial jackpot here aligning my interests, skills, and passion (something my buddy Adam talks about on his podcast). It didn’t happen overnight — it took time to refine each of these categories and ultimately with enough courage, I was able to seize an opportunity that presented itself.
Life is too short not to take risks and live the life you can imagine. Be brave, do things that inspire you.
4. Connect deeply
Nearly half of Americans feel lonely most of the time. And loneliness is not only emotionally painful; it can also lead to heart disease, stroke, metastatic cancer, and Alzheimer’s Disease. More meaningful connections with people you care about and who care about you are the antidote to this epidemic, not more things, more money, and more social media.
Take the time to cultivate relationships and connect in ways that bring you and others joy. One way to connect with other people that stir your soul and inspire you is to be yourself and pursue a life that is driven by curiosity. I used to think that being tough and portraying a shiny exterior made me more attractive to others. I was wrong! What I have found is that allowing myself to be vulnerable with others actually brings us closer together. Check out Brene Brown’s Ted Talk on vulnerability if you don’t believe me.
Kensho, the company we started, is largely remote, so we have folks all over the place. To cultivate the sort of connections we need to be productive, as well as create the kind of company for which we want to work, we use quick cues to help us bridge long geographic distances. One cue we use at the start of many meetings is asking each team member to quickly share what they are thinking and feeling. It’s remarkable what asking a real question will do to aid in connection, in any type of setting. We’ve found that incorporating this type of activity into our team’s process may cost us five minutes here or there, but completely changes the way we interact and approach working together.
5. Eat less, mostly plants
In the US, we have this obsession with eating and eating ‘healthy’. Ironically, we could not be less healthy and that has to do with the food we are putting in our bodies. Over the last 40 years, our obsession with eating healthy has led to soaring rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. What’s the rub? (probably something with a lot of sugar and processed chemicals in it.) My research and experience tell me we are doing too much, not too little. So what does that mean for you?
- Eat good food with fewer ingredients.
- Eat food that your great great grandmother would recognize as food’ (a Pollanism).
- Eat higher-quality food and less of it.
- Eat mindfully, and with other people.
- Eat less meat. Check out an interview with the author of The China Study, the largest nutrition study to date, for more info on eating less meat and more plants.
I was moved after reading Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and learning more about The China Study and the health benefits of plant-based eating in the documentary Forks Over Knives. Since graduating from Princeton just over a decade ago, I’ve been mostly vegetarian (except for my mom’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which are not negotiable), which was initially a huge shift from my heavy meat and dairy diet as a Division 1 college soccer player.
There have been several benefits to this switch to plant-based: never feeling too full, spending less money on food (meat can be expensive), leaner muscle mass (yet stronger and quicker recovery time), clearer thinking, and feeling much better ethically about my food and consumption choices.
For those interested, I highly recommend trying a plant-based diet for a month and seeing how you feel. Make sure you are getting all the nutrients you need, and don’t eat too many packaged gluten-forward sausages if you can help it.
6. Move your body, then rest
Whether you box or run or walk or surf, some sort of movement is undeniably good for you. Plenty of research shows that moderate to intense levels of physical activity lowers your risk for heart disease, Alzheimer’s, depression, and even cancer. How much should you work out? That is not entirely clear, but at least 2–3 hours of moderate exercise per week is advised.
Not only is exercise great for reducing chronic diseases, it is also a mood booster and optimization tool. There is research that indicates that exercise can increase memory and thinking ability, increase endorphin levels, and even help you sleep better.
In addition to movement, there is substantial evidence that rest is one of, if not the, most important thing you can do each day. Our quality of sleep affects pretty much every element of our lives (I am sure I don’t need to tell you as you drain your third cup of coffee this morning) from creativity to productivity to decision making to the immune system to just overall energy.
How much sleep is enough? Research indicates that for most adults, 7–9 hours of sleep each night is appropriate, however, every person is different and we should experiment to determine what is right for us. My guess is that most of us are not getting enough. In fact, only 3% of the population operates well with 6 hours of sleep, so the other 97% of us need to get at least 7 hours of sleep.
7. Simplify!
This is a recurring theme in all of the principles I’ve named so far: keep it simple. In a time when most of our problems come from too much, rather than too little — 70% of deaths in the US are now preventable or lifestyle-related (CDC) — the trick is really just living more simply.
Philosophers from Epicurus to Thoreau to Buddha, have all promoted the notion that ‘the simple life is the good life.’ Clearly this is something that humans have been grappling with for a long time. And I believe we are in a moment when many of us are recognizing that everything we have accumulated, all the things we are desiring, and an incessant need for more more more isn’t really making us happier, healthier, or more fulfilled.
Whatever it means for you, identify ways in which you can scale down your life, slow down, and simplify.
In conclusion, I recommend — eat less, work less, stress less, do less, buy less, watch less. And do other simple and natural things more — love more, sleep more, explore more, learn more, and be more present and curious.
Let me know if these principles or others work for you (danny@kenshohealth.com); I am always looking to tweak things here and there that allow me to live a fuller, healthier life.
