Eight Components of Holistic Health for Martial Artists
How many of you are or have experience with being a managing agent for a multi-million-dollar professional athlete?
If you were the manager of a multi-million-dollar professional athlete in charge of making sure this person is performing at their very best, would you let him/her stay up half the night eating junk food, smoking cigarettes or marijuana and drinking alcohol? Would you let your child do those things? Hope not! But would you care if your neighbor or a stranger on the street did these things? Probably not. Not my problem!, right? What about a billion-dollar body? YOUR BODY! Priceless….
Isn’t it intriguing that we wouldn’t manage a multi-million-dollar athlete or our own child the way we treat our own bodies?! If you did manage a multi-million-dollar athlete in a poor manner, how many games would he win? One or none! Yet, in our own lives, even though we are well informed that our health is everything, many people in society abuse their bodies as if they have no value. WE ARE OUR OWN PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE!
In 2022 and part of 2023 I went down a spiraling hole of working excessively, 60-80 hours per week. My sister passed away unexpectedly in March of 2022 and I experienced other life stressors that caused my once healthy lifestyle habits to plummet. I lost a lot of muscle going from a solid 175LBS to 162LBS, a weight I hadn’t seen since my late teens! I had poor eating and sleeping habits and the stress took a toll on my mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing. The loss of my sister served as a wakeup call to how fragile life truly is. It prompted me to reevaluate my lifestyle habits and how I could regain my health again for myself and those around me. Through calculated and meaningful steps I began to work on regaining my health back to where it was by addressing Eight Components of Holistic Health.
Awareness, education, action and consistent accountability are the key to healthy living. Here I have listed what I consider the eight main components to good health; I consider them the roots or the foundation of optimal health. They are;
1. Physical Body Health – Overall physical well-being, movement ability, strength and flexibility, absence of physical disease, etc.
2. Mental and Emotional Health – Mental and emotional strength and aptitude. Absence of mental disease.
3. Environmental Health – A healthy physical and emotional environment.
4. Society/Tribe/Community Health– Love, connection and belonging.
5. Nourishment/Hydration – Quality food and drink.
6. Personal Development – Self-esteem and self-actualization.
7. Sleep/Rest/Recovery – Vitality, energy and vigor.
8. Spiritual Health – Purpose, connection, self-esteem, personal growth.
As you may notice, many of these health components overlap and affect one another. When you change one, another is affected.
At Nirvana Jeet Kune Do Society we take pride in taking this holistic approach as part of our martial arts development. We believe when we tend to these Eight Components of Holistic Health, we show up as our best selves not only as martial artists but also as individuals who have the power to positively influence others around us to make this world a better place. This is the Nirvana way.
When life is difficult it is not easy to see the top of the mountain, but it is there waiting for you. Don’t wait until it’s irreversible! Set a goal, make a clear plan and break that plan down into small detailed steps. Stay consistent and disciplined. This approach worked for me and it can work for you.
With Vitality and Peace,
Sifu Jesse