Decoding the Five Dimensions of Holistic Health

Much has been said about the “five dimensions” or “five keys” to holistic health, but much of this information is rooted in a physical understanding of health.

Holistic health is about more than lukewarm concepts like “social” and “emotional” health.

To truly treat the whole of your being and achieve personal freedom, you have to go deeper.

True mind and body wellness has been a topic of interest for me for well over a decade, as I’ve seen firsthand the dramatic failures of the mainstream medical industry.

Not only does this include physical medical treatment, but the worlds of diet, fitness, mental health, and spiritual fulfillment.

It’s obvious to anyone with at least a little awareness that health is a foreign subject in this society. Very few people actually understand it or how to achieve it.

Let’s put an end to the obscurity around health and decode what it means to be healthy once and for all.

Understanding The Five Dimensions of Health

The popular take on holistic wellness and the five dimensions classifies the different aspects of wellness as such:

• Physical
• Emotional
• Social
• Spiritual
• Mental

This is vague and does not cover all of the aspects of health.

More specifically, it really doesn’t cover the deeper aspects of our evolutionary needs and what it means to achieve real results.

It sounds good, for example, to say things like “emotional health” is important, worthy enough of an entire dimension.

In reality, however, emotional health is merely the byproduct of a sound mind. You either have it or you don’t, and it can’t be controlled to any real degree apart from the mind.

A weak minded person will always have tidal emotions that are controlled by the ego.

A strong minded person will always have control and understanding over their emotions and will not allow their ego or the ego of another person to dictate how they feel.

So right off the bat, we know that emotional and mental health should really be one category, as they are inseparable concepts.

Then there is the “social” health category, which is also problematic if we’re talking about real health.

The entire idea of “social health” is a very abstract concept.

What happens if you find yourself on a boat with nothing but fools with no awareness? What happens if, theoretically, there’s no one left on Earth but you? Suddenly an entire aspect of being healthy doesn’t exist or can no longer be fulfilled? What then?

Clearly, this is just modernist tripe. A healthy social life is more of a byproduct of having a healthy mind and body, not an aspect of health unto itself.

If you are of sound mind and body, and you know how to manage your energy and space, you will have a healthy social life.

You can’t go out of your way and develop deep bonds with people if you are an emotional wreck, dumb as a post, and unhealthy. You’re going to wind up being a charity case long before you ever create a real lasting bond with someone.

So something as superficial as having a healthy “social life” can’t possibly be one of the so-called dimensions of holistic health.

The other problematic category is “spiritual” health, which makes sense from a certain perspective, but breaks down under scrutiny.

There’s the issue of mainstream “spirituality” being almost synonymous with religion.

And there’s little to nothing holistic about most religion.

For most spiritual adepts, religion is understood as a prison. It’s where real spirituality goes to die.

There’s also plenty of atheists out there who have given up religion and seem to be just fine.

In fact, many holistic practitioners themselves are mystics and claim no religion. Some are even atheists.

So having a specific “spiritual” practice doesn’t really line up with the idea of true holistic wellness.

After all, if we’re talking about health, we have to speak from the standpoint of what is natural.

What is Natural Wellness?

What do our bodies actually need in order to be healthy? If this is the issue, and we look for example at our brothers and sisters in the animal kingdom, it’s clear that religion is not a part of their existence.

These artificial trappings actually limit us and take away from our health and freedom, rather than adding to it.

Here are some points to consider in regards to true wellness:

• Mind and body wellness requires total balance.
• Spirituality and nature go hand-in-hand. Nature is a reflection of spirit.
• Natural wellness implies harmony between mind-body and the outer world.
• Spatial awareness keeps the wellness of the mind and body in balance.
• All beings must have their authority or dominion to be at peace and live in balance.

It’s pretty clear that this mainstream understanding of the “5 keys” is way off base and simply rooted in an abstract understanding of our health needs.

Let’s take a look at health from a truly holistic standpoint, based on our evolutionary biological needs and our relationship with the Earth.

Holistic Health is Rooted in Nature

When we speak about holistic health, it must be understood from the standpoint of biological need before anything else.

What did we evolve to require in order to be our strongest, happiest, and most balanced?

What does nature say we need, not hack doctors and bizarre social trends?

• Physical Activity
• Natural Diet
• Bond with Nature
• Mental Discipline
• Personal Dominion

These five keys comprise the true essence of holistic health.

Here is a quick breakdown of each section, so you can get a better understanding of how each relates to your needs.

1. Physical Activity

The need for working our muscles is built into our biology. Without physical activity, our bodily systems slow and malfunction.

This includes everything from hormones, to digestion, to our brain activity and everything in between.

You need to build and break muscle to be healthy.

2. Natural Diet

What we eat is what our body is constructed out of.

If you feed your body garbage, your cells will be constructed out of that garbage.

If there is no good resources on hand, the body will be in a constant state of stress and will also leech minerals from the bones just to maintain a balanced pH and proper cell integrity.

Without proper plant-based nutrition as dictated by our biology, we malfunction. Disease sets in and health becomes impossible to achieve.

3. Bond With Nature

Where we are today as a species couldn’t have been possible without the tens of millions of years of evolution that led up to it.

During that time, we were in constant symbiotic partnership with nature.

We evolved to make use of sunlight, the healing compounds of various herbs and other plants, and the life giving energy of living food and pure mineral compounds found in bark, dirt, and natural sources of water.

Nature is our home and without this relationship acting upon us on a constant basis, disease and illness sets in.

4. Mental Discipline

Without a strong and balanced mind, people become trapped in prisons of their own making.

The ego will have you drowning in tides of useless emotions that drain your energy, your beliefs will rely on delusion, you will be angry and unfulfilled, and it will be difficult to manifest your desires.

This state of mental disarray makes health difficult, if not impossible to achieve. 

A weak mind gives way to unbalanced mind-body states, including apathy, narcissism, depression, anxiety, hormonal imbalance, poor digestion, insomnia, and even suicidal tendencies.

You have to “get out of your head” and do away with the ego in order to find health and freedom.

5. Personal Dominion

This final aspect of holistic health involves the management of your space, both physical and mental.

What do you allow and permit around you? What ideas do you allow inside your head?

This includes physical clutter, hoarding behavior, “living trashy,” holding tons of false opinions, and allowing negative people to have control over you and your space.

All animals in nature have personal dominion. They are very picky with who and what can enter their personal space.

Most creatures go through elaborate rituals and fitness tests to determine if another creature is allowed in their personal space. The same kind of vetting should be used for the opinions and beliefs of others.

Every bit of energy that you allow into your space should be cultivated meticulously in order to enjoy true wellness, otherwise your personal dominion could be disrupted at any time.

Achieving Holistic Health

Now that you know holistic health is not some abstract concept, you can find it in your own life.

However, this is just skimming the surface of the five keys. There is still plenty to learn if you are just getting started, or if you are trying to “deprogram” from more mainstream understandings of holistic health. 

If you’re looking for more info, I highly recommend grabbing my resource on the subject, Fundamentals of Holistic Health, the Five Keys to Freedom.

In this book, I break down each dimension of holistic health in its own chapter, so you get the whole picture of how to incorporate them into your own life.

I also speak more about my personal experiences with holistic health and the steps I take in my life to achieve it.

If freedom is what you’re seeking, everything you need to know is here.