Two things have happened recently that have made the term “wholesome” bounce around like a beach ball in my consciousness. The first was that my computer crashed (wait, there is a connection), and the second was that I did three days of work at a large music festival.
After the music festival, I felt a strange sense of “ungroundedness”, and although I had a fantastic time, I began to feel like I needed to be more wholesome in my day-to-day life.
What does that mean? I already eat well, exercise regularly, meditate and do yoga. Do I need to do more of those things? What would it mean to heed that message?
A clue came when I spoke to the computer repair guy.
“We are going to defrag your system. It is very corrupted,” he said. That’s me, I thought. I need defragging, too! And the way to do it is through being more wholesome right now in my day-to-day life.
First, I looked up the definition of wholesome. Merriam-Webster sums it up nicely:
1. promoting health and wellbeing of mind, body or spirit
2. (a) sound in body, mind and morals
(b) having a simple health or vigor of normal domesticity
Then, I reflected on what wholesome means to me. I thought about what would help to bring back the fragments of myself that had been shattered by the energy of the music festival, and the stress of study – not to mention socialising. Dictionary definition 2.b. spoke to me here.
It is time to be simple. And the place to start being simple is in my normal domestic life. What this means for me is preparing simple food, and not blasting my home space with the noise and stimulation of television and loud music.
It means choosing soft lighting, and filling my space with candle-dispersed healing essential oils, de-cluttering piles of papers and other odds and sods, and keeping at least one space clean and pure in my home – perhaps filling it with flowers and reminders of the simple joys of nature and quiet.
Wholesomeness for me also includes seeking the sunshine on my skin, fresh air, a swim in the ocean, or a warm bath, a walk in the forest or on the beach, or getting up to see the sunrise.
What all of this also means for me is the need to slow down, to pause and reflect on what contributes to me being sound in body, mind and morals.
Sometimes I feel like the puppy that I walk regularly on the beach. She is so taken by any stimulus that comes her way, and she can hardly contain herself as she scrambles from one experience to the next. As life is exciting for her, she lacks any ground to find peace in unless she has a simple reference point such as a warm human cuddle, a quiet environment, or her warm bed.
I feel we humans are very much the same. Every now and then we need to return to a simple, quiet place to find grounding. We need to have a routine ‘defrag’ in order to maintain a wholesome existence, promoting health and wellbeing of mind, body or spirit.
I’d love to hear from you. How do you find the wholesome in your day-to-day life? Is it something you need, or, does your life run smoothly without it?