12 Tips: Wholesome Living For The Whole Family (2024) & Mental Health

We all want to live a happy, healthy, long life. Wholesome living for the whole family brings many aspects of living together to create the whole.

Wholesome Living For The Whole Family
Photo by Dylan Sauerwein on Unsplash

The secret of a happy life is not to make large scale changes. Making small incremental changes can significantly improve your quality of life.

Keep reading for 12 tips for wholesome living for the whole family and mental health.

Let’s dive in.

12 tips for wholesome living for the whole family and mental health

1. Love Your Life

Relax your mind and body through mindfulness exercises for wholesome living for the whole family. Get back in touch with the messages your body sends you. Be grateful for whatever comes your way in each present moment.

Be in the present moment as much as possible. Remember to smile – it tells your cells that all is well. Look for different perspectives to see experiences from another angle.

2. Lemon Water First Thing In The Morning

Make it a habit to drink a glass of lemon water as soon as you wake up in the morning. 

  • Lemon contains minerals that promote healthy digestion, alleviate heartburn, and stimulate healthy bowel function by reducing bloat and stimulating bowel movements.
  • Evidence suggests lemon water may help shed those stubborn pounds.
  • Lemon can help remove toxins that, over time, accumulate in the blood and may cause a wide range of health issues.
  • The abundance of vitamin C in lemon provides a powerful immune boost and increases electrolytes to help support the immune system when the body is fighting off infection or illness.
  • Lemon water can help alleviate many causes of bad breath by neutralizing the odor from foods like onion and garlic.
  • Lemon contains nutrients that nourish and revitalize the skin. 
  • lemon water can help fend off free radicals and inflammatory markers in the blood.
  • Lemon water offers energizing effects without the proceeding crash that often comes with caffeine.
  • Lemon juice has antibacterial and antiviral components that help fight off infections.
  • And more.

3. Get Enough Sleep

Sleep deprivation can make you feel tired and angry. It can disrupt mental concentration and cause heart issues. 

Contrary to the quiet physical state during sleep, the brain is very active. Sleep is essential to every process in the body, affecting our physical and mental functioning the next day, like:

  • Your ability to fight disease
  • Develop immunity
  • Your metabolism
  • Chronic disease risk.

Sleep is truly interdisciplinary because it touches every aspect of health.

According to some studies, an adult needs about 8 hours of sleep a night. Since one person is different from another, the amount of sleep a day can vary from 6 to 8 hours. 

4. Morning Stretching

Use your time wisely when waking up in the morning, instead of taking a nap again. Do a few movements to stretch your spine, arms, legs, and neck.

By doing so, your body will wake up from sleep and you’ll feel more physically active. Stretching exercises also improve blood circulation to your muscles, bringing them extra oxygen and nutrients. This physical activity will prepare you for a new day.

5. Eat Healthy

Take a close look at what you’re eating. Remove the unhealthy fats, overly salty foods and sugary snacks like fried potatoes, biscuits or baked goods. 

Make it a habit to eat smaller nutritious meals so you’re less inclined to snack. Eating healthy foods packed with nutrition, leaves you feeling more satisfied with smaller portions than if you consumed foods containing empty calories and nutrients.

Healthy snacks are small portions of cashews, peanuts and fresh fruits which are rich in vitamins and minerals.

Studies have shown that healthy eating habits overall could be associated with longer sleep duration and a shorter time to fall asleep. It also improves your metabolism making it easier to lose weight.

6. Have Breakfast

A 2003 study by the American Heart Association found that people who ate breakfast had a lower risk of obesity and diabetes than those who didn’t.

For more wholesome living, wake up 15 minutes earlier than usual and make an egg omelet, fruit or vegetable salad, and yogurt for breakfast, this is enough to energize your day and create a healthy lifestyle.

Prioritize breakfast to:

  • Waking up in the morning, your body and brain are craving nutrients. Eating breakfast improves concentration and focus. 
  • A healthy diet including a nutritionally balanced breakfast can support brain activity that helps control emotions, moods, expectations, behaviors, decision making skills, and cognition.
  • A nutrient dense breakfast helps you manage your appetite and your weight.
  • Eating a nutritious breakfast can improve heart health.
  • Studies show that children who eat a nutritious breakfast and healthy snacks perform better in school.
  • Helps pregnant moms meet their nutritional needs.

7. Move Your Body Daily

Many of us don’t prioritize our time to take a walk every day, yet it’s a healthy habit to incorporate physical activity. Walk with friends or family so you have company.

According to researchers, wholesome living includes walking 20 kilometers a week or 125-200 minutes a week is enough to improve the health of your heart for the whole family.

Use the stairs whenever possible instead of the elevator. Always choose options that keep your body active while doing certain tasks.

Related: How Does Regular Exercise Improve Cardiovascular Function During Times Of Stress?

8. Make Social Connections

People who live alone get sick more easily and are more likely to die prematurely. Those who do not have friends can become easily stressed.

They’re also at higher risk for developing depression. According to researchers, the more people are in social relationships, the more likely they are to adopt strategies that can be used to improve health and become strong enough to live independently.

9. Study The Ingredients List

For wholesome living for the whole family, study the list of ingredients in the products you buy. This makes it easier to identify whether they contain artificial and harmful ingredients.

Most foods on the market today contain thousands of ingredients that can be harmful to the body, all of which are hard to understand. Fortunately, information about them can be easily found online.

So, take a look at your food products, beauty products, or cleaning products. Harmful ingredients can cause various diseases, allergies, and even cancer.

10. Discover New Activities

Choose activities for a healthy lifestyle that you can do to make new connections or with family and friends, such as mountaineering, group sports, walking, and cycling.

Starting a new hobby is a good strategy to create happiness and reduce stress for the whole family. You’ll meet new friends who have the same interests as you. Those who choose to be happy live longer.

11. Teach Your Children

Teach your children the importance of good nutrition and regular physical activity for more wholesome living for the whole family. Eating well while being physically active and limiting screen time are the keys to your child’s health and well-being.

12. Forgive

Healthy habits also include accepting your mistakes and forgiving yourself first, then forgiving others who may have hurt you. This can lead to a healthy life and mental well-being, as well as teaching children to forgive and forget their grudges.

Wholesome Living Meaning

Wholesome living can be achieved no matter where you live. And while it’s not impossible to do it in a city, However, the grind, crush, and temptations of city living would drain someone of a lot of energy and purity. 

In order to live harmoniously we’re also required to be able to process our experiences properly. Like food for our body, our experiences feed us. Living harmoniously with nature can keep us balanced and thriving.

Choosing higher quality, fulfilling experiences to nourish the mind and spirit is as important as choosing wholesome and natural foods for yourself and family members that nourish the body.

Wholesome living is actively pursuing community, rejecting vulgarity and corruption, and removing competition, pressure, stress, and busyness. It’s a life lived with the eternal in mind, and a peaceful spirit inside.

Wholesome living is about living for more than yourself. It’s living a full life in service to others and in the pursuit of personal growth. 

Your wellness journey and that of your family can be free from physical health problems if you keep an active lifestyle, healthy eating, appreciation for all of life and respect for the Earth.

Your life has meaning, purpose, and joy, outside of momentary hookup-happiness, monotonous careers, and praise and validation from others. This is a life lived whole-heartedly.

Wholesome Family Meaning

Often when we think of “wholesome” families, we’re transported to the TV shows of the 1950’s and 1960’s that were exemplified by families like the Cleavers or The Andy Griffith Show. 

Whatever is considered a wholesome family, it first must include the variety of families seen in present day life.

Families with wholesome attributes are considered those where the parent, parents or guardians strive to instill values, trust, security, morals, open communication and healthier habits.

There is also some type of spiritual component such as maintaining a clear philosophical, spiritual, or religious affiliation with an active practice.

1. Have Family Meals

Have as many meals together a week as possible with all family members present and at least once A day.

2. Spirituality

Maintain a philosophical, spiritual, or religious affiliation and participate with appropriate practice.

3. Necessities Of Life

Provide the necessities of life to your children from nurturance, to healthy eating, to appropriate shelter, to education, to physical activity, to fun and laughter.

4. Appropriate Discipline

Use appropriate discipline techniques, particularly those that do not include hitting or belittling, but rather discussion or restitution.

5. Role Model

Be an appropriate role model in your adult intimate relationships.

6. Volunteer

Participate as a family in volunteer or charitable activities.

Wholesome Foods

Wholesome living for the whole family includes the kind of food we eat. It does matter, and whole food in your diet can contribute to a healthier you.

Wholesome Foods
Photo by Iñigo De la Maza on Unsplash

The role of parents is vital in educating children about the importance of healthy food they require for their bodies to be in optimally good health. Serve food with a healthy diet consisting of good nutrition to be a good example to your child for maintaining healthy living.

Wholesome foods are the ones that your body appreciates, the ones that help you stay healthy. Marshmallows and corn chips aren’t what you’d call wholesome, but organically grown fruits and vegetables are.

Wholesome living for the whole family includes incorporating healthy eating into your family’s lifestyle.

Many families rely on processed food to feed their family because they’re quick and easy. 

Whole food is food left unaltered by human intervention. A whole food is a food in its natural state that has not been processed. It’s straight from nature, Processed foods lead to health problems.

Teach your children by example and only purchase food that is whole, organic, non gmo, wild, and grain-fed and finished.

This is food in its original state, with all of its natural vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, as opposed to what is left over after a food has been refined or processed.

Processed food contains additives and preservatives and are often high in sodium, which can lead to high blood pressure and hypertension. The USDA Center for Nutrition Policy says most of the sodium in the American diet comes from processed food.

Start wholesome living today, replace your kids’ screen time with physical activity and make the family whole again.

We invite you to forward this article to three of your favorite friends ✅ so they can learn wholesome living tips for the whole family too.

About The Author

Bijan Kholghi is a certified life coach with the Milton Erickson Institute Heidelberg (Germany). He helps clients and couples reach breakthroughs in their lives by changing subconscious patterns. His solution-oriented approach is based on Systemic- and Hypnotherapy.

Bijan