[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Integrative Wellness: Personal Growth ©2023 : Ch.1]

We begin with health psychology, which provides us with a framework for our own integrative approach to personal wellness.

As we saw in our introduction, this specialty is based on a biopsychosocial model, for one of the clearest integrative approaches within modern medicine. While medical doctors may view the role of the health psychologist as one to encourage patient compliance with health regimens and self-care, the approach is broader. The psychological and physical are considered to be closely interlinked, with each having an impact on the other and neither likely to fully resolve without engagement of the other, for a truly holistic view of health.

Thus, we begin our personal application by seeking such connections. How is my physical health influenced by my thoughts, emotions, and perhaps memories? Am I carrying in my body the residue of earlier trauma? Do I have mental blocks to full engagement in my health regimen? If so, what are those resistances and how can I resolve them? Is my physical health or condition affecting my mental state? What can be done about that?

Whether you are currently in excellent health, have some health goals, or are challenged by illness or disability, these questions apply to all. We aren’t ever looking to self-blame. My failure to consistently exercise isn’t because something’s mentally wrong with me. My health condition isn’t ‘all in my mind’. And I’m not causing my illness because of my negative thoughts. This is the magical thinking of a child, that we wish things into and out of existence, but that’s not health psychology.

Instead, we simply want to look at how each influences the other. Let’s say you have a condition for which medical doctors, after extensive testing, can’t find a cause; at this point they may tell you it’s ‘functional’ and refer you to a psychologist. Many tend to react poorly to this, feeling their doctor doesn’t believe them and thinks they’re mentally ill, when in fact, the doctor is merely saying that because he cannot identity a cause, he can’t offer a remedy beyond symptomatic relief – and that a psychological approach may help to resolve these unquestionably physical symptoms.

An example of this can be seen in chronic migraines. When all testing has found no cause, dietary triggers have been corrected, yet migraines continue, the only logical next step is to seek psychological help. The migraines may or may not be related to mental/emotional issues, but they surely might be aggravated by same, and looking for such underlying cause or symptom triggers in order to resolve such issues may help reduce the migraines themselves.

Panic attacks are another clear example. While we can more clearly see that a panic disorder is an extreme anxiety and thus psychological, the symptoms of an acute attack may look exactly like a heart attack; whether cardiac or panic must first be determined before treatment can commence. Further, various physiological conditions can trigger anxiety and even panic, while it’s the physical ailment that must be resolved. Even more: following open heart surgery, a very common side effect of the surgery itself is depression, and doctors warn patients and their families of this possibility. One may well think that limitations due to the surgery and underlying condition are the natural cause of depression – yet it’s also known that when we control for the emotional response, depression is clearly linked to the aftermath of surgery itself.

In yet another example, one prevailing theory of addiction is that early childhood trauma often predisposes a person to alcoholism and/or substance abuse. Working to resolve addiction itself will only bring temporary relief with a high risk of relapse, unless the underlying trauma is also addressed. In each of these examples, the symptoms are very physical, indeed; no physician would deny this reality. However, the mental component is also there, and must be part of the treatment approach.

And so – we can do the same. We must learn to think outside of the box, as it were. Physical or mental/emotional problems are never only in one arena; we are one complete person, body and mind utterly intertwined, and each can powerfully affect the other. If we are currently symptom-free and in good health, we still approach our wellness in the same comprehensive way. Exercise and nutrition can profoundly affect mood. Meditation to regulate our emotions, or journal-writing to discover and transform our faulty thought patterns, powerfully impact our physical health.

For an integrative approach to our own wellness, we want to think of body and mind as a single unit – and to ensure that our daily regimen considers our full self.

You can easily assess this in the following exercises: on a blank piece of paper, write the word ‘health’ in the center, then in brainstorming fashion, quickly fill the page with as many associated words as possible; doing this without pause helps to prevent self-censorship. When you’ve come to a natural stop, turn the page over and categorize these terms into 2 columns: physical, and psychological or mental/emotional. Some of them may belong in both. When you’re finished, consider whether your terms are heavily weighted in one category, or more equally distributed – and further consider what changes you can make in your own approach to personal health, to achieve more balance.

You may also wish to draw a triangle, with ‘biological’, ‘psychological’, and ‘social’ at each point. (You might further wish to write ‘spiritual’ in the triangle’s center, to be later discussed.) Consider your approach to your own health and wellbeing in each of these 3 (4) domains; further consider whether your own triangle is balanced or out of balance, and what you can do to rebalance as needed. Perhaps you go to the gym each day but don’t give much consideration to your mental/emotional health. Perhaps you’re good with both of those, but as an introvert, you don’t make much time for community and tend strongly toward solitude instead. (Both are healthy – to be later discussed – but there’s no denying that community, social bonding, and a sense of belonging are essential to one’s health.) Place this triangle somewhere prominent where you’ll see it regularly, as a model and a reminder for a balanced approach to your wellbeing.

 Perhaps you’re a very busy person, and feel that you haven’t time for an extensive health regimen. Fear not: mindfulness meditation, for example, which research has demonstrated to be beneficial to a range of physical as well as mental / emotional health concerns, is also shown to be effective if practiced just 10 minutes a day. You can apply that same 10 minutes of mental stillness, present moment focus, and emotional detachment (more on all of this soon) to walking meditation, or a series of acupuncture-related stretches, or a creative activity that totally absorbs your attention and thus puts you in a flow state very similar to that of meditation, and more options as well. This doubling up is actually typical of mindfulness, and we get the benefit of two health activities in one brief time frame.

Of course, while a comprehensive two-hour regimen, say, may be a bit much for many a schedule, if we feel too busy to regularly engage in any activities to promote health…we’re too busy.

As the Zen saying goes, just twenty minutes of meditation will do – unless you’re too busy, and then you should practice for an hour.

We may also wish to consider busy schedules and stress. Conventional wisdom for a hundred years (and what a stressful century it’s been) has viewed stress as harmful to health. In just the past decade, much research has been conducted regarding the beneficial nature of the stress response, as the human body under duress releases a cascade of hormones to bring the body back into a state of equilibrium, a process known as homeostatic mechanism. Our physical response to stress can result in greater social bonding and empathy, more energy and motivation, increased focus and attention, a decrease in pain, and an elevation in mood – all because of stress hormones.

What damages our health in the face of stress, it turns out, is a belief that it’s bad for health. And so, for our health: we befriend stress instead. We don’t necessarily invite it in, though a life without stress would be dull; indeed, instead, when it does arrive, we recognize and greet it, and ally with it for the best possible outcome. This, too, has emerged from the field of health psychology.

And so – we begin with this bodymind / mindbody approach, alongside the understanding that the social realm too is essential for health, and we think of and plan our own practices in these 3 areas: biological, psychological, and social.

The contribution of health psychology.