Tips to Starting a Natural and Holistic Lifestyle

Caroline L’Impératrice, MscD.

Holistic Health & Wellness ​Associate

​Given the natural and holistic wellness’ growing popularity, and the billion dollars behind it, it’s easy to be deceived by sellers of anything with an “organic”, “vegan”, “eco-friendly” or “superfood” stamp, even detoxes, cleanses, natural products, or self-help and spiritual healing modalities or philosophies. After 13 years of this lifestyle, I experienced enough to help others shift into this way of life in a smooth way, guiding people on what to look for, what to avoid, and most importantly, who to trust: our Intuition. As I said, not everything that glitters is green in the “holistic industry”.

Let’s begin by the beginning: natural and holistic living is a way of life involving taking care of our whole selves -mind, body and spirit-, knowing these aspects are interconnected and impact one another. It also means turning to Mother Nature to treat and care for our bodies and tuning into a mindset that removes mental, emotional and spiritual blockages, replacing them with thought patterns and belief systems that allow us to grow and thrive on a subtle level. Consciously living this way elevates our consciousness and expands our awareness of self and our environment.
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My journey began in 2007 due to chronic inflammation issues, particularly in my respiratory system. I felt I didn’t breathe “fully” and always had mucus in my nose or the back of my throat, especially in the morning. My doctor said he believed I was allergic to something, but to find out what I was allergic to would take a long time and many tests. He suggested I take a nasal spray daily to reduce the inflammation and mucus. I remember walking out of the appointment thinking: what if I tried something different? I declared to myself that I would find a way to heal.

I was intuitively guided to google “what causes inflammation in the body?”. What came up the most was the connection between inflammation and dairy products, so I decided to test if they could be the cause of my inflammation issues: I quit consuming all dairy products for 2 weeks, and at the end of the 2 weeks I’d go eat ice cream to see how my body reacts. To my surprise, the inflammation cleared up after a few days of quitting the dairy products. I could breathe easier and didn’t have a runny nose all the time. After the 2 weeks, I went to an ice cream shop and ordered a sundae. After the first bite, I felt the upper area of my chest tightening, my skin turned reddish and I had a runny nose within minutes. I immediately started looking into all the foods I consumed to test out and observe how they made my body feel. The more I removed unnatural elements from my lifestyle, the more I connected with my Intuition, and the clearer I perceived Its Guidance as I ventured deeper into holistic self-knowledge.
 
Today, I’d like to share with you the same starting point I used and shared with everyone I’ve helped: start small, one thing at a time, focusing on taking action with what you have from where you are. One of the most accessible change we can make is with foods by making small shifts in our meals every day. Remember to be patient and gentle with yourself! Shifting gears in our lives isn’t easy. Something as simple as swapping our favorite candies with fruits can be challenging. In 2007, I knew that in order to see what worked for me or not, I had to address one thing at a time and give it time. It allowed me to avoid overwhelming myself, stress and anxiety. Furthermore, I knew that to evaluate how a particular food affected me, I couldn’t change everything in my diet at the same time.

Eliminating a group of foods from your diet and reintroducing it after 2 or 3 weeks has great benefits:

• It will give you great insight on how you react to them. Maybe the foods you thought were harmless actually were the cause of your bloating issues, skin issues, stagnant energy levels or mood swings.
• It’ll open the doors to new levels of self-awareness and interests, such as nutrient content of foods, their healing properties, how to choose high quality foods, herbal cleanses, etc.
• It will also open the doors to reviewing what you’ve been feeding your subtle body (mind, heart, spirit): what thoughts drain your energy, what beliefs block you from moving forward, have you been loving yourself appropriately, and so on.
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As multidimensional and multifaceted beings, there’s a lot of layers of unlearning/relearning to cover. Taking great care of ourselves with natural foods, remedies and products, making tough choices such as releasing certain habits or implementing new ones, forgiving people or asking for forgiveness to free our hearts and spirits, all these practices that demand we open our eyes to what’s going on within in relation to what’s going on outside of ourselves, making conscious decisions to heal, grow and thrive is a journey of a lifetime and truly an act of self-love.
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If you’re dealing with serious health challenges, discuss your options with your medical doctor before making any drastic changes. Regardless, once your body sees you are committed to improve your well-being, it’ll start speaking to you even clearer, you’ll connect deeper with your Intuition, and It’ll guide you to what’s right for you. You will trust yourself even more to make the right choices for your life, and you’ll be well on your way into a natural and holistic lifestyle, one small but impactful change at a time.
 
Joyfully,
Caroline 

Caroline L’Impératrice, MscD.

Caroline is a Certified Holistic Lifestyle Coach & Metaphysician. She is known for her joyful energy, her power to “turn your Inner Light back on” and inspiring people to shift their mindset from self-imposed limitations to infinite possibilities. In 2007, after dealing with chronic inflammatory issues for years, she started her natural healing journey by reconnecting with her body's capacity to heal itself and consciously applying the power of her mind. Graduated in professional theater, her passion and interests then turned towards becoming a holistic lifestyle coach, motivating her to complete various trainings in healthy eating, herbal and essential oil care, homemade natural products, energy healing, holistic consultation and applied metaphysics. As part of her new career path, she participated in several projects in the holistic wellness field, as well as in international cooperation, community development and intercultural exchange through local immersion trips in Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Florida and California. Today, she guides others on their path of self-knowledge, self-healing and self-realization by making natural lifestyle choices, cultivating empowering thought patterns/belief systems, and taking inspired action from the heart to consciously create the reality they desire to experience. 
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