Infinity’s Integrative Practices for Healthy Living

What comes to mind when you think about integrative healthcare? Acupuncture and chiropractic? Massage, meditation, and health coaches?

Integrative healthcare is any traditional or modern wellness that considers your habits and lifestyle. When you practice integrative health, you aren’t focused on treating symptoms or finding solutions. Instead, you are building a sustainable lifestyle filled with healthy habits.

Because more than anything else, healthy living is a practice. One that starts with a strong foundation. At Infinity, we believe a clean and balanced diet, regular movement, and plenty of rest are foundational aspects of healthy living. And you can build on that foundation gradually with integrative practices that support your body, mind, and spirit.

At Infinity Flexibility, we believe that integrative practices are the key to a healthy and prosperous life. Continue reading for insights into how to create a strong foundation for better health and Infinity’s recommended integrative practices to support healthy living.

Healthy Living Foundation

Before you start building a healthy life, you need a strong foundation. At Infinity, that means balancing the essentials: diet, movement, and rest. 

Diet

The best diet isn’t rigid or limited. It doesn’t involve cutting carbs or never eating sugar again. In fact, the best diet is simply one that is sustainable, flexible, and intentional.

You need food to sustain yourself. At the very minimum, you will eat at least two to three meals a day for the rest of your life. The quality and quantity of food you eat inevitably influences your health – that’s just a fact.

So, a majority of your diet should contain whole, organic foods that nourish your body and mind. The more you clutter up your physical body with unhealthy foods like processed sugar and fast food, the less healthy you will feel.

We love the diet variation taught in the Pompa Program and also recommend the book Clean Eats by Alejandro Junger for clean, healthy recipes.

Movement

Regular movement is essential for a healthy life. However, let’s reframe what movement means. Intense and heavy exercise isn’t right for everybody. Each individual’s sustainable movement practice will look a little bit different.

The best way to find your ideal movement practice is to move intuitively. Try different types of exercise and mix it up regularly. Even if you’re someone who loves intense exercise like marathon running or heavy weight lifting, be sure to balance that with more nurturing practices like yoga and meridian stretching.

Low-intensity and low-impact exercise like walking or pilates can support a healthy body, mind, and spirit just as well as high-intensity, high-impact exercise. The most important thing is to remain active with some type of movement or exercise throughout your life.

Rest

The final (but not least) foundational component of a healthy lifestyle is rest. Rest includes a regular sleep schedule with a consistent bed and wake-up time, and also encompasses practices like slowing down and integration, which we will go into in more depth later in this article.

Today’s society prioritizes busyness and spurns relaxation. But if you want to live a healthy, balanced life, you need plenty of rest.

You need rest after powerlifting so the tears in your muscles heal and regrow stronger than before. You need rest after a particularly strenuous breakup to reevaluate your priorities and heal your emotional wounds. You need rest after inspiration to find the deeper meaning in your work. 

No matter who you are, how active, and how healthy you eat, rest is a basic foundational need of a healthy life.

Reflect on Your Foundation

Clean eating, regular movement, and plenty of rest are the foundation on which you build a healthy life. Without them, other integrative practices like massage, lymphatic drainage, and clean living aren’t sustainable.

So, before you dive into the practices in the latter part of this article, take a look at your healthy living foundations and reflect.

Diet

• Are you happy with your diet? 
• How do you feel after eating? 
• What types of meals make you feel better and which make you feel worse?

Movement

• Do you move every day, every other day, once a week, never? 
• Is your exercise supporting your health or making you feel worse?

Rest

• Do you allow yourself to rest when you’re tired? 
• What is your sleep schedule like?

Infinity’s Integrative Practices for a Healthy Lifestyle

Until you approach your health from an integrative perspective, your healthy practices won’t be sustainable. The real change comes when you turn health into a lifestyle and create sustainable habits that support your body, mind, and spirit.

These integrative practices – including lymphatic drainage, flexibility and strength training, and a clean environment – foster a deeper connection to your body, mind, and spirit so you can build a sustainable healthy life.

1. Lymphatic Drainage

Lymphatic drainage at Infinity is an integrative practice that supports your body’s natural detox systems and a strong immune system. The mechanical massage uses the Phyto5 biorhythmic drainer to improve the movement of lymph fluid throughout your body. It’s a gentle cupping-based approach that resets the lymphatic system after an illness or gives you a gentle vitality boost.

Infinity recommends quarterly sessions for detox or biannually in spring and fall. Phyto5 skincare products further enrich the experience, aligning with the five elements to rebalance and rejuvenate the physical and energetic body year-round. This comprehensive approach supports overall wellness, relieving muscle tension, stimulating circulation, and promoting relaxation for a healthier lifestyle.

2. Flexibility and Strength Training

Flexibility and strength training is a powerful integrative practice for a healthy lifestyle because it doesn’t only address physical imbalances. The connection to the meridians means that flexibility and strength training also influence the energetic body, correcting emotional, spiritual, and mental imbalances.

The flexibility and strength training exercises work the muscles along the meridian lines so you work with the body to counteract emotional imbalances like fear, grief, and worry. It combines knowledge from traditional Chinese medicine and modern resistance training techniques to build strength in your muscles and release any latent tension from injuries or energetic imbalances.

3. Clean Up Your Environment

Cleaning up your environment is an integrative practice that includes removing toxins and chemicals from your physical environment, and creating an environment that makes you feel emotionally, mentally, and spiritually supported.

First, look at your everyday products, from cleaning supplies and shampoo to clothing and laundry detergent. Step by step, replace products with harmful chemicals and toxins with more natural alternatives. Every product you use affects your physical health and a genuinely healthy lifestyle includes products that reflect your values. 

Second, look at how your environment supports you energetically. Create a home that makes you feel safe and nourished and surround yourself with people who love and support you unconditionally. Adopt healthy habits like daily meditation, journaling, and walks that make you feel happy, healthy, and excited about life.

Practice and Integration

The more you prioritize a solid foundation with diet, movement, and rest, the easier it will be for you to benefit from other integrative practices like lymphatic drainage, clean living, and flexibility and strength training.

But more than anything else, a healthy lifestyle requires practice and integration.

When you adopt an integrative approach to health, you tap into an ability that we call the quantum leap. You find a diet, type of movement, rest routine, or healthy habit that helps you leap forward and create massive changes in your life. Then, you plateau and hit the integration period.

Massive change is always followed by a time of integration. A time for you to slow down, reflect, and incorporate the practices into your daily life.

A lot of people fight against the integration period and try to continue building, building, building without time to rest. But without the plateau, you miss out on a valuable opportunity to reflect.

Work with Infinity Flexibility

Habits aren’t created in a day and it will take you even longer to create those habits if you beat yourself up every time you make a mistake. Remember to be gentle with yourself as you create a healthy lifestyle that supports your life and goals.

At Infinity, our goal is to support this long-term change. To give you practices that you can use every time you fall out of balance, and bring yourself back to health.

Want to work with Infinity to create a healthy lifestyle that supports your body, mind, and spirit?

We currently offer in-person services in Natick, MA. You can also join our newsletter if you’re interested in upcoming online services, including at-home strength and flexibility training exercises, workshops, and more!