When my husband and I got married, we soon found out that we were having trouble getting pregnant. An amazing NaPro technology doctor helped me get to the bottom of my infertility, and my hormonal imbalance opened the door to the world of holistic living for me. This also happened when I had my first baby, and while choosing items for my registry, I found myself leaning toward labels like “natural,” “organic,” and “fragrance and dye free.”
When I started to realize the impact certain ingredients had on my overall health, I became a little obsessed with purchasing cleaner, greener and safer products for my home and family. There was good in this — I saw that I was living out Catholic social teaching by investing money in companies who were thinking more deeply about the impact our consumption has on the earth and ourselves. I was also trying to do small things to steward God’s creation well. But I also noticed my heart moving in a direction that was less than ideal: I had started to make an idol of holistic living.
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Without realizing it, I had started living as if holistic living might help me to escape the bodily sufferings that our mortal flesh is destined for. My attachment to holistic living also seemed to coincide with the cultural phenomena of transhumanism. If you have ever read about artificial intelligence, Neuralink or the movie “Limitless,” you may be familiar with this idea. Transhumanism is a philosophy that seeks to enhance the human condition physically and intellectually through varying technological advances and therapies. The popularity of this movement has created excesses in society, similar to how my own attachment to holistic living made an idol out of overcoming the suffering of this world in an effort to “transcend” our human existence.
And while some technological improvements can prove to be helpful in eradicating aspects of suffering in our humanity, the ethical dilemmas posed by believing we can transcend our own humanity and actually overcome the limits that mortality imposes on the human race put into question basic moral and ethical principles, namely that we could actually become like gods and transcend death. And when it came to holistic living, I found that I was thinking similarly.
Finding the balance
When I looked deeply at my preoccupation with more holistic living — or being “crunchy” as the cool kids say — I came to realize that I had made my earthly life an idol like the transhumanist. I was becoming convinced that if I just ate the right food, used the right products, avoided the toxins and had the right water filter, I could avoid suffering not just for myself but also for my children. I thought that the burden of responsibility fell on my shoulders to protect my children from all that could harm them, and living more holistically was my way to grasp at control and turn myself into God.
Now I want to be clear: There is a lot of merit in seeking to live more “whole” lives through consuming better food and using better products. I buy organic food, use some clean beauty products, and have my fair share of “non toxic” home care items. I’ve also seen how changing your lifestyle in this way can have massive effects on your health and day-to-day life.
The problem is not in holistic living but in the spirit that can so often undergird these choices, namely the deep desire to control and escape suffering and death.
I read an article by Edward Sri on gluttony, and he said something that blew me away. Oftentimes we think of gluttony as over eating, but he explained that any inordinate attachment to food — even being too attached to only eating organic food — can be a sign that gluttony has a hold on us.
Now, this doesn’t mean we need to jump to the opposite extreme and only eat what’s cheapest or easiest to get. It does mean we must become detached from those preferences we hold most tightly, especially when it might cause us to pass judgment on another’s choices or drive us to materialism and consumerism in the name of holistic living. “If I just get this new supplement,” “if I just have this brand of nontoxic cleaner,” or “if I just eliminate all of this (insert certain thing) from my diet,” then what? We will live forever? We will avoid all sickness and suffering? We will be perfectly happy?
I wouldn’t say I’m consciously having these thoughts when I’m choosing between two items at the grocery store, but when I’m honest with myself, I know that these thoughts are ruminating in my heart and soul in so many of the decisions I’m making daily.
Keeping our idols in check
It seems like “the internet” has placed this burden on us, particularly women and mothers, to make sure we are making every single right decision, doing all the research and knowing the full extent of every decision we make for ourselves and our children. We no longer can “trust the experts” but must now become the expert in every facet of our lives. That way, we won’t be made the fool when we find out one day that this product, medical treatment or food was actually harmful to our bodies.
But unsurprisingly, we are all going to die. We are all going to suffer. This is our inheritance from our first parents, what Jesus came to triumph over and transcend. But the Gospel message, the Good News, is that this life, our suffering, our death is not the end of the story. It is the way by which we come to live eternity with Our Lord and the means by which we ultimately are made holy and purified.
Does this mean we can’t care about what we put in and on our bodies? Of course not. But what it does mean is that we must be honest with ourselves and seek to reconcile those places where our hearts are holding fast to making an idol of our health to the detriment of our charity, generosity and submission to the will of God. Jesus was very clear that if our hand causes us to sin, we must cut it off. And I don’t know about you, but I think my hand is actually a pretty good and useful part of me. But Jesus meant what he said: Anything that keeps us from holiness, from him, has to go. And so we must wonder, is this keeping me from him? Is this an idol in my life? And if so, what should I do about it?
