True Wellness Isn’t Achievable Without Care Policy

Keisha Blair's journey towards embracing her well-being began in the way it does for many of us—with an event that stops us in our tracks. In Blair’s case, it was the heart-wrenching and untimely death of her husband. Despite feeling unwell, he remained at his desk, fulfilling his professional responsibilities until it was too late.

Blair had just given birth to their second child eight weeks prior, and she had a three-year-old at home. Her experiences as a new mother grieving the loss of her husband propelled her to advocate for a societal and policy shift towards valuing individuals' well-being over corporate profit margins. In 2019, she coined the term “Holistic Wealth” with the release of her book, Holistic Wealth: 32 Life Lessons To Help You Find Purpose, Prosperity and Happiness. In addition to being an author, she’s the founder of the Institute on Holistic Wealth, host of the Holistic Wealth Podcast, and a trained economist who, at one point, worked for Canada’s Prime Minister. When she released the book’s second edition, she dubbed April 9th Global Holistic Wealth Day.

Central to Blair's message is the notion of resilience—not merely as the ability to bounce back from adversity but as a holistic approach to well-being. She discovered this during a transformative sabbatical, where she delved into self-care practices like meditation, nature walks, and healthy living. Through introspection and healing, Blair realized that holistic wealth encompasses financial stability, mental clarity, emotional balance, and alignment with one's purpose.

The message resonates deeply with those of us who have experienced the toll of neglecting our well-being for the sake of professional success. Below is our conversation, edited for length and clarity, covering the importance of embracing a healthier, more sustainable approach to living—a path that not only safeguards against burnout but also fosters true fulfillment and authenticity—and why individuals can’t do this alone. Our chat ends with a series of recommendations that meld her various experiences to offer a blueprint for how policymakers and organizations can spare more families from enduring the same tragedy as Blair’s.

Julia Craven: Your journey toward holistic wealth began, unfortunately, with the death of your husband. Could you tell us about that moment?

Keisha Blair: My husband started dying at work. He was a financial manager, and a line of staff was relying on him that day to check their work. He kept working and decided to visit the emergency room only after his workday ended. Unfortunately, he didn't make it to the hospital in time. By this time, his tumor was bleeding. He wasn't in pain, but he might have felt just a tightening in his tummy—that’s what the doctors said to me. But because we're all taught to stay in our desks and work through anything, he stayed there, and he died three hours later in the emergency room, leaving a whole generation behind.

At that point, they still didn't know what killed him—and we didn’t know he’d been sick. So, they assembled a team of experts from the United States and Canada*. It became a medical mystery, but it turned out to be pheochromocytoma, a very rare illness. Most doctors will never see a living case of it in their lifetime, only in textbooks—that's what the chief coroner on the case told me. He said that even though it’s taught in medical school, most doctors will never see a living case of it. [1]

His death is why I emphasize that we absolutely need to be in a society and economy where people are valued. We need to take a step backward and reflect on this for a moment. We're moving in an unsustainable way. From a policy perspective, we need to enable and empower people to put their mental and physical health first. But from an economic perspective, when we talk about profit and power, hungry corporations, a lot of them have a different mentality.

We have a responsibility to the next generation to ensure that we're more resilient in different ways. When I started Global Holistic Wealth Day, I thought about the millions of workers who make life-and-death decisions every single day without knowing it. My husband made a life-and-death decision right in that instant without even knowing it. Why? Because that mentality is ingrained in us: even when you feel ill, you work through it. Even when you feel like you need to get up and run, you work through it. And he worked through it till the end of the day until he died.

It’s important for me to get this message out there because our family has paid the price. How many other families will pay the price before we act, before we realize that our human resources are the most vital thing?

What has it been like to create language around holistic wealth? It’s a term that intuitively makes a lot of sense, but if you walk up to someone and ask them, “What does holistic wealth mean?” It might take them a second to put the pieces together. So, how did you put those pieces together to come up with this all-encompassing term?

It came organically through my experience of having gone through this grief process and trying to find meaning again and purpose in the world. And when I took a one-year sabbatical, I had a lot of “aha!” moments. I started taking the time to heal and build my resilience muscles so that I could come back and contribute to the world in a significant way. Each of the principles became very clear to me as I was going through this process. The reason why I was able to take that sabbatical was because I had the financial piece; I had planned ahead. I'm glad that I was able to do that. But then I realized it's not just about the money.

It's about my health, and my mental state, my emotional well-being. How do I get that back after this adversity? I started meditating, tuning into my intuition, praying, and doing all of these pieces that build our mental strength while on sabbatical. I was connecting with nature, doing nature walks, hiking 800 feet above sea level, and deep in the bowels of nature. It became clear to me that nature was there to enrich us, to strengthen us. I was also eating healthy, organic food, and, as I outlined in the book, everything just became so clear that to have resilience, to master the art of recovery from disruption, we need this framework. And so, when I finished my sabbatical, I went back to Canada [from Jamaica], and I wrote this viral article about my husband dying at age 34. That's when holistic wealth took shape.

You talked about building resilience, and I think that's such a critical thing. The way that you put it, it seems like it wasn't just resilience, but it was how to be resilient in a way that's healthy. For Black women, in particular, we're resilient. That's not the question, right? But we know—and research backs this up—that resilience doesn't always manifest in ways that are healthy for us. We mask, and we’re weathered. Why is it so important to be mentally strong in a healthier way?

We see a lot of this in our society where we're all going on these treadmills just like a hamster in a hamster wheel. Just going and going, and we think we're resilient. It's kind of like this facade, but being resilient in a healthy way helps you to connect and align with who you really are, to your purpose, to your life's mission. It opens up a whole other world of authenticity and acceptance. I feel like a lot of us do what we do because we're told, “Go climb the corporate ladder; go be successful the way society says you should be successful.” But healthy resilience comes from a place of integrity, and it's allowing ourselves to feel and to genuinely be who we want to be and to show up how we want in this world. And if it means we have to sacrifice some of that, then it's okay.

That's what this framework is saying to all of us. It's okay if you don't want to stand up by society's yardstick of what success is. Of course, we want to be financially healthy, and of course, we want to have economic security. We need that, but we also need to be in a place where we can be healthy and mentally sound, where we can show up in the world to be who we really are supposed to be, to give our gifts to the world in an authentic way.

Earlier you mentioned stress, which is something that we talk a lot about at the Better Life Lab. It’s overwhelming to deal with life sometimes—whether it's personal matters like a death in your family or financial matters like trying to stay housed. Life can be stressful, and it has these really defined effects on our health and wellbeing. Why is it important to find ways to manage?

Something I did during the grief process was ask myself: How can I enrich myself today? What are the things that are enriching me versus depleting me? And for the things that are depleting me, how can I minimize those or even get rid of them? In the book, I outlined the Holistic Wealth Method, which I developed to describe how to enrich your holistic wealth bank account every single day with decisions that enrich you, not deplete you.

When we think about burnout and stress, it's all about minimizing the depletions and building up what enriches us. I found that getting out in nature was healing for me. I got so many answers doing that. I always say holistic wealth is intentional by design. The tiny, intentional steps that I had to take on that path of holistic healing, especially in a time of crisis, are the steps that I'd advise people to take today as daily self-care measures. So you prevent that burnout and you minimize the stress.

The things that seem little are actually quite important. A lot of times, on social media especially, people tend to get too caught up in the weeds of having the perfect routine or an optimal workout. Or, they veer to the other side and make fun of having a ritual, saying it isn't necessary and that it's silly. I think that what you and a lot of other people are starting to talk about is how it’s both. It's right in the middle. Don't get too caught up on being perfect or aesthetic, but you can't brush off these little moments that we have for ourselves, either.

As you were talking, I was thinking about the decision my husband made at work. He made that decision under extreme stress and duress. But it was a decision, and it cost him his life. That's why it is so important for everyone to be more mindful about the decisions that we're making, even when they seem insignificant. It could be that life-threatening. It could be. And I think about that all the time, as you can imagine, because prior to me talking about this and writing this book and becoming more aware—I probably would've done the same thing. Who knows?

I’ve made the same decision, and I'm grateful that it didn't have as big of a repercussion as losing my life. I have chronic migraines, and I can't think of how many I have suffered through at work. Three or four years ago, I kept pushing until I hit a breaking point. My health was flailing. Eventually, the stress broke me, and I didn't really have a choice but to figure out how to be well. I hope no one ever hits that point, but unfortunately, a lot of people do. What is your advice to them?

I hit that point, too, and that's why I had to update this book. I was working for the Prime Minister. I was flying around doing briefings as part of a supporting delegation. This was after my husband died. I had a high-stress job, and I had to pull back. I was like you, Julia. I had hit that point. I kept pushing through this back pain, not knowing I had a crack in my spine. I worked through it and traveled for 10 days around the world working.

It stopped me in my tracks. I didn't have a choice but to stop. If you're in that position, you have to hit the brakes. They’re going to be hit for you anyway, so you might as well do it yourself before you’ve gone over the cliff. Sometimes, we get into a position where there's no turning back with our health again. It's not like you can just say, “Okay, health, come back! I'm going to be better now. Trust me!” Sometimes, the damage is irreversible.

We have to take time to heal, to figure out what's going on with ourselves, and how we want to live the rest of our lives. A lot of this has to do with going inward and taking inventory. What have I been doing that has led me to this point? How can I move forward in a more sustainable way? One that's going to help me thrive in life and not crash? I think a lot of us know once we ask ourselves those questions, we’ll see that we’ve been neglecting our health—even when our body has said it is time to stop.

I'll be honest: I enjoyed doing that type of policy work, and it was a tremendous honor to work and be effective at such a high level, but I paid a price. And most of us will pay a price. We have to figure out if the price is too great. Most times, it is. So, how do we move forward from here?

We’ve talked in-depth about stepping back from work and how money isn't everything, even though it is quite important. But many people work in low-wage jobs with inflexible scheduling. Where does the child care worker or the service worker fit within the holistic wealth framework, and how is your advice applicable to them?

In my book Holistic Wealth Expanded and Updated, I have an entire chapter on the Holistic Wealth Development Index. It encompasses a model for societal and individual resilience as part of the art of recovery from disruption. It provides a framework for applying a holistic wealth lens to our decision-making. It takes into consideration the necessary supports that are required for individuals to be able to achieve Holistic Wealth even in the face of setbacks and adversity. Every organization and government agency should apply the Holistic Wealth lens to worker support and well-being.

Parents can't access holistic wealth if, after returning to work from maternity, paternity, or other types of leave, their careers stagnate since that stagnation could lead to poverty. [2] In a modern society, there's still no form of recognition for the work of child-care giving in the home. Worse yet, we allow single moms to navigate child care, their careers, and trying to earn a living without adequate support. In my book, I discuss the "Triple Helix" for women. My approach includes a list of Holistic Wealth functionalities—and the idea that societies that embrace Holistic Wealth for all embrace these opportunities for individuals without humiliation and loss of dignity.

For example, after a chronic illness, widowhood, or divorce at an early age, a young woman with young children may have to choose between a career and affordable child care, and if she chooses the latter, she is then cut off from career advancement and salary progression which robs her of basic dignity. This is an example of a choice against holistic wealth that women face every day. Another tragic choice is choosing between leisure time and earning a decent living—and we wonder why there's a mental health crisis.

The Institute on Holistic Wealth can also help with applying the Holistic Wealth lens to all policies and practices. This includes applying a financial resilience indicator across the population. If the majority of the population isn't financially resilient, then it's a serious problem that needs to be fixed.

What could organizations, business leaders, and policymakers do to ensure equitable access to holistic wealth for people without financial privilege?

To address inequities, organizations, leaders, and policymakers can implement several strategies. They can offer comprehensive benefits such as healthcare, paid time off, and retirement plans to all workers, including in low-wage sectors. The tax system should be optimized to give additional income support for certain individuals who earn below a certain amount and have childcare responsibilities. They should never suffer a financial penalty.

They can invest in education and training programs to empower workers to upskill and advance in their careers, creating pathways to higher-paying positions. They can provide affordable and high-quality childcare options for workers, enabling parents to pursue employment opportunities without financial strain. Also, supporting the formation of unions and worker advocacy groups to amplify the voices of low-wage workers and advocate for their rights and interests. Allocating resources to support community development initiatives—such as affordable housing, transportation infrastructure, and access to healthcare and education to enhance overall well-being and economic mobility—would help, too.

By implementing these recommendations, we can create a more equitable society where everyone has the opportunity to achieve holistic wealth, regardless of their financial background or the nature of their work. When we fail to apply a holistic wealth lens, we result in failed policies that undermine individual abilities to be financially resilient and achieve Holistic Wealth.

Footnotes:

[1] Blair and her husband lived in Canada, where Blair still resides.

[2] The United States is alone among advanced nations in having no paid maternity or paternity leave. One in four new birthing parents, many of them in low-wage professions, return to work within two weeks.