Four Pillars Philosophy (Definition)

The Four Pillars philosophy is a Self-Development concept I created out of over a decade of introspection and philosophy research. There are four major aspects of life one must take care of, and maintain the balance between each of them.

BODY | MIND | SPIRIT | EMOTIONS

Some may see the similarities to other philosophies throughout the world, such as the four yoga's, holy trinity, or even the eight fold path. However I wanted to leave true religion out of this context, and open it up to people of all kinds of belief systems (or lack there of).

What matters most is that you #makeachange in your life. Regardless if you are a spiritual person or not. There is an inherent importance to spirituality, but I can also define to some people in a scientific manner.

Each Pillar constitutes a major area of your life, and one crucial concept is that they are all interconnected. One Pillar can have a dramatic impact on another, and from my experience it seems that some Pillars are more strongly connect to some more than others.

Note: I will be ammending each section based off of knowledge I have gained since the original post's inception. In essence expanding this documentation.

Mind Pillar

The driving force behind your person, and what you are using right now to learn this knowledge. Without it we would be meat husks, ready to be eaten. However we are fascinating beings of powerful thoughts, and true compassionate thinking.

How we approach our brain is often decided for us with school work, and through our parent's teaching. Although in my experience I was not so lucky with both of those, and only truly found knowledge and learning to be the amazing thing that it is after teaching myself.

Now you can have someone teach you, the ways of improving your brain functions. Optimizing, as well as maximizing potential, of the neurological processes.

Note: These are the logically brained people, the ones with book smarts, and good grades. The ones who pursue the intellectual endeavors.

Body Pillar

The meat sack that I spoke of before, and for some it may be hard/ others not so much. Regardless of your starting point you do that the potential for great physical development.

Out of all the Pillars this can be one of the easiest or hardest, but you can find the most information on it out there in the world. Self-Development is a flooded niche on the internet. You'll find something! Hopefully though you won't have to look much farther than this site!

Generally it comes down to habits, and utilizing the muscles in the most efficiently tiring way possible.

Note: We are literally machines, and they need fuel just like any other. Taking care of your machine is a priority for the basis of being able to pursue other Pillars. Without it you can't do anything very easily, if at all. Think of exercise like putting WD-40 on your joints.

Spirit Pillar

The internal flame of your existence, or in a more logical sense the underlying energy behind your actions. Whether or not you believe that the energy comes from some ethereal source, or some manifestation of your sub-conscious; It is a fact that there is something that acts like a driving force in our lives. Science has yet to truly grasp it, but I hope that through this philosophy of why it is important. That maybe one of you may be the person to discover the truth.

Spirituality is simply being connected, for some of you that may be with God, and for some I like to think of it as bridging the conscious mind with subconscious. That is the purpose of meditation in my opinion.

Note: I often explain the Spirit Pillar as the bridge between the conscious mind, and the sub-conscious mind.

Emotions Pillar

One of the most elusive Pillars for most people it seems, and can be considered the EQ (emotional quotient) of the philosophy.

How you level up this Pillar, is by not only taking advantage of your progress from other Pillars into this one. Or by working on your own empathy and compassion.

Nowadays with all the terrible things going on there is hope that more compassion is growing, but I believe that it only will if we choose to become that more compassionate person. With true effort put forth.

Note: Understanding your own emotions, as well the emotions of others.

In all of my writings I have a habit of writing the Pillars in that order ^^, and I realize now that I think that was for a reason. It wasn't just the fact that I remember them in that manner, but that is also generally how many people should approach Self-Development itself as well.

Allowing you to scale up your regimen, and habits into capable systems of action. Preventing some levels of laziness, and incorporating the subroutines of the brain to take over some layers of needing to remember to work on skills/habits.

Note: I do say here that this is the order I think that people should pursue them in. Both for ease of getting started, and on the trajectory it would be more efficient this way IMO.

However I have talked to a lot of people about this philosophy, and it came to my attention that not everyone starts with the more basic of the four. Those being mind and body, for some choose a spiritual path, and others master their emotions before anything else. I would argue it is a lot harder that way, but it can be done. For some it may be the only way given their circumstances.