Imbuing the Four Pillars Philosophy into Your Life
The FOUR PILLARS PHILOSOPHY
Life is a Journey
Mastering different aspects of life can be a difficult task, and can be quite daunting at first to attempt. We are here to make that transition into making a change in your life easier. Here we will explain each of the Four Pillars and how they work. Each with two ways you can get started improving and maintaining them!
Take a Look at Yourself
We have here a bowl, and this bowl is a representation of your life right now. It is filled with water about a fourth of the way, and this represents the knowledge you have accumulated thus far. It has a rock and leaf in there as well, which represents the blocks in life that you have had experienced. Mastering yourself, or develop your Four Pillars is not only the cleansing of the water in your bowl, but the flow of new water into it as well.
This is where the Four Pillars Philosophy of our Self-Development tier fits into place.
The Four Pillars are the aspects of life that pertain to you as an individual, and if you were to focus on improving said Pillars then you would improve your life inherently.
The Four Pillars of Life
Body Pillar | The Physical Side of Life:
Each time you set outside you are leaving the sanctity of your home and letting yourself be exposed (unsafe) in the world. This is very good and will be the starting point of this philosophy. Taking that first step into the unknown you have no idea what could occur to your body, rather it be a falling piano, or a bee sting. Taking that chance is the beauty of life, and being able to respond to those situations is what makes us human. Our body has amazing capabilities.
Increasing our physical prowess is key to surviving in this world, we live in a world of technology and innovation (although not enough of both!). Yet we still have need to maintain our precious bodies and keep them working like a well oiled machine. This means understanding proper nutrition and challenging the body in new ways for it to grow.
The physical form you now encompass and move in is your machine. The machine you control on a daily basis, and one that must be maintained and fueled. Your brain might need this too, which is why there is such a strong connection between the two, but the sheer size comparison between the brain and body truly illuminates the importance of building your body to be strong. Feeding it nutrient dense foods, and proper aids.
Working out on a regular basis is the simplest and most effective way to increase your physical health. Working out increases your metabolism, muscle strength, overall balance, and much more!
Mind Pillar | Power of the Mind:
Your mind is a powerful machine cranking out petaflops of data every day, more than likely even more than that. The billions of neurons in your brain have made countless connections, and opening up new pathways everyday. Scientists have discovered that when one part of the brain fails, the rest will create new neurological pathways to compensate, and may even be more efficient. Savants come from this type of mental behavior.
You can train your brain to be even stronger, many people compare it to a muscle, the strongest in your body. Sadly many people fail to realize this and never train it to be better. Brain training (or “Braining” which is how we like to call it) has been around for a while, and many famous polymaths like Tesla, Franklin, and Da Vinci all trained themselves to be smarter by reading mainly! Reading increases your knowledge base, and gives you the experience and learning from someone’s entire life up to that point. Very profound idea and one well worth picking up a book.
Puzzle solving, communication, instruments, or any kind of mental test can increase your IQ (Intelligence Quotient). Using this we can look towards new ways of increasing our mind’s capabilities!
The fundamental aspect of your life, and the base form of yourself above anything else. Without your mind there is no you truly. Even your spirit retains some different nature than the person you are right now. Your emotions may fluctuate, but your inner mindset generally stays the same. Slow to change and even slower to learn new habits. Your mind is a brilliant machine, capable of monumental feats, and controls the most ingenious device known to man…. your brain.
Spirit Pillar | Spirituality in Heart:
Your spirituality is your own choice with it’s own pros/cons for that decision. Many religions can improve your life, but they can also blindside you from different aspects of life. Spirituality is far different from religion, as it tends to deal with your inner being. Most religious people of the modern world tend to ignore that side of themselves, at least with some western religions. This is not to say that any religion is bad or at fault!
Simply due to the overwhelming world we have created it has made people believe that simply going to church, or celebrating Ramadan, etc. will bring them closer to their true selves. These actions CAN bring you to how you feel in your heart, but only if you choose to let it in. Even Atheism has basis in spirituality, and many atheists have found the inner connection even easier than a religious person believe it or not! This simply comes down to the way you approach the situation and if some belief is the way you think you can do it, then more power to you.
The point to this is understanding how your soul impacts your decisions, your life, and everything around you. Whether you believe in Chakras, Guardian Angel, Hungry Ghosts, or something in between there is a point to developing the Spirit Pillar.
Look within and for some practice try some simple meditation. It harmless and anybody from any religion can meditate without disobeying their belief system. I.e. Plenty of Christians and Muslims meditate regularly!
The inner being that you feel to be yourself, is the precursor to your personality. Who you are ever meant to be is the avatar of your spirit. No matter what your belief system is please take a moment and ponder that thought. Are you an angel in human form (Judaeo-Christian), a hungry ghost desperately wanting to escape (Buddhism, Hindu, etc.), or even a reincarnation of a deity (Hindu)?
The way I like to see it is that you are connecting with the lower levels of the mind, the subconscious if you will.
Emotions Pillar | Emotional Waves:
Emotions are akin to oceanic waves, flowing in and out of your body. Some you can stop, and some you must simply swim with down the flow. The audacity that some people think that you can simply ignore your emotions is ridiculous. No matter what your discipline we are human beings, we are hardwired to experience emotions, and that is what makes us people. Our level of communication isn’t just verbal, for our emotions play a large role in non-verbal communication. When giving a speech only about 7% of what is received is purely verbal, the rest is all in the face or body language.
An embodiment of the before mentioned water, fluid in it’s wake, and tranquil in it’s state of motionless. Buddhism ideals pertain to the latter, i.e. a zen-like state. Emotions are meant to be felt and experienced. Without this we are not the people we are meant to, and the world around us would cease to make sense. Emotions are the foundation of human development and growth. Empathy is the true nature of people, and emotions are the product of empathy.
Think about that for a moment.
That means that no matter how much you control your mindset, or composure there is always something that is going to give you away. Your emotions have a profound impact on your life too. With each of the Four Pillars being highly interconnect, but none more than the Emotional Pillar. All of the others effect it, and it effects all of the others more so. This means out of all of them this Pillar should be the one with the most constant attention.
Find something that makes you feel strongly, it can be a song, a memory, maybe even an action. I want you to really feel that action, take a deep breath, and analyze why this effects you so much. Why does it impact your mindset and emotions so much? Does it make you feel physically good, relaxed? Does it resonate into your soul? That is the interactions between different Pillars at its finest. It does not matter how this happens, but it does matter if you sense this happening. You have to feel it deep down to truly understand.
Why does it take so much to feel this way? It really just takes a change of mindset to experience things different, ever hear “High on life” thrown around? For some people it can be very true, and can be a drive to the ends of the Earth. Live life to the fullest and to do so you must develop the aspects of life that YOU experience.
Tune your body to be more reactive and capable, tweak your soul to be compassionate and open, master your emotions so that they do not cloud you, and take control of your mind to assimilate all of the above.
This is the Journey you are on right now
Embrace it! Challenge yourself! Take everything you do to the next level, and pursue any goal you have. The reason this philosophy was created was in order to pursue the goals of every individual, by giving them the tools to make themselves the best they could be. Be the best version of you, that you can be!
Be one cohesive being, with all manners of life working uniquely as one.
Take this moment and realize that you are in this moment, right now, you are in the present. You might as well enjoy it.