Self-Development with the Four Pillars

In your life there are Four Major Aspects that encompass most if not all areas of your life. They are your Mind (Intelligence, Mindset, and Autodidactism), Body (Exercise/Physique, Nutrition, Health), Spirit (Soul/Atman, Meditation/Prayer, or personality), and Emotions (EQ, Compassion, and Introspection)

Of course there can be some overlaps, in fact that is the basis for this ideology: the fact that they overlap go greatly. As well as there can be other matters such as social, existential (separate from Spirit).

Overall there is a deep inter-connectivity between all Pillars, and understanding this will allow you to progress your Self-Development much more effectively!

#1 Changing Your Mindset (Mind Pillar)

Intelligence:

A lot of your Intelligence is going to be genetics, but you certainly can increase it with practice, deliberate studying, and autodidactism in general.

There are some studies that say that playing a musical instrument for example can increase your IQ by up to 5 points. Generally speaking most IQ tests can be much of a sham, but if you look at it as a generalist perspective intelligence is simply a level up system. You can level up your life, more specifically your brain!

Mindset:

Your view on the world, current environment, or even your life itself is your mindset. How you react, process, and take in information. This is a pivotal point here, your mindset can make all the difference on how all of your Pillars behave, and are developed. If you have a poor mindset, you will not go anywhere, you need to develop a strong Self-Development mindset to truly grasp all the philosophy here, and how to apply it to your life. #growthmindset

Autodidactism (Self-Learning):

This is a key point as well, your ability to learn does not diminish with age, and in fact it may even be easier simply due to the availability of knowledge.

Think about it every subject you could ever want to know about is free online. You can learn anything you want, yes youth have an easier time learning, but you have the cognition to understand it more.

Use the opportunity in front of you to learn a new language, study music, or even just learn about Self-Development itself!!

#2 Sculpting Your Physique (Body Pillar)

Exercise:

Come on now you had to have seen this coming. YES exercise, the great method of developing yourself. Many people already do this, though sadly this is the ONLY Self-Dev they do, and that is not satisfactory.

You need to realize that the body is a temple, as they say, and that you must take care of it or it will go in shambles. Many people wait until late in life before they start, by then it has already taken it’s toll. Though if you start early and go too hard, your body will react accordingly as well. Keep it progressive, and conducive to growth, not build muscle quickly. Nothing great has come from rushing.

Nutrition:

You are what you eat, and that saying actually has a lot of merit. What you eat constitutes the stuff encompassing your body, and you can greatly suffer for a poor diet, though you can also greatly benefit from a healthy intake.

Eat right, and you will feel right.

Health:

Everybody hits a wall in their life. “It ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep MOVING FORWARD!” -Rocky

Some people are in an accident, get sick, didn’t take care of their body or mind, or even just simply had bad luck. All in all if you are in a situation like this do not let it define you. You have much more capacity than you realize, even if you have something as bad as cancer.

“It is not the strongest, nor the smartest who survive, it is the ones most adaptable to change.” -Darwin

#3 Developing Your Personality (Spirit Pillar)

Soul/Atman:

Your Soul is what you make it out to be, I won’t be the one to tell you what to believe or practice. Religion can be a great method to develop one’s self, but it can also be blind faith that actually is harmful for your life. This is up to you to decide however.

Your body is the physical embodiment of your soul, with your mind being the manifestation. If it is weakened it will obviously impact your other Pillars because of this fact.

Meditation/Prayer:

This is a practice that has many benefits for all the Pillars, but it can be said that it mainly pertains to spirituality. It is a workout for the brain, it can be a method of introspection, but first and foremost it is the connect between your conscious mind to your subconscious. Which could be perceived as a soul.

Personality:

Your personality is the culmination of all these things talked about here today, and how it forms an appearance to other people. As well as it appears to you, that is all it is really. Habits. What you do in and out of the spotlight continuously.

The best thing I can say is to be compassionate to others, and that will reflect on your personality the best out of any habit.

#4 Cultivating Your Feelings (Emotions Pillar)

Emotional Intelligence or “EQ”:

How you understand emotions is a greatly determining factor in how you will or will not be successful in life. Many great employers actually care more about your ability to work well with others, and your emotional intelligence, than they do on your IQ or skill.

You develop this by practicing new skills in the social field, talking to new people, exposing yourself to different mindsets or lives, and most of all understanding the emotional empathy of humanity.

Compassion:

The world only spins when people cause it to do so, and it stops flowing if there is no compassion. (Figuratively of course) That is why societal progress slows, or even stops, when there is a lack of understanding of others. When the empathy of the kind hearts are not enough, as it takes a global level of compassion to make a change of any sort of great magnitude.

Meaning in order to change the world there needs to be compassion. Not just around you, but within yourself as well.

Introspection:

You have to know where you have come from in all manners to understand where you are headed. Recognizing your past is the key to figuring out your future. In order to do so you need to reflect on yourself, and your life. This corresponds greatly with the meditation of the Mind and Spirit Pillars.

#5 Putting It All Together (Four Pillars of Life)

The big picture here is that your life is complicated, and there are a lot of moving parts that lead to a cohesive whole. They all work intrinsically together, and against each other. Understanding both, and realizing when it is happening in your life is the pinnacle of Self-Development.

I hope that this article today helps you on your journey through the trials and tribulations of life, and that you may click that applaud button due to sheer joy! :D