What’s the excuse when all barriers are removed?
My story is a long one so I’ll synopsise why health matters to me. I have been cut from head to toe. From reconstructive surgery on my left orbit after a car accident, to open heart surgery to fix an aneurysm, and even toe surgery — I’m a “fixer upper”.
As you can imagine these experiences were detrimental to all four pillars of health, the physical, emotional, mental, and the spiritual, and my one fundamental learning from my experiences was that I didn’t just want to survive, I wanted to thrive. So gradually over time I have tried to put habits in place to achieve balance.
During these past weeks at home however, I have realised how far I have fallen out of balance and indulged poor habits! While some habits are omnipresent, others have fallen off the map completely. Now into the sixth week of quarantine (in Munich we started earlier!) I was on a call with friends and they asked me if I look after myself or work out regularly, and the unavoidable guilt set in — “no, um, no I don’t”.
So, it’s time to get some balance back and then perhaps I can emerge from this isolation a more balanced and healthy person again!
The four pillars of health
The Four Pillars have crossed my path many times, in university leadership courses, many books, through therapist or naturopath recommendations, and James Altucher often writes about increasing habits in each of them.
There seems to be an unspoken agreement that these are the pillars that make up each individual being, and can help us achieve balance and therefore happiness. They are called different things by different people, in many different philosophies, here’s how I define them and what they mean to me:
- The Physical pillar enables me to maintain power, endurance, and energy
- The Emotional pillar inspires healthy relationships, tolerance, and bonding
- The Mental pillar increases my ability to learn, concentrate, focus and retain knowledge
- The Spiritual pillar encourages me to pursue my personal mission and journey
The great thing is they can be defined by each of us. What do they mean to each individual? For some the spiritual pillar is religion, for an agnostic like me it refers to personal purpose and meditation. There is no wrong answer here. It’s up to each individual to define their own.
All four pillars of health must be nurtured to create balance
Finding balance and being healthy in each pillar is the real challenge, but luckily they can all be improved simultaneously, a little at a time, by building strong habits. Unlike Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the four pillars of health often overlap and each can be leveraged to regain energy and create balance again.
For example: if we feel mentally exhausted, we might compensate by going for a long walk and listening to music; if we feel emotionally stressed, we can read a book and enter another world; meditation can lead to emotional balance; mental stimulation (audible books) can help motivate us to run; yoga can help sustain a sitting posture for meditation, and so on and so on.
Habits are difficult to sustain
It is difficult to stay motivated when we our freedom is restricted, but this is when our health, in all four pillars, matters the most.
I confess, I used to be a rock star at creating balance, just a few core habits was all it took. Every day at a minimum I would complete the following:
- Physical — stretching by using previously learned yoga style postures, at a minimum the back bends to compensate for sitting at the computer all day
- Emotional — journaling to clear my mind by completing The Artist’s Way morning pages and contacting at least one person I love each day
- Mental — learning something new every day through reading articles, conducting research and discussion, or practising my writing
- Spiritual — meditation for even ten minutes each day to keep me present and focused on my goals
Even taking 40 minutes — 10 minutes in each pillar — every morning helps maintain balance and enables growth, learning, and expanded possibilities.
Yet, during this quarantine, I have realised that over time, in day-to-day life I have let some of these fantastic habits go. All the previous excuses and barriers like appointments, meetings and traveling that got in the way of my morning ritual are suddenly gone! The quarantine removed all distraction and highlighted my lost habits.
No more excuses!
So now I am revisiting these pillars, I am recreating healthy habits, and taking steps to reinstate them into my day. Every day.
“If you improve 1% a day, the ‘compounded abundance’ of those four pillars would make me improve 3800% a year — James Altucher
If this time at home has highlighted anything, it’s that we need to be kind to ourselves, kind to others, and value our health. Any combination of activity works as long as it resonates with us and creates balance in each pillar.
Nobody is perfect. We all fall out of balance sometimes, but it’s up to us to shake it off, step out of the “excuse” zone, and step forward into growth. Whatever that growth might be.
Wishing you a balanced day ahead.
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If you want to learn more about Meditation, I share articles in the GetCalmStayCalm publication. The “Daily Calm” program by CALM guides you through 10 minutes of mediation a day. This can also be a good place to start.
Instagram: @raj.hayer
