The 4 Pillars of HEALTH: Well-Being of Body + Mind + Spirit + Social Relationships

The 4 Pillars of Health” with Ícaro Alves

The 4 Pillars of HEALTH - Body, Mind, Spirit and Social Relationships

Everyone wants to feel GOOD - “at the end of the day”, this is the main “goal” of all of us in life. Examples:

1️⃣ Some people want a lot of money to buy things that make them feel good.
2️⃣ Others help others because doing so makes them feel good.
3️⃣ There are also those who seek power and status as a means of this
4️⃣ And there are even those who strive to achieve and maintain an increasingly defined and strong body in order to feel good about themselves.

In other words, this Well-Being is the ultimate pursuit of every human being and here are its 4 basic components: feeling GOOD about the composition and functioning of your Body, your thoughts (your mind), your Spirit (Spirituality and relationship with God) and your social relationships (different groups of colleagues and friends with whom you have frequent contact); when you are happy and at peace with these 4 factors, all together and at the same time, you can boast of having HEALTH (according to the extended definition, based on WHO criteria). And understand that no one here is talking about perfection on these points, but rather about feeling good in each of these areas even with the small problems that they may present; for example, someone may feel good physically but have a problem walking; another may feel good mentally even though no one is free from memory lapses and occasional “bad” thoughts.

Well-being in these 4 areas (also called HEALTH) is the end, but at the same time it's the “means”: after all, we all need Health to be able to fight for what we want and enjoy success when we get it! Let's see: you can work hard to get the resources for that dream trip or buy that car: you'll need Health to be able to work hard and you'll also need it to enjoy the car and the trip, when you get them; in other words, Health is fundamental and becomes an important goal in the lives of all of us!

When one of these 4 areas “goes wrong”, it ends up damaging the others, compromising your well-being. For example, someone full of sad thoughts (with few friends/colleagues or a Christian feeling “estranged” from God) - When one of these 4 areas “goes wrong”, it ends up damaging the others, compromising their Well-Being. For example, someone full of sad thoughts (with few friends/colleagues or a Christian feeling “estranged” from God) is unlikely to perform at their best physically, someone who eats poorly may feel anxious more easily, etc.

Now look carefully at the picture:

✅ Health, as already explained, is at the intersection of the 4 factors = Well-Being of Body, Mind, Spirit and Social Relationships

If you focus too much on just ONE of these areas, you're certainly neglecting the others and you're unlikely to feel Healthy. - If your main focus “lies” (in the figure) on any point marked “!”, you still have your attention, time and energy expenditures polarized too much - you may have the “illusion” of Health, but this excessive polarization will soon damage the points you think are strong in your life.

If the intersection between the areas that have most deserved your efforts is a “!”, congratulations: you're almost there, in terms of Health BUT understand that “the rope always snaps at its weakest point”, “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” - in other words, correcting problems in the deficient area will be fundamental if you're not to be “pulled down” by it, towards illness.

Have you understood why real HEALTH is much more than just not feeling uncomfortable symptoms or illnesses? It's easier to get healthy when you know what it is: to achieve something, the first step is to KNOW it.