Six Pillars of Wellness - My Framework To Simplify Health
A healthy state goes beyond the absence of illness. It is a combination of physical, mental, spiritual and emotional wellbeing so I truly believe in a holistic approach to wellness that integrates the whole being.
That’s why I created my framework, which I called Six Pillars of Wellness:
Diet
Diet is at the base; it’s very root chakra and amongst our basic needs. There’s an Ayurvedic proverb I love that says, “when diet is wrong, medicine is of no use; when diet is right, medicine is of no need”. During our process of transformation, we should do the emotional work, the yoga, the meditation, etc. But if we’re doing this work and then devouring a family-sized bucket of KFC, that will only take you so far. We need to be mindful of what we’re putting in our bodies. What kind of food, what kind of energy, of mana, what kind of life force we are putting in to support that shift.
Eating well doesn't have to be complicated! In essence, it means returning to a whole, unrefined diet filled with fresh fruit, vegetables and whole, unprocessed grains. I don’t believe in restrictive diets or calorie counting. So you’ll see that, on my coaching, there’s no focus on the amount of food you eat but rather on the quality of it. We just need to start looking for that wholeness in everything we do, including the foods we eat.
Exercise
It’s no news that regular physical activity is important for health, longevity, and disease prevention.
Exercise increases oxygen capacity, bone density (especially for weight-based exercises). It raises good cholesterol, lowers blood pressure and has been shown to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease by 50%! But the benefits don’t stop here: it also increases your lean body mass and resting metabolic rate, strengthens the immune system and improves sleep quality.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to train for a marathon to be physically active. Every flight of stairs and lunchtime walk counts. Regardless of which type of exercise you prefer, physical activity will also support your emotional wellness, reducing anxiety and depression, whilst releasing endorphins ("feel-good" hormones).
Sleep
Maintaining adequate amounts of quality sleep is critical to optimal health and wellbeing. During the sleep state is when memory consolidation occurs, which is essential for learning new information. It’s also whilst we sleep that hormones, which help regulate appetite control, metabolism and other bodily functions are released. Internal organs rest and recover, tissue repair, muscle growth and protein synthesis primarily occur during sleep.
All these critical activities occur during the sleep state but good quality of sleep also increases your energy levels, strengthens your immune system, improves mood and heightens your alertness, focus, and creativity.
Sleep deprivation can be one of the root causes for weight gain, increased risk of chronic disease, decline in cognitive function and increased anxiety.
Stress
During an emergency situation, your body will activate a stress response that is perfectly natural and healthy. However, if your body is constantly getting stress signals for everyday issues (such as work-related anxiety), you’ll burn out over time.
When your body goes into panic mode, the sympathetic nervous system is activated to protect you from stress and your brain triggers the adrenal glands to secrete glucocorticoid hormones, like cortisol and epinephrine. After the initial stress response, your body attempts to return to its stable state. But when your stress reactions are too strong or triggered too often, your body will remain on high alert. As a result of this constant stress, your body builds up a resistance and tolerance to coexist with continuous stressors.
This extended release of stress hormones has adverse effects on your body, lowering your immunity defences and making you more susceptible to illness. This eventually leads to burnout when not addressed. Just as the sympathetic nervous system turns on the “fight or flight response”, the parasympathetic nervous system turns it off. It helps the body conserve energy and rest and therefore it’s essential that we identify which stress coping mechanisms can help our bodies return to a state of homeostasis after a trigger.
Emotions
We all build up feelings and resentments for things that happened in our lives that were very painful. For most people, the scars of negative experiences are hard to heal.
To different extents, we all carry our past around and, because of the way our brains work, this is true especially for negative events.
This emotional baggage we carry from what happened in our past, affects our decision-making in the present and ultimately affects our future. This is why we can’t factor emotions out from a truly integrated healing process. Both positive and negative emotions can change gene activity. By processing our emotions, we can reinvent our future in alignment with who we are as spiritual beings.
Even if we don’t need to heal from our past, we all want to be happy.
Our wellbeing is heavily dependent upon our happiness. So it’s important to recognise that we play the most important part in ensuring that we live happy lives. If we want to reinforce this feeling of happiness, we need to practice gratitude towards the good things that we have in our lives. The more you practice gratitude the more you realise how many things you have to be grateful for and this will create a massive shift in your personal reality.
Spirituality
The concept of spirituality is difficult to explain, but for me it’s linked to meaning and purpose. The joy I feel when I’m aligned with my principles, and how connected I feel to what’s around me. For you it might be linked to a religion and that is fine. For many people it means to be connected to something bigger than ourselves.
Spiritual strength may set the stage for the recovery of good health. This is important because it shows us that everything is interconnected. You know you belong to this world and you serve a purpose for being on Earth. A study on Blue Zones highlighted that having a sense of purpose is related to increased longevity. Spirituality also brings us a different perspective on the events of our lives. It allows us to be more accepting and kind and that can increase our happiness, self-love and ultimately support our health.
