SEVEN PILLARS OF HEALTH
Health is based on a hierarchy of basic needs, starting with the Spirit, or inner body, and ending with the physical body. In order for health to be able to be present at any one level, the lower levels must be balanced and healthy. Health is not merely the absence of disease, but a state of spiritual, mental, emotional and physical well-being.
Established western medicine only deals with the physical body aspect. Therefore health, once lost, is difficult to regain because the problem is usually at a lower level in the hierarchy than the physical body. However, through alternative medicine, one can identify where in the hierarchy, the imbalance occurs that brings on disease, fix the imbalance, and the body can heal and regain health.
Representation of a Person1
Passenger: Inner self or spirit Driver:
Intellect or mind
Horse: Emotion
Carriage: Physical Body
In this representation, the spirit, or inner self determines the direction in life that the person travels. If it is the person’s spiritual purpose to have certain experiences, then there is nothing the conscious mind or an outside person, such as a doctor, can do to change that direction. In other words, we are the captains of our fate, and no one else. The passenger, or inner self, tells the intellect, or mind of the person, what to do to achieve its purpose. Now the mind attempts to drive the carriage, but there is one factor he has to contend with–the emotion. Emotion is represented by the horse. We can point him in the direction we want to go, but that doesn’t always mean he is going to do our bidding. Often he can carry us in a direction we have no plan to go. Then we have to reevaluate the situation and redirect him in the proper direction. The physical body is just there for the ride, represented by the carriage. However, through use (or misuse because of the mistakes made by the intellect/mind or emotions), the physical body can take a beating.
SPIRIT
The spirit is the vital essence, the life force, the inner self. The Spirit is represented by the passenger in the carriage. The Spirit tells the driver where he wants to go.
The deepest healing comes with a reconnection to the Spirit.
MIND
The mind is the driver of the carriage. He protects the spirit (passenger). It is because of the mind that we are often unable to reach the spirit (inner self). Defense mechanisms have been built since infancy to envelope and protect the spirit, like layers of an onion. It is through exercising the mind that healing can take place, peeling the layers of the onion away until connection with the spirit can be obtained.
ENERGY
Energy is the ability to do work. Energy in the body is the basis for body temperature, detoxification, digestion, and basically all body functions. When energy is deficient, body processes are reduced or sidestepped. Energy is maintained through proper sleep-wake cycles, nutrition, and normal daily activity.
Learning how to deal with the flow of energy and the shifting of mental patterns provides the most important of the therapeutic approaches, the ones with the most leverage for change. As you open to deeper levels of your being and allow them to reorganize and heal you, you come increasingly into alignment and synchrony with your spiritual essence.
BALANCE
Keeping things in balance is important for health. Maintain a routine. Wake up and go to bed the same time every day, even on days off. Have meals at the same time. The body operates optimally when it is in a rhythm. Hormones rise and fall like the tide. Failure to maintain a schedule causes stress which imbalances the hormones.
The three basic hormone systems are
- Adrenals
- Sex Hormones
- Thyroid
When one is stressed and out of balance, the other two change their activity to try to make up for the deficit. It’s like a three legged stool. If one leg gets shorter, the other two try to adapt for balance.
The body wants to be healthy. Health is the condition of perfect balance, with all systems running smoothly and energy circulating freely. This is the natural condition, the one in which the least effort is expended. Therefore, when the body is out of balance, it wants to get back to it, and will work to that goal.
Improving health requires us to make certain commitments: to take the time to meditate, to eat with awareness, to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, and to seek out sources of nourishment in all aspects of life. More than just talking about living a balanced lifestyle, we must actually live the principles that create health.
NUTRITION
“If you have a good diet, of what use is a doctor? And if you don’t have a good diet, of what use is a doctor?” unknown
Nutrition is very important to one’s health. Cooked food has lost most of its nutrition. Processed food is mostly empty calories. A great majority of food eaten in America is acidifying. Toxins are trapped in the body when it is acidic. This causes a lot of stress which eventually creates inflammation which causes most of our chronic diseases. Our American diet is unhealthy, and we need to make it a priority to change it.
First and foremost, our diet needs to be alkalinizing and anti-inflammatory. The primary liquid in our diet should be water, and the best water to drink is reverse osmosis.
EXERCISE
“Walking is man’s best medicine. ”
Hippocrates
Regular exercise is an important part of good health. Exercise helps burn toxins through raising body temperature. It also helps maintain the proper body fat / protein ratio by stimulating muscle development and burning fat.
BODY
The last stage in the hierarchy is the physical structure we call the body, the embodiment of the other six parts of the hierarchy. This is the part that western physicians and technology work on the most, delegating the other six levels to lower importance. But, in actuality, it is the least important. If the other six levels are attended to and are healthy, the body will be healthy.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
So where do you start? The purpose of this website is to teach healing, to optimize the seven pillars of health. There is a lot of information here. But healing is actually quite simple. We have broken it down into 7 steps. The steps can all be started at the same time. Remedies are needed in order to maximize the effects of each step. But that is completely individualized. You are now the result of a lifestyle followed for the extent of your current life. You can’t expect that result to be reversed overnight. How long it takes depends on your dedication and priority. But once you start, your path is toward healing and away from disease.