Pillars of Life—The Importance of Engaging Mind, Body, and Spirit
As we move through our days, we may live active, productive, and even meaningful lives. But something may still be missing. It may be hard to put our fingers on it. One possible reason for this is the failure to be intentional about fundamental aspects of our lives—mind, body, and spirit—the three pillars of life. Most of us engage with these pillars to some degree: we exercise, we challenge ourselves mentally, or we have healthy spiritual lives. But how many of us consistently engage with all three pillars intentionally and regularly? When we do, we’ll find that our lives are enhanced—in ways that we may not even realize.
How we can engage
What do we imagine when we think about mind, body, and spirit? People may have very specific ideas about what each one means. That’s great as long as they don’t limit themselves unnecessarily. We can engage with the pillars in a broad range of ways, allowing us to continue evolving and exploring them and providing for some flexibility and, ultimately, variety. This will help us avoid falling into a rut or getting bored. We should also have different approaches depending on the circumstances. In busy times, we need an approach that is efficient and can be practiced quickly. In periods when we have a little more time, we can think of practices that allow us to go deeper and get more intense. The following are ideas to get you started if you haven’t thought much about this before or to use as alternative ideas for variety’s sake.
Mind
We can engage the mind pillar in literally any way our imaginations let us. A fundamental approach includes a lifelong culture of learning. Being perpetual students provides us with constant mental engagement and allows us to continue growing throughout our lives. It requires open minds and willingness to assume the student role, which can require that we also assume a big chunk of humility. Creativity is another important way to engage our minds. Everyone has a creative side. We don’t need to compose great symphonies or paint masterpieces. We can do things as simple as learning a few chords on the ukulele, writing simple poems, or drawing pictures. Our creative interpretations are no less valid than the most accomplished works. Finally, the emotional landscape is a significant part of the mind pillar. Of course, our emotions are also directly tied to the spiritual pillar—combining pillars can only enhance our engagement (more on this later). The awareness and deeper understanding of our emotional state and emotional reactions to our experiences should be intentional parts of our lives. Reflecting on where we are emotionally and why we react as we do is vital to a happy, meaningful life.
Body
When people think about the aspects of their lives that are associated with their bodies, they may immediately jump to fitness, strength, or weight management. It is important to think about these aspects of our lives and to have goals for each one. However, we should always start with more holistic approaches to our physical being—with perspectives that include the interconnectedness of all parts of our bodies and how they work together. To me this idea can be encompassed in grace. Anything you do with your body starts with how well you listen to it and how well you compel it to listen to you. You should start any physical practice with a moment of reflection on holistic, coordinated movement and keep this in your mind throughout the practice.
Once you have a foundation for your relationship with your body, you can think about what engaging the body means to you. This should be intentional, meaning you shouldn’t just jump into an exercise program without understanding what you’re trying to achieve. You should start by defining your body goals then develop an approach that works toward those goals and is enjoyable. You should consider grace, fitness, flexibility, and strength. Fitness is always a good place to start, but it can be challenging to define how it fits into your life. People may think of the words ‘health’ and ‘fitness’ as being synonymous, and they’re certainly correlated, but health is more comprehensive than fitness. We can measure our fitness very specifically—see this article for example.
To be ‘healthy,’ you should also consider your diet, weight, and habits (good and bad). Your diet is a foundation of your entire physical existence as it supports your energy level, your body chemistry, and your focus. Diet is certainly part of any weight management approach as well. In thinking about your weight, it’s OK (and very natural) to think about your appearance, but health should be your main concern. You don’t have to be skinny to be healthy, but you should think about how your weight impacts the health of your cardiovascular system, your sleep, and your ability to be fit. Finally, your habits are always going to be part of your body engagement. Developing good habits, such as exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and maintaining a healthy diet, is vital and should be balanced with the elimination or moderation of bad habits such as smoking. Some habits are only bad if practiced to an extreme. An example is drinking. Ultimately, your body engagement should be comprehensive and holistic.
Spirit
A spiritual life may manifest in a variety of ways, but, to me, spirituality is about connection. This can mean connections with people—certain relationships transcend the corporeal and take on spiritual dimensions in their depth and their importance in our lives. A spiritual life can mean a connection with a higher power—which may be a deity or the life energy all around us. We can also find spirituality in our connections with ourselves—the degree to which we connect with our essential selves absolutely has a spiritual component that can be as strong as any other. ‘Spirit’ comes from the Latin ‘spiritus,’ which translates into ‘breath.’ We can consider this interpretation of spirituality literally or figuratively: the breath of life that sustains us, those elements of our lives that take our breath away, or the breath-like cycles—the ebb and flow patterns—that our lives follow.
Individual pillars that are important in combination
Each of the pillars is important individually, but if we engage with them in combination, we’ll find that these experiences can be truly special and meaningful. Our lives are meant to be lived with active engagement with all the pillars, in combination, as much as possible. But many have lives that are skewed away from one or more of the pillars. For example, one may have a very cerebral life, involving the rich exploration of a variety of topics that fill them with a sense of wonder, but are completely sedentary or devoid of any true connections. Can a life like this be meaningful? Yes, but considerably less meaningful than it would be if the person engaged with other pillars as well. We can also have lives that involve each of the three pillars individually. We can challenge ourselves mentally, be completely in tune with our bodies, and have rich and meaningful connections, but each of the pillar activities can be stovepiped, having no connection to the others. Again, this can be and very likely is a fulfilling and meaningful life, but there are activities that can take it to the next level. These activities combine pillars in a meaningful way that engages with multiple elements of being. Examples include music, yoga, dance, and the martial arts, all of which require mental capacity, physical movement, and a spiritual connection. When we engage in these activities, they tend to affect us in profound and lasting ways.
Engaging with the pillars every day
In the midst of a busy life, it is challenging to engage meaningfully in self-care. And if we’re thinking about engaging in all three pillars, including looking for ways to combine the pillars, that can seem like just one more thing that we have to commit to and find time for. But like anything else, it’s all about making a plan that accounts for times when we’re busy and overwhelmed and times when we have a little breathing space. That way, we won’t feel guilty if we don’t put in a long run, spend significant time learning Spanish, or fully engage in our meditation and yoga regime (as examples).
It’s not hard to engage with all three pillars for just a minute or two: several seconds of mindful breathing, followed by several seconds of stretching or body-weight strength exercises, then a few seconds of reflection on the nature of the current weather system—60 seconds and we’re done! The important thing is that we should maintain the habit of consistently engaging with the pillars. When we have more time, we should also have plans for lengthier or more extensive engagement. These should capitalize on what we’re trying to achieve through our engagement, e.g. increased focus, strength, grace, knowledge, or serenity, and should also be focused on enjoyment. We’re way more likely to succeed in this habit (or any other) if we’re having fun. If we find we’re doing the 60-second version on most days or for many days in a row, we should reassess our priorities and make sure that we’re intentional about making time for ourselves.
How the pillars can enhance other parts of our lives
Getting in touch with ourselves through the pillars can have broad-ranging benefits in other parts of our lives. There are the direct benefits of each—better health, lower stress, increased focus, and improved relationships—and when we engage with our pillars consistently, we’ll find that these benefits carry over into everything we do. We’ll be in touch with our bodies, so we will get better sleep, manage our energy, and move through life gracefully. We’ll understand our intellect, including its strengths and weaknesses, and know how to use it in ways that are consistent with our goals and desires. With improved connections, we’ll not only have better relationships, but we’ll also understand where we fit in in our communities, in society, and in the universe as a whole and will be comfortable with our place in life. We’ll know better who we are and will be able to embrace that.
The pillars of life, mind, body, and spirit, are the foundations of everything we do.
