The 4 Pillars of Human Well-Being

This article draws its inspiration from Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya (The Prajapita Brhama Kumari University), a university that imparts education on God, the supreme soul. The university has dedicated itself to illuminating minds not considering religion, caste, creed, color, or country as eligibility criteria.

The World Health Organization defines Health as a state of mental, physical, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. In a broad understanding, well-being is living a good life with which one is satisfied. 

The human life is dependent on four important pillars which must be given equal weightage all the time.

1.       Physical Well Being

2.       Intellectual Well Being

3.       Emotional Well Being

4.       Spiritual Well Being

The absence of any of these four results in an incomplete experience of human wellbeing.

Physical well-being Physical well-being acts as a driver of rest of the three pillars. Other than the absence of disease or illness, physical well-being includes a fit body, mind, and spirit. This kind of wellbeing can be effectively achieved through Yoga.

Yoga helps in attaining this state of body and mind.  It prescribes guidelines for a life style that ensures physical well-being. This includes waking up early in the morning, spending quality time in yoga or other forms of exercise, and consuming food that is mostly “Satvik” in nature. Satvik food excludes the Rajsik  and Tamsik forms of food. In essence, all forms of meat, liquor, onion, and garlic are contraindicated for human consumption.

Satvik Guna was first defined and explained in Ayurveda and Yoga under Vedic philosophy. Satvik food has a positive impact on the body. It makes the body, mind and senses light, rational, and focused.

Intellectual Well-being ensures that we remain competitive and successful in our Karmabhumi (the land where one works). Physical wellbeing is a great influencer of intellectual wellbeing.

Intellectual wellbeing confers material luxury and convenience for humankind.  We had seen evolution of work places. As a society, we have moved from a labor intensive workforce that demanded high standards of physical wellbeing to an innovation driven society where most of our physically challenging work has been outsourced to machines. 

The shift in the nature of society has provided us with more time to innovate as well as enjoy the fruits of innovation. For example, recent innovations such as computer, mobile phones, cars, and air conditioners have significantly enhanced the quality of human life.

Intellectual well-being also acts as a differentiator at our workplace. We are known and recognized based on our ability to perform and add value to the organization, community, groups we are associated with.

Emotional Well-being is a more personal form of wellbeing, a connection with our society and values. The end purpose of our efforts is to attain a state of at peace, happiness, and love. These three drivers of emotional wellbeing are non-tangible and sometimes in dissonance with our cognitive emotions.

The inability to bridge our cognitive experience with our emotional needs has led to us distancing ourselves from people that add meaning to our lives.  The convenience, luxury and comfort which we aspire for are incomplete without human bonding.  Emotional wellbeing cannot be achieved without social outreach and through our understanding of living in harmony with society.  The concept of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam (the whole world is an extended family) is based on this premise.

Our ability to respond effectively to situations and conflicts that are part of our being in a society has a significant telling on our emotional experience.  Success in Workplace or in Karmbhoomi (the land where one works) is dependent equally on intellectual and emotional well power. 

Because we work with people, we should constantly work on our emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence defines how effectively knowledge and skills are imparted across the organization. Great knowledge without an attitude of sharing is detrimental to the wellbeing of companies in general and societies at large.

Spiritual Well-Being leads to an understanding of our self, our identity. In complete contrast to the popular understanding that our sense of being is through our physical body, who we are is a result of our understanding of our self. While our body is mortal, the spirit that drives us from inside, that we know as the “soul”, results in our spiritual exploration.

Spiritual wellbeing provides us with the understanding that our purpose in life is beyond the materialistic needs and goals. The real need is to attain a state of peace and happiness. 

Our basic structure of soul is to attain peace. If we ask ourselves, can we remain angry for 24 hours continuously, the answer would be “No” as we would come back to normal peaceful state of body and soul. If we are a peaceful soul, why do we get angry? We always believe that someone’s actions are responsible for our reaction or our being angry. While believing so, we forget that we are telling in a way that we are controlled by others. This means our reactions are triggered by someone else, we don’t have control in them and then we blame those for our behavior.   

Spirituality provides us with the perspective that our pursuit of peace and happiness is our own responsibility.  It lies in our ability to respond and take control of a negative situation and turn it into a positive experience.

Can I still bless those that hurt and abuse me? If we are at Spiritual well-being, the answer is “Yes” but can this be “Yes” otherwise? Therein lies the power of spirituality.  When we are aware that we are a peaceful soul, any situation, words, challenges, or pressures cannot change our basic being.  We have always learnt that Stress is a result of a situation or pressure. Spirituality helps us understand that Stress is not just Pressure but a product of external pressure and internal resilience.

Stress = Pressure / Resilience

Our ability to be at resilience can be achieved through spirituality. The first important aspect of achieving this is meditation.  Meditation is a powerful tool that helps us achieve spiritual, emotional, and intellectual well-being. 

If we had to pick tools that help us strengthen all four pillars of human being, they would be Yoga and Meditation.  Yoga helps us achieve physical well-being whereas Meditation helps us achieve the other three components of well-being: Spiritual, emotional, and intellectual.

Om Shanti!!