Mastering Yourself
Life is so expansive and in so many different ways.
A tremendous amount of aspects to look out for in every area of your life. From the music you like, to the very decision that may cost you your life. Life is so fundamental I think most people are underwhelmed by it, for it is truly amazing that each and every living being on this planet even exists. Life is something akin to 1 in 1 Trillion chance of even happening. Life, life is precious.
In the previous paragraph "Life" was a used quite often, this is because it is so varied in it's meaning/definition. What is life? I used it so much on purpose to illustrate the almost divine process of mechanics that allow us to move, breath, and live.
Who You Are
Your very essence is scattered throughout many integral parts, and this is where the Four Pillars (Or Robin Sharma's "Sets") comes into play. Each part of your life is complex, yet very simple. IF you think about lets say your body, then what does it come down to? Eat right, challenge yourself physically, and keep it from harm. Simple enough, really the challenge to improve your body comes from the determination to even start, and the discipline to keep it up.
Challenging Yourself
Well then what about your mind? Well the brain is a muscle, it needs to be stretched and activated to truly keep it's form and versatility. Meaning eat the nutrients you need to keep neuro-plasticity, challenge your brain in the form of puzzles and knowledge attainment. I suggest tetrisfriends.com really good source to easily start training your brain. Most importantly with both body and mind, change it up! It really makes a difference, and when you do you get challenged differently. It doesn't even have to be at a higher intensity. Sometimes even quite lower intensity, such as brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand!
Your Embodiment
Spirituality comes into play more uniquely. With many branching paths of philosophy, religion, and different spiritual practices it can be hard to track down which really helps your spirituality. It is my belief that at some point each religion has their own benefits and flaws in practice. My opinion is only being shared to get you to think about what you believe. What practice do you do, really resounds to you, and really makes you feel more spiritually inclined? Meditation has always been a great source for me, and a lot of people I know. No matter what your religion is too basic mediation is a safe way to ponder new thoughts/ideologies/beliefs. This manifestations of the spiritual existence can be taken into account differently, but what we want to pass along to you is the ability to see when this is happening.
Understanding
The true understanding of one's own Pillars is simply that of observation and reflection. You must "see" the crucial moments of your life that dictate what you are, how you act, and why you act that way. What caused you to be this way? What made your life follow this path? Knowing this is the true form of mastering your Pillars because to know what you need to change, is to first know what is wrong.
Emotions Now like your understanding of yourself, your emotions are caught in a similar loop, with the pivotal information we are trying to convey is reflection or observation. Look at why you are feeling in such a way, and how you are feeling. Are you feeling angry because someone said something rude? Let it go. Are you sad because you made a mistake? Let it go. Are you happy because you had a great day? Let. It. Go.
Now you might say, but don't we want to happy? Of course we want to be happy, and we want you all to be happy too (we really do). The idea behind this is more of a Buddhist origin, but mainly it is the idea of attachment. We will leave the idea of material things for another day. We simply want to talk about the attachment of emotions, and how they can cloud your judgement in this matter.
Take the feeling of happiness into consideration. Why do you feel happy?
It is because an external event triggered a chemical release in the brain. Causing a disruptive of flow and order in the body/mind. This is technically a good thing, for happiness is the secret to the successful life. Alas too much happiness and you lose the understanding of what sadness is, and what anger does to you. Your understanding of each of these emotions are what causes you be human in the first place.
In previous posts we might have made it seem like the Emotions Pillars is that of lesser importance, or you can wait to maintain it until later (after the other 3 Pillars). This is simply not the case, and in fact I would argue that the Emotions Pillar should be the first you should look at before the rest. Understanding what you emotional state currently is will allow you to understand what is causing you to feel in such a way.
The key to this is figuring out what is internal or external in this matter.
Are you feeling in such a way that is caused by a thrill on the outside, or by internal wish for a better experience? Are you making YOURSELF happy, doing things that are causing you to be positive in nature? In other words "Living Life to the Fullest"?
Find what is making you FEEL in the way you are, THEN you can proceed to maintaining the body and mind. Finally fine tuning the spiritual aspect of your life!
Be the change you wish to see in yourself! Thanks Gandhi, but to see a change in the world, we need to see a change in ourselves first!
-Dustin PolyULCian