So now you have a basis to understanding the foundation of getting almost everything that you’ve ever wanted. We talked about the four quadrants and how getting the basics right in each one gives you the best chance of achieving everything that you’ve ever wanted.
The four quadrants are physical, mental, spiritual, and monetary. All four quadrants tie in with the others. Better the physical and the mental and spiritual will usually better as well. As we talked about before, wellness in all four quadrants is what we’re after.
So let’s get started on the first quadrant, the physical.
What Is Physical Wellness & How Do We Achieve It?
When I talk about physical wellness I’m going to break it down into two categories. One we’ll call general wellness or wellness for short and the other athletic ability. Wellness covers things like diet, hormones, mental functioning, general health, and the like. Whereas athleticness covers basic movement skills, strength, flexility, and things of that nature.
To achieve physical wellness we have to cover both categories. Now by no means do you have to be the healthiest person that has ever lived nor do you need to be a professional athlete. You just need to get both bases covered so that you have a good base to work off of for everything else.
And do not underestimate the importance of physical wellness. While to most things like athleticness and general wellness seem frivolous they are critically important to achieving what you want in life. Once your health and mobility are gone no amount of spiritual or mental enlightenment nor money is going to bring it back.
What Is Wellness & How Is It Achieved?
Wellness is about more than simply having good cholesterol numbers or having a lower percentage bodyfat, it encompasses much more than that. It also has to do with hormone production, mental clarity, and a host of other factors. The two biggest factors that you control when it comes to wellness is diet and stress control. Exercise also plays a roll but we’ll be covering that in the athletic portion.
But what about diet and stress control? What does that mean? Eat a salad and take a walk? Yes and also no. Understand most people’s understanding of healthy eating can be far from healthy. We’ll start with diet then go from there. When looking at diet you want to do more than just count calories or track micros.
Neither guarantees that your body is getting what it needs to survive and thrive. Calories are almost meaningless. 100 calories of a candy bar and a steak are completely different. Likewise macros, while moving in the right direction, can still be misleading, even when controlling for slow and fast digesting carbs.
For example. Eating 30 grams of carbohydrates from a potato or sweet potato and so on and so forth. What our body needs and what the foundation is, is micronutrients. Vitamins and minerals that affect our bodies more than simply calories in or calories out does. Vitamins and minerals that affect how our genes are expressed, our mental functioning, our hormonal production, as well as how we look and feel.
Now of course I’m not saying that you need to sit there and count out micronutrients, that’d be crazy. Rather here’s what you want to do and what healthy humans have done since the start. Focus on eating as much nutrient dense foods as possible. But what constitutes a nutrient dense food?
Foods that are high in vitamins and minerals and as natural as possible. Some examples are liver, whole eggs, beef, lamb, fish, poultry, other organ meats, game meats, raw milk, grass fed butter, properly prepared fruits and vegetables, raw honey, Greek yogurt, cheeses, kefir, kombucha, broths, and more.
Don’t just eat chicken breast and salad, that’s not healthy in the long term. Sure it beats fast food but if beating fast food is all we’re after then anything will do. For the best wellness possible then eat as nutrient dense as possible.
Stress Control, Reduction, & Resiliency
We have all lots of stress today. In the modern world we are often stuck in a state of constant semi stress that wears us down and depletes us. Finding ways to deal with that stress and becoming resilient to it is important for achieving a good wellness foundation. Exercise is a great way to help with this and something we’ll cover more in depth later. There are many ways to reduce stress but they can be group into two main groups.
Eustress and de-stress. Eustress is doing something that is hard and produces the good kind of stress, eustress, to make yourself more resilient to distress, which is regular stress. Exercise is an example of this. So are cold showers and achieving goals. I’d recommend having a regular exercise program, do cold exposure intermittently, and write down what you want to get accomplished everyday and cross it off when you do it. But don’t worry if you don’t get it all done.
De-stress overlaps with eustress and are things that clear out stress. Mindfulness meditation, taking long walks, sauna, massage, listening to calming music, reading and the like. They are things that help you to unwind and can help you become more resilient to stress in the future. You don’t have to do all of these but choose some and make them a daily part of your life.
If I had to recommend just one, I’d say do mindfulness meditation.
And the last part of this is sleep. You want to make sure you’re getting quality sleep as often and as much as possible. Sleep needs vary from person to person but you shouldn’t be getting up tired every day. Do everything possible to facilitate good sleep. Get a good mattress, you spend roughly a third of your life on it so it’s worth the investment.
Get a fan for your room, get blackout curtains. Do whatever you need to in order to make your room as comfortable and cave like as possible. Without good sleep your hormonal production, mental clarity, and so much more will take a hit and only get worse.
Make sleep a priority.
The Importance Of Athletics
Most of us will never be able to lift over our bodyweight nor leap over something that’s waist height nor have to travel a long distance without wearying. We’ll most likely never have to be able to throw a knockout punch, hoist a heavy spear, or row across the English channel. And yet athletics is still important to your overall success and development.
But why?
There are obvious benefits. Good heart health, more attractive looking, boosted mental clarity and functioning, better hormonal production, fights against aging process, and a whole lot more. But it goes even deeper than that. Though you may never need to do the above mentioned things but keeping yourself prepared to do them you reap many benefits that’ll help you in life.
You stay disciplined, you keep your mind focused and productive, you gain confidence, you are able to move through time and space as you please. You are more resistant to fatigue, mental and physical. You teach yourself day and day out that good work comes from the dedication to working hard. The benefits reaped stretch beyond the physical to the mental and even physical.
Hike, join an MMA gym, run, lift, do gymnastics, track and field, swim, whatever. Just get your body out there and moving. Get fresh air and work hard. You don’t have to have mounds of muscle or be able to run for miles on miles. Just have basic athletic ability. Be able to move your body around in a jaunt through the woods or in a quick burst over a short distance. Man was not made to be sedentary and soft. Keep your body strong and it does much to keep the rest of you from fading.
The First Quadrant
Don’t underestimate the importance of physical wellness. It’s often the foundation for all the others. When people come to me for help I often recommending starting here as you can see changes and benefits relatively quickly, at least compared to mental or spiritual development. Wellness and athletics. Two basic things but that serve as a critical foundation to achieving everything you’ve ever wanted. Start with the first quadrant and work your way from there.
If you’d like advice beyond this or a more detailed guide you can sign up for my coaching program. Regardless I hope the information here helps you and as always, thanks for reading.
-Charles Sledge
