The Seven Pillars of Health:

THE WAY OF NATURE is generally to let the weak die off. As humans and social animals, we’ve learned a better path — to support one another no matter the circumstances. This is one of our strengths as a species but it also comes at a price.

In many ways we’ve taught ourselves to be weak and by extension, less resistant to disease. The way of nature is not about drugs and surgeries, though they sometimes have their place. Nature’s lesson is to find ways to support the entire person — organically, making them better, stronger, and more resistant in the future. Nature’s method is to use what works.

Why not apply that lesson to our own lives and take some personal responsibility for our health? Our bodies are intricate and made up of countless interconnected systems. Even something as simple as absorbing a vitamin varies from person to person. There is no exact vitamin dose that can be prescribed for every person because it varies due to factors like our genetics, gut biome, and differing absorption rates.

All of these factors affect how much of a vitamin a given individual actually absorbs. If something as simple as vitamins doesn’t have an optimal RDA, then rest assured that most of the body’s nutritional requirements have individualized variances as well. Nature also embodies the concept of synergy. Sometimes, even a small amount of two substances, say 10% of A and 10% of B, can create a greater effect than a larger amount of just one. This synergistic interplay within our bodies is vast, mysterious, and largely uncharted by conventional medicine.

By synergizing medical approaches that have low side effects and highly verifiable validity, we see powerful results from this synergistic effect. The evidence shows that the seven pillars of health each play a significant role in wellness and in addressing chronic illness. When combined under the skilled guidance of an expert, these pillars create super-synergy and have a profound effect — more effective than conventional drugs or surgery, and with fewer or no side effects.

Real and lasting health comes from synergizing these seven aspects of our lives. By aligning these seven pillars, something magical happens. They feed off of and support each other, giving us more power, energy, and health than we might imagine. Better sleep gives us more energy and patience. More patience makes our relationships better.

Better relationships give us more energy for things like exercise. More exercise gives us benefits like strength, endurance, and health. It also improves sleep and vitality. Better nutrition can affect all of those things as well — even our relationships. Each pillar forms a foundation of health, rooted in ancient wisdom, and now supported by today’s health science.

1. Vitality and Sexual Wellness: Cultivating and Directing our Life Energy

When we learn to harness our sexual energy and life force, we naturally have extra power to support our health and achieve our goals. Sexual wellness is an important, and often overlooked aspect of health and is deeply connected to our vital energy. By cultivating and channeling this energy, we can unlock creativity, build deeper relationships, and experience a deeper sense of connection. Through ancient practices that enhance vitality and sexual wellness we turn ourselves into powerhouses of health and tap into deep reservoirs of energy.

2. Stress Management: Meditation, Breathing, and Positive Activities

Life naturally creates stress. I teach there is both good stress and bad stress. The key to stress is embracing the good and managing the bad. Some ancient techniques, like meditation, visualization, dream therapy, music, affirmations, and breathing exercises, greatly reduce stress and improve happiness.

Likewise, positive psychology teaches that things like gratitude exercises, identifying our strengths, awareness training, and reframing negative thoughts also support happiness. By gently weaving some of these practices into our lives, we feel happier while naturally regulating stress.

3. Physical Activity: Daily, Full-body movements

Whole body movements are vital to our health. Activities such as calisthenics, dance, martial arts, aerial arts (silks, lyra, trapeze), and rock climbing work the entire body in ways that can promote health. In the hands of a master, yoga stands out among them because its movements are codified to allow fully customized routines designed to meet the health needs of any individual.

Based on decades of experience, and accounting for our physical abilities, goals, and lifestyle, I craft customized routines that work our entire body, improving strength, endurance, flexibility, and balance. When integrated into this entire system, yoga helps boost our emotions and support happiness. Through regular, customized yoga, we can find healing, prevent injury, improve our sex life, sleep better, regulate hormones, and experience a host of other scientifically documented benefits.

4. Restorative Sleep: Getting Quality Rest

Getting nightly deep, restful sleep is crucial in supporting our bodies to heal and rejuvenate. Without any sleep, we will eventually die. With improper or insufficient sleep, we will live, but probably die much younger than we would like. Deep sleep centers around routines and environments that promote restoration, get us into REM sleep, and help us produce hormones and heal during the night. This enables recovery, rebuilds energy, and enhances mental clarity, memory, and emotional stability.

5. Nutrition: Whole, Plant-Based Foods

I’m sure they would have loved them, but cavemen and early hunter-gatherers didn’t get the chance to eat processed, GMO-filled burgers covered in chemicals, hormones, and pesticides. In choosing a good diet, the goal should not just be to enjoy a “juicy steak” but to find the optimal diet to support health and help us live as long as possible while STILL ENJOYING all the best things in life.

Eating whole, natural, and organic food has been the way of life on our planet for over three billion years and organic plant-based foods was what our human ancestors predominately ate for hundreds of thousands of years. Who, aside from food companies and Big Pharma, is arrogant enough to challenge that wisdom?

6. Avoid Harmful Substances: Minimize Substances with Negative Side Effects

Staying healthy includes all the little choices we make over the decades. It’s no big deal if we eat a cheeseburger and drink a soda tomorrow. It can kill us if we do that every day for 20 years. Functionally speaking, this is what “the average” American does. A glass of wine or a beer might be good for us. Several drinks a day, according to research, is generally not good for most people.

7. Healthy Relationships: Building Strong, Supportive Connections

Did you know that scientific evidence shows that people who are in a loving relationship live longer lives? Building and nurturing positive relationships also give us a sense of belonging that seems to fill some deep human need. Loving relationships and strong social connections work to deeply enrich our lives and help to make us happier..

By expertly integrating these seven pillars into our lives and consistently applying them, we follow an ancient and holistic path to wellness. This “SuperSynergy” is the secret to radiant health. Based on millenia of time-tested practices and modern research, the SuperSynergy System ™ each person’s unique goals and needs. With expert guidance, we are here to help unlock our deepest capacity for healing and vitality. Let’s begin this journey together.

Heal. Align. Thrive. Dr. Sattva HealthIntelligenceInstitute.com