93. The Seven Pillars of Wellness

In this episode, Tiffany discusses Deepak Chopra's Seven Pillars of Wellness, also known as the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. She details how creating a more balanced and fulfilling life by integrating physical, mental, and spiritual well-being can improve one's overall health and happiness. 

She also shares how she incorporates each pillar into her own life and how the FASTer Way method helps her achieve these goals. 

The Brain FM app can he found here. 

More info on Deepak Chopra can be found here. 

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Transcript

Welcome back to the podcast. I had a very cool opportunity, not had, but have a very cool opportunity to co-write an article or multiple articles with none other than Deepak Chopra. If you don't know who he is, I will link him in the comments. However, he's very famous in the wellness space. So one of the first articles I'm writing is an overview of his seven pillars of wellbeing that in his estimation creates more wealth and health and happiness. With that being said, he bases everything he teaches and does off of these seven pillars. So I'm going to go ahead and discuss them and how they integrate into your life and how they more specifically integrate into the programming that we do here at The Faster Way. So the first pillar is emotional regulation.

All right, emotions. Emotions and stress are not the problem in your life. Your perception of them and how well you manage your expectations of them, that ends up being the problem because most people are not managing their emotions well and they're not regulating themselves. So everybody's driven by emotions all day long. And there's no doubt that emotions are often going to dictate your actions, your intentions, your thoughts. But if you act on emotions too quickly,

then you risk making decisions that you might regret. So to start being a little bit more practical about managing your emotions, so first off, you have to see things in the bigger picture. You know how you were probably told as a kid, or maybe as a young adult, who knows, is this going to matter in five years? I don't know, is it? Those are things to keep in mind. Do you think that this moment, like the car,

running into a flat tire and you're just completely losing your mind over it, is this going to matter in five weeks, five months, five years? Probably not. This is going to be a bump in the road that is life. So try to see the bigger picture. And if you try to reframe most everything as in there's a higher purpose and service to this, like as a Christian, it's easy for me to do that because I try and think of, you know,

Tiffany Wickes (02:22.53)

God willing everything for my good, even bad things that we don't fully understand that there, I just trust that there's an ultimate good purpose and outcome for it. I also try not to react immediately, although I'm kind of a fiery individual. So not doing that is probably one of the harder points of my personality is to just take a deep breath, wait five minutes, try and relax your muscles, get your heart rate down and remind yourself that this too,

shall pass. So if you replace the thought of how negative this tire incident is, we'll just use that as the recurring example, then try to reframe that away from, my gosh, this is so horrible. My tire is flat. Now I have to spend all this money. And, you know, perhaps it was a greater level of protection from a car wreck that could have happened, or it could have been pointing out where you need to supplement your income a little bit better.

So try to reframe that like, okay, what can this moment teach me? And then finally, like find a healthy outlet for your emotions. Like if you're frustrated, like give a scream, kick the floor, but let it pass. Like let it get into your body, feel those emotions. Don't kick your dog, kick the ground or kick a rock or a dead tree or something. You can journal about it. You can talk about it. You can cry. I tend to cry.

I know that may not be super obvious if you know me. I'm pretty tough person, but crying seems to be the way my body likes to release tension and stress. The second pillar is sleep. All right, if you're a mom, you have 100 % struggle with sleep because that a lot of time is outside of your ability to control, right? If you have little kids and they're waking up, especially babies in the middle of the night to nurse, you can't not feed them. I mean, I guess you could, that's...

hashtag sleep training, but that's just not the way I've chosen to operate my life with my children. And I honestly don't think it's the healthiest for their brain development, but sleep really does play such an important and crucial role in your brain's ability to function, reduce your stress, contribute to muscle building and fat loss. And it's involved in like memories and learning. So lack of sleep leads to, can lead to mental health problems and depression and anxiety. yeah, sleep.

Tiffany Wickes (04:50.03)

100 % non-negotiable sometimes you can't control that but again, there's a number of things you can do to try to get a good night's sleep So the first one I would say is establish a bedtime routine your body thrives on consistency So if you can be consistent like 10 p.m That's your bedtime and they actually have a consistent wake up time as well Your body really thrives on that and it will start telling you way before

I'm like, hey, it's time to start settling down for sleep. Same thing, like think what you do for your little kids to get them into a pattern of sleep. It's not like you don't require the same things they do. So think about doing the same thing. Now, eating before bed is not optimal. However, my husband used to tell our kids like, if they're having a hard time sleeping, he would go warm up a glass of milk and give it to them. And I was like, what are we doing here? But apparently there is some level of tryptophan in there and

If you're talking about breast milk, that has a lot of substances in it that help lull kids to sleep and increase the hormones that make them more restful and relaxed. However, it really has been effective. Just an eight ounce, six ounce glass of warm milk has helped our kids go to bed. So maybe that might be something you need. Just a little bit of extra protein right before bed. I've talked about this on a previous episode. Can help with your nighttime blood sugar regulation and get a better night's sleep.

So avoid taking a nap during the day. Again, here's the caveat. If you've been up with a baby all night or sick kids or whatever, then absolutely take a nap because you're still gonna go to bed and be tired when you're working in a sleep deficit. If you are not in a deficit and you're just feeling like you could use an afternoon refresh, I would set a timer on your phone or I use my Brain FM app and then I'll do the power nap setting and I'll set it for about 45 minutes.

And it really does pull me into a deep sleep, 45 minutes, boom, and I'm right back up again. Also, you need to make sure your bedroom is quiet and has sufficient ventilation. Make sure the temperature is turned down. Ideally, it would be like 65, 67 degrees. And...

Tiffany Wickes (06:56.768)

I just ordered blackout shades for all the kids' rooms because now that it's nearly summertime, it's way too light. And I know that they're having a hard time settling down because they're like, but look outside, it's still daytime. We need to be out playing. I'm like, girl, it's eight o'clock. No, it's time for bed. You guys need to go. So blackout shades, cool. Definitely get those, cool down the room. And I use sound machines for my kids. Well, the baby anyway, the big kids I don't, although I really ought to get them one because

When Adam's not home, I use Brain FM. Again, shout out to that app. I don't get paid by them, you guys. I just really do love app. I'll put the link for Brain FM in the show notes. You can download it. I do the paid version because I want all the things. I use it for work. I use it for sleep. I use it for focus. I use it for meditation. Love, love, love this app. And there's a lot of science behind the music, if you will, the noise that it has available.

So anyway, we'll put that in there. You can check it out. So the next one, number three is gonna be mindfulness and meditation. All right, your life is busy. My life is busy. We get up, we have a plan for the day. You're listening to whatever on Instagram, folding laundry, you're keeping an eye on the kids. But you know, the daily rush of everything in these necessary tasks, you will oftentimes lose connection with yourself and with the...

You know your your body's natural bio rhythms and your your thoughts tend to get out of control real fast like a freight train without Without breaks when you are less mindful and more robotic. Okay, so daily meditation I'm brand new at this you guys but I Really am finding that it helps center me and keep me more focused on what I'm doing Rather than going into robot mode if that makes sense. So

Mindfulness when you couple that with meditation the purpose is to focus your attention on the moment and to be more present and Accept the presence without judgment. It just is like, know sitting out in the Sun yesterday I had the Sun on my face and I was like I wasn't saying like wow, the Sun is on my face. This is good I like the extra vitamin D. I didn't say that nor did I say

Tiffany Wickes (09:21.036)

The sun is on my face. This is bad. I'm not wearing sunblock. It's just the sun is on my face. And then you don't attach any particular judgment to it either way. It just is. So to practice mindfulness, you can concentrate on the way things smell, the way they touch, what you see, the way things sound. You can name them without having a judgment about them. And then you just let it go, right?

Meditation is where you can sit in a quiet space and then focus on your breath, allow your thoughts to come and go, again, no judgment about them, and then just focus on your breath because oxygenating your body at the same time is crucial for anti-cancer benefits because all of your cells require oxygen.

So cravings, all right, you can be mindful about your eating through meditation as well. So here's a great gauge to go off of. Is this a craving or is this you're actually hungry? So if you're going to the kitchen and you're mindful about why you're moving in there and you're just sticking things in your mouth, ask yourself this question. If I were to have a grilled chicken breast in front of me right now, would that be satisfying to this urge to consume? If the answer is like,

no, I really just want those crackers, then you're probably having a craving and it's not nutritionally necessary to be snacking on things. I don't think adults really need to snack on anything. Children probably, but to a less degree adults, you just need to have a bigger meal and have it well balanced so that your body feels nourished the whole time. All right, and talk about your body sensations. So if you notice like the subtlest body sensation, like a tingling or an itch, and you can take note,

of that part of your body all the way from your head to your toes and don't attach any particular meaning to them, it will help you discover when things are genuinely off. So as for meditation, it takes a while to reap the benefits and it takes a minute to get into the flow of it and be able to push the to-do list out of your brain, but I really have found a beauty in it. And I start with just 10 minutes. If I can be in the sauna without...

Tiffany Wickes (11:38.286)

and somebody else is taking care of the kids, I have found that that's a great place to meditate because it's 20 minutes. I'm habit stacking all kinds of healthy things right on top of the other. So I'm grounding in a sense because I am pressed against fresh untreated cedar. So I've got natural elements of the earth on my body. I've got the elements of heat from the sauna that are working in detox. It's quiet because I'm just outside and being able to look at nature through the glass door and

You can't bring any electronics inside of the sauna because it'll fry and overheat them. So I have no choice but to be quiet. So that has been what I found a great time to practice meditation and active prayer. All right, the fourth pillar is gonna be movement. So movement in all forms is going to be amazing for your body. On the same token, you can do too much movement. I have been guilty of that more times in my life than I can count. So we like to practice.

multiple days of strength training, a couple days of high intensity interval training, a rest day where we have yoga and then active recovery days where we have a Pilates routine. So walking is an everyday event for me. If you do something like Tai Chi, Pilates, yoga, like all of that is really impactful in terms of stretching your body and getting your ligaments.

more loose, of rolling your muscles out with a foam roller is amazing. I have found that I need to do that every single day. I need to tenderize the meats, you guys, because my body will tense up in a million different ways. So you can maximize the health effects of movement on your body when you practice meditation and mindfulness, when you focus on your breathing and you allow yourself time to transition back into your life.

with some light stretching and active mobility stuff before you just go right back into the flow of things that help transition your body and your mind. And don't forget proper nutrition after a workout and quite frankly before it, because you need to fuel your body properly. So the fifth pillar is nutrition. There is so much research. This is my Invisalign again, making me sound funky.

Tiffany Wickes (13:56.994)

So a growing amount of research that shows that our wellbeing is highly influenced by our diet. If you've ever heard the saying, you count out work a bad diet, that is absolutely true. If your nutrition is not on point, the rest of it is almost fairly meaningless because if you're throwing a bunch of poison in and then hoping to get something out via good movement, you just count out run that. So.

Your diet is going to be protective or it's going to be fueling disease. It can't be both at the same time All right, so healthy meals, you know, you've got to combine the good nutrition the good exercise You've got to have the water. I mean Whole foods. All right. So if you implement like Ayurveda lifestyle, which suggests using like six tastes and colors throughout the day So taste properties some sweet some sour some

umami, like meat, colors, try and get as many colors into your diet as possible. And I tell people to follow like a healthy dietary guideline, basically whole foods. Did your food come from the earth? Did it have a mother? Did it swim in the ocean or did it fly in the sky? If it fits into those categories, like you can pick it, kill it, that's probably going to be a good choice for you.

like to see when people, I mean, it always amuses me when people are like, well, what about this protein bar? Look, I'm not against protein bars in a pinch, but as a daily supplement, no, those should be like, I'm traveling or I've been out of the house all day and I've got this protein bar, which helps fill the macros, but it's not necessarily the best choice for whole foods. so just pay attention to that stuff. And as far as the guidelines and macro distribution, the macro distribution is really just to help.

It's a guideline, really. It's training wheels on your nutrition plan to help keep you focused and at least within the parameters so you're not eating 90 % of your diet is fat while you've got 5 % fat and 5 % protein. We've got to keep a ratio that keeps your body fueled and ready for the life's events. All right, so the sixth pillar is going to be your relationships. I think we don't talk about this enough. You've got to be intentional.

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about every aspect of your relationship, like how you're feeling about it, what your thoughts are, truths about certain relationships. And, you know, don't assume that any relationship is good or bad because there is a familial tie to it, okay? You don't have an obligation to keep people in your life that are dangerous and destructive, okay? How...

much you keep them into your life is going to be based off your individual maturity, really, and how much distance you're able to keep from them in order to preserve your own mental health. And that, can't tell you what that looks like. know, tell culture is a communication strategy where you're proactive about being honest and open with people.

you know, and you allow yourself to be vulnerable to say, Hey, Mom, I don't appreciate at all how you embarrassed me in the store the other day by, you know, wanting me to try something on or I tried something on and you made a comment about my waistline. Like that was not okay. You've really got to be in the business of talking to people and then letting them and not from an emotional standpoint per se, you can tell them how it made you feel, but it needs to be very matter of

This is what you did and this is how I felt because of it. Not just, you know, I am feeling so emotional and angry and all this. And then people just go around the earth not knowing what the heck they did. All they know is you're not talking to them anymore. Okay. I can't tell you how many times in my life this has happened to me. And it is always so frustrating because I kept thinking if I just known that I offended you or if I had just known then I could have made it right. I'm humble. I will say I'm sorry.

if I have been in the wrong and I will absolutely always admit if I'm in the wrong and even if I don't even see the immediate wrong, if there was a perception because of my presentation, I'm very humble and I think you need to give people the opportunity to practice that humility. If they don't take it, that's on them. You've done what you could do, but at least give them the opportunity by being a little bit more honest. The seventh and final pillar is laughter.

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How often do you go through the day and you're like, I don't remember the last time I actually laughed. Well, kids will definitely keep you laughing. Probably as often those they'll keep you screaming, but you do need to make time for laughter. The science of laughter suggests that it has significant benefits on your wellbeing. all right, include it somehow in your morning routine. My drug of choice right now for laughter honestly is Instagram Reels or Matt Rice.

You guys, I find that dude absolutely hysterical. So make a concentrated effort to smile more often. When I'm walking, I smile at people. When I'm in the store, I smile at them. When I'm feeling frustrated, I try to smile. So set that intention every day to laugh a little bit more and like, I don't know, find someplace where there are funny things. I mean, there are tons of people online that do things that are absolutely hysterical.

And if I notice, like I haven't laughed in a minute. And by the way, my daughter and all my kids actually, Nolan and Georgia specifically, they tend to be really funny when you get them on a roll. Like surprisingly funny. Georgia is surprisingly hilarious. And I have laughed more with them than I have with anybody else. But if I need a crutch, guys, it's Matt Reif or some of the more funny reels on Instagram.

set a timer, otherwise you're gonna get in a scroll hole and then you're gonna find some fitness influencer that makes you feel some kind of a way and then you're right back into needing to reincorporate meditation and mindfulness into not feeling badly about who you are, right? Like there's a limit guys, so make sure you stick to like comedians that you actually find funny. So there's lots of things here that you can integrate into your mind, body, spirit process every single day.

practicing mindfulness and meditation, you're gonna have more gratitude about the food selections. If you practice laughter, then it's going to improve your relationships. If you practice dutiful and consistent movement throughout the day, that's going to inform your nutrition choices because let's be honest, if you're eating Doritos and pastries, you're not gonna have energy required to lift weights. So you will naturally gravitate toward things that are better for you.

Tiffany Wickes (20:56.76)

when you integrate all seven of these wellness pillars into your life. And you see how they so easily intertwine with one another, right? Every aspect of these will be benefited when they're all supported. When you're missing one of them, I can promise you there's something else that's missing in there too. So those seven, one more time. They are emotional regulation, sleep, mindfulness and meditation.

movement, nutrition, relationships, and laughter. I am doing a whole talk about this in June at our local resort here. I am writing an article about it. If you have questions about it, we integrate all of these into our Faster We programming in ways that you may not expect, but they're all very familiar to me because I teach them and live them every single day. Some I'm better at than others. I'm working on it, and I hope you're working on you too, okay? All right, guys, stay up.

Stay strong, show up. Can't wait to talk to you next week. Ciao.