The Five Pillars of Health: More Than Pointers of Privilege?

When we talk about health, it’s easy to slip into checklist mode—eat well, exercise, sleep eight hours, don’t stress, stay social. These are the “pillars” we’re told to build our lives around, and to be fair, they’re based on solid research. But health isn’t just about doing the “right things”; it’s also deeply influenced by access, environment, and support systems. So, instead of seeing these pillars as universal rules, maybe it’s time to view them as interconnected elements that shape quality of life, recovery from injury, and our experience of movement—especially when viewed through the lens of yoga.

Let’s break down these five key pillars—sleep, nutrition, movement, stress and mental health, and social connection—and look at how they influence our health, with a clear-eyed view of both their potential and their limitations. We are fast to buy into a trendy quick fix for pain, injury or health hacks but unless we address these five pillars first everything else is a bit pointless.

Sleep

Sleep is often the first to go when life gets busy, and yet it’s fundamental to healing, memory, decision-making, and pain regulation. If you’ve ever tried to do yoga or even just move through your day after a rough night, you’ll know how quickly that sleep debt shows up in the body. For people working night shifts, managing chronic stress, or living with young children, consistent sleep can be a luxury—not a given. Still, incorporating practices like restorative yoga or even five quiet minutes before bed can support the body’s ability to down-regulate and transition into sleep more easily.

Nutrition

This one gets a lot of airtime. What we eat affects energy, inflammation, healing, and our overall sense of wellbeing. But access to nutritious food isn’t just about knowing what to eat; it’s often about affordability, time, and cultural relevance. Hydration affects joint mobility. Blood sugar levels influence energy and focus. Protein can be topped up to support muscle and tissue repair and vital vitamins are needed to support immunity and bone health. It’s all connected. Rather than launch into rigid regimes it may be more helpful to think about how food can support your movement, your recovery, and your ability to be present in your own body.

Movement

Movement is more than exercise, and it’s certainly more than a fitness goal. It’s how we interact with the world. It’s functional, expressive, and vital to maintaining independence and physical resilience. Yoga can be a way to access movement that’s both structured and exploratory. It can also teach us to notice how we move, not just how much we move. But again, time, energy, and accessibility all play a role. If you’re balancing multiple jobs or caregiving responsibilities, even ten minutes of mindful movement might be all you can fit in.

Stress and Mental Health

Mental health isn’t separate from physical health—it shapes it. Chronic stress can change how we breathe, how we hold tension, how we sleep, even how we digest food. Yoga offers tools like breath awareness and nervous system regulation, which can be helpful, but they’re not a cure-all. Mental health support needs to be multi-layered and for some, it includes therapy, medication, and community. What yoga can offer is a non-judgmental space to notice what’s happening internally and perhaps shift the state of the body in a way that supports emotional regulation.

Social Connection

This is the pillar that often gets overlooked, especially in health conversations that focus on the individual. But social connection—whether through family, friends, colleagues, or a broader sense of community—is a major determinant of health. It influences mood, longevity, and even pain perception. Yoga classes can foster a sense of community and shared experience. But for people with social anxiety, neurodivergence, or trauma histories, these environments might not feel safe or inclusive. So this pillar also requires nuance.

A Note on Privilege

None of these pillars exist in a vacuum, and none are equally available to everyone. Being able to prioritise your sleep, eat a variety of nutritious foods, move your body in ways that feel good, manage stress, and maintain social connections requires a certain amount of privilege—time, money, safety, support. That’s not something to feel guilty about, but it is something to acknowledge. Health isn’t just a personal responsibility; it’s shaped by systems.

Yoga can support all five pillars, but not by prescribing one ideal way to live. Instead, it can offer adaptable, body-aware practices that meet people where they are. It can help us shift away from the mental checklist of what we should be doing and move toward actually embodying qualities like awareness, adaptability, rest and just giving ourselves the same grace and leeway we do others. Over time, that can increase our capacity for dealing with life and it’s changes