An introduction to the 4 Doctors
Working with the 4 Doctors, or as the founder of this concept Paul Chek describes them, “The Last 4 Doctors You’ll Ever Need” has been one of the most impactful practices during my own health and well-being journey. This is the bedrock foundation upon which I have developed every single practice that I currently implement on a daily basis. It also serves as a continuous point of reflection that I can turn back to if I start to feel out of balance, whether that be physically, mentally emotionally or spiritually. Cultivating a relationship with each of these “Doctors” will enable every individual, no matter their current health status, to begin to have an honest look at where in their life they are out of alignment with one or more the doctors and develop a structure that will help to bring them back into a state of harmony and flow. In this article I will look at each of the 4 Doctors; Dr. Happy, Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet and Dr. Movement, giving a breakdown of what all they encompass and my own personal journey working with each of them. No matter what walk of life you come from, the concept of the 4 Doctors can be applicable to every single individual. Each of these 4 Doctors is alive in every one of us, however aware we are of them or not. It is such a simple concept, yet it truly has had the greatest impact on a macro and micro scale in my life. It allows anyone to begin to develop an internal relationship with themselves or deepen one that might already be present. So let’s dive in to each of these Doctors individually and see how you can begin to work with them to become a more whole and harmonized human being!
Dr. Happy
“Dr. Happy is the dreamer don’t you know?”
Dr. Happy is the chief physician amongst all the doctors, because without the guidance from this doctor, our other 3 doctors can steer us off course and lead us out of a state of balance if they are not kept within the confines that the wisdom Dr. Happy provides us. Dr. Happy is deeply connected to our One Love, our guiding vision that we see for ourselves and the life that we live, now and in the future. Dr. Happy also helps us to determine what we need on a daily or routine basis that is happy-making for us in our lives.
Are we spending too much time working and that is preventing us from pursuing a passion or hobby that we know deep down would improve our lives rather than just always chasing another paycheck? When was the last time we did something just for the joy and pleasure of it? Rather than just knocking another item off the to-do list, caught in the routine of day to day life that is such an easy trap to fall into. Is the person I am in a relationship with truly someone that I want to be with and create a life together with? Are the people I spend most of my free time around bringing more love and joy into my life? These are just a small sample of questions that Dr. Happy encourages us to ask and provides a brilliant reflection point for us to address them and determine what changes we can make that will enable us to life a happier and more joy filled existence.
Dr. Movement
“Dr. Movement animates life”
On a purely physical aspect, Dr. Movement is our relationship to the amount of movement on a daily or routine basis that we need to properly maintain our physical health. Are we not moving enough? With spending much of our lives in the modern world sitting in front of screens for occupations and then going home to sit in front of the TV or on our phones, it is very easy for us to go days in a row without really providing our bodies with the needed physical stress that intentional movement and exercise can provide. On the flip side of this, are we taxing our bodies too much from a physical perspective? This is often very common, especially for those who enjoy living a very active lifestyle, not being able to recognize when our bodies might not actually benefit from more exercise or physical stress. This was a big realization for myself, having been involved in athletics my entire life, it was actually very hard for me to give my body the adequate rest time that it needed so that I was able to perform and feel my best from a physical stance. The internal pressure of always feeling like I needed to be doing something that was physically active every single day drove me to push through pain and exhaustion, leading to a diminishing return from every workout and leaving my body in a state of constant fatigue and discomfort.
This is where the concept of “working in” has been revolutionary in my own health journey. “Working in” can be defined as any movement that produces more energy per unit of time that it is performed than is taken away by the movement itself. Examples of these are the zone exercises that were developed by Paul Chek which includes a vast variety of different movements that correspond to a particular zone, or chakra in the body. How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy by Paul Chek is a phenomenal resource for these exercises, as well as for a plethora of other concepts for anyone looking to improve their health from a holistic perspective, I truly cannot recommend this book enough. Working in allows us to still scratch the itch of getting some sort of movement in to our daily lives, but provides us with a nourishing energy accumulation practice, rather than continuously performing exercises or workouts that take from a cup that might be nearly empty to start with.
From a metaphysical perspective, Dr. Movement allows us to reflect on our movement along our dream line. Are we making positive strides towards living the life that we envision for ourself or do we feel stagnant where we are currently? If we feel like we are at a sticking point, what actions can be taken to help move the needle back into the positive direction and allow us to make progress towards our goals? This is also where Dr. Happy can come in for a consultation and it is easy to see how each of the Doctors are related and depend on each other for wisdom and guidance.
Dr. Diet
“Dr. Diet builds your temple, a body for your mind!’
Working with Dr. Diet allows us to bring conscious awareness to what we are bringing into our bodies and minds both from a physical perspective but also non-physically. From the physical point of view, are we eating foods that are nourishing our bodies and providing us with the necessary nutrients that will enable us to live out our full potential? Are we caught in diet dogma, ignoring the signals our body is sending us that our current diet isn’t what is best for our individual needs even though we have always eaten a certain way or it was beneficial for someone else? Are we drinking enough high quality water each day or even possibly too much water and other drinks that are taking nourishment away from our bodies?
It is important to develop a relationship with Dr. Diet because our bodies are always sending us signals and messages about whether something is or isn’t right for us. Working with Dr. Diet allows us to see that each person has their own unique needs for their physiology and gives us the space to realize that just because a diet or way of living works for one person, doesn’t necessarily mean that it will also work for us (which is true for the other three doctors as well.) I have personally been caught in this trap multiple times in my life, seeing or hearing someone preach about their way of eating that gave them extraordinary benefits and great health, only to find that I was feeling worse by attempting to imitate them without ever really checking in with myself to see if what I was experiencing was really true or not.
Dr. Diet also allows us to check in with ourselves to determine if the content and information diet we are consuming on a daily basis is nourishing or diminishing us. In todays world, it is so easy to fall into the web of nonsense and pointless information/content that is on the internet. With Dr. Diet, we can assess if we are being caught in what Erick Godsey calls “The Shimmer” or if we are using it to our advantage. This is probably the greatest challenge of our age, to hone in our attention and to not let our energy mindlessly slip away for hours at a time. The Shimmer is specifically designed to harvest our attention and energy at a level so sophisticated it is hard for almost anyone to comprehend. Being able to cultivate the awareness around this and our relationship to it is the first step in breaking free from the grips that currently have a chokehold around the collectives life-force. With this new awareness and level of consciousness around our metaphysical “diet”, we are able to dedicate the freed up energy towards our dream and living the life that we see for ourselves in the world.
Dr. Quiet
“Dr. Quiet she is Yin oh how she loves to bring energy in!”
Probably the most overlooked and under utilized of the 4 Doctors is Dr. Quiet. In an age where our attention is being competed for on countless fronts, without awareness around where we are directing our energy, we can quite easily find ourselves walking blindly through life only to look up and find that we have dramatically fallen off of our dream path. Dr. Quiet provides us with the necessary introspective time where we can examine things on a micro scale such as our day to day experience but as well as the macro in relation to our one love and dream that we see for ourselves in this life. Dr. Quiet gives us the gift of being able to develop an internal relationship with ourselves that is so crucial to cultivate in order to truly evolve to higher levels of consciousness and to become a more actualized individual.
In my own life, Dr. Quiet has allowed me to sit down on a routine basis and get clear on what the values and principles that I want to build my life around are and contemplate how I want to show up in the world. Working with Dr. Quiet I have also had multiple opportunities to confront myself and determine if a current pattern I am operating under is really working for me. Asking myself the question “is it really true?” has been such a simple but profound impetus for quite a lot of change in my life. Spending time with Dr. Quiet has allowed me to determine my needs in relationship, both my own internal relationship as well as all other relationships with the people I am closely connected with. Above all, Dr. Quiet is our main point of reflection for us to see where we are either in alignment or if something is steering us towards imbalance. Without the proper time each day or on a routine basis to check in with yourself, it is easier than ever to sleep walk your way through life.
No one is coming to rescue us from the predicament we find ourselves in as a collective. It is up to those who are willing to take radical responsibility for the reality they create each and every day to show up for themselves first and foremost so they then can show up for those around them. That is the beauty in beginning to work with these four doctors as described above, it allows each individual to fully show up for themselves, or even see where they might not be, being held back by old programming or wounding. I cannot encourage every person who reads this enough to start to develop a relationship with these Four Doctors, it truly has been one of the most impactful practices of my life and has led me to be the happiest and healthiest I have ever been! I hope that you all can feel the same and wish you luck on your journey working with these last four doctors that you’ll ever need!