The Four Quadrants

I’ve been talking about how health, career, and relationships are important areas to pay attention to in life. I’m going to give a useful model to visualize these areas.


First, what is there in the universe? What do we know exists? How might we make a simple breakdown of existence?

Well, we can start with what we identify as ourself. There’s me. I know I exist. At least, there’s something that I am identifying as myself. There’s definitely a division of existence that I am identifying as me.

So is that it? Am I the only thing in existence? No, there’s other things in existence besides me. There’s… everything else. Everything not me. So, we’ll just throw everything that I am not identifying as myself into a broad “everything else / not me” division.

So now we’ve broken down all of existence into two handy divisions. Did we miss anything? No, that’s really about it. There’s me, and there’s everything that’s not me. That seems to cover it all.

Okay, now let’s see if we can break these divisions down further. If we think about it, we’ll realize that everything has an external and an internal. Everything has an objective and a subjective. Let’s apply this to our two divisions.

It is easy to see what the exterior / objective of myself is. The exterior / objective of myself is everything about me that is physically manifest and real. That includes every atom of my self, and my molecules, cells, tissues, organs, hair, skin, bones, blood, etc. Everything that is physically, objectively real about my individual self.

This upper right quadrant of our map covers the body category, the area of our physical health and fitness.

What would be the external / objective of the “everything else”, the collective (as opposed to the individual) division? Anything that is a physical, objectively real external system, i.e. political systems or economic systems or cultural systems or ecological systems.

The mind category, the area of career and finances, fits into this lower right quadrant.


As we live and exist in a collective group, there is an internal, subjective experience of interrelational reality. All internal, subjective experience of interrelationship – friends, families, romantic relationships, workplaces, communities, neighborhoods, nations, etc.

The spirit category, the area of relationships, falls into this lower left quadrant.


As we experience existence, we have an experience of an internal, subjective reality. Everything from our thoughts to our feelings to our unconscious drives are part of our internal, subjective reality.

It is recommended that we process our internal experiences through various means, including journaling, meditating, therapy, etc. An attempt at changing one’s life will inevitably stir up unconscious resistances that may derail our efforts. Without some means to combat these shadows, our efforts toward self-development and personal growth may not be as successful as they might be. Methods for working with one’s shadows are an important part of our system, and are placed in the upper left quadrant.

So our important areas of mind / career and finances, body / health and fitness, spirit / personal relationships, and shadow / emotional processing are neatly mapped onto a handy four quadrant model.

Peace,

Dave Roel.