7 PILLARS OF MENTAL FITNESS
The first book that turns mental health into mental fitness
The First Book To Turn Mental Health Into Mental Fitness.
7 Pillars of Mental Fitness
Discover a framework to train your mind the way the top 1% do.
We're launching our Book on Kickstarter soon, sign up to get your Early Bird Discount and get notified
Discover a framework to train your mind the way the top 1% do.
We're launching our Book on Kickstarter soon, sign up to get your Early Bird Discount and get notified
Our ability to deal with stress ….. is directly related to our capacity for success.
Our ability to deal with stress ….. is directly related to our capacity for success.
Here’s some of what you will get from this book
Here’s some of what you will get from this book
Your own 7 Pillars Diagnostic tool, so you know exactly where you stand and what to train.
Your own 7 Pillars Diagnostic tool, so you know exactly where you stand and what to train.
Sharper Focus & Real Accomplishment – Move beyond distraction and actually finish what matters.
Sharper Focus & Real Accomplishment – Move beyond distraction and actually finish what matters.
Stronger Emotional Intelligence– Read yourself and others with clarity, building trust and connection.
Stronger Emotional Intelligence– Read yourself and others with clarity, building trust and connection.
Train Like The 1%
Build the mental strength top performers rely on.
launch coming soon — get notified for Early-Bird rewards.
Train Like The 1%
Build the mental strength top performers rely on.
launch coming soon — get notified for Early-Bird rewards.
Train Like The 1%
Build the mental strength top performers rely on.
launch coming soon — get notified for Early-Bird rewards.
Train Like The 1%
Build the mental strength top performers rely on.
launch coming soon — get notified for Early-Bird rewards.
"We talk about mental illness. We talk about mental health.
But there’s no language—no map—for the gray space in between.
And that’s where most of us actually live."
I'm Aram Cargill—researcher, author, and father of nine.
Professionally, my research has been published in the International Journal of Family Medicine & Healthcare, the American Journal of Neurology Research, and the International Journal of Psychiatry Research. But it was lived experience—grieving the suicide of my father, supporting neurodivergent children, navigating personal collapse—that brought this framework to life.
The 7 Pillars of Mental Fitness is that map.
It’s a science-backed, compassion-driven framework to help people build clarity, resilience, and emotional strength in a world that demands more than we were trained for.
“A groundbreaking book—where neuroscience meets heart. A powerful roadmap to a productive, connected, and heart-centered life.”
Dr. Elia Gourgouris, Author of 7 Paths to Lasting Happiness
“Strikes a rare balance between emotional depth, scientific rigor, and real-world application. One of the most important books I’ve read on mental well-being.”
Dr. Frank Forgnoni, author of VISION for All Ages
“The 7 Pillars framework shifts us away from symptom-based diagnosis and toward a neurobiological, network-level understanding of the mind. This is the direction mental healthcare needs to go.”
Dr. Adrian Hodyard, MD, ScM
What sets this book apart
It’s Built on Over 3,000 Real Lives, Not Just Theory
This framework emerged from eight years of studying high performers across continents and disciplines—entrepreneurs, athletes, soldiers, artists, and clinicians. It reflects what actually works in the real world.
It Moves Beyond Mindset into Trainable Mental Fitness
This isn’t a self-help hack or a mindset shift—it’s a full system for building clarity, resilience, and emotional strength you can return to for life..
It Bridges Neuroscience, Psychology, and Lived Experience
Grounded in science, enriched by story, and designed to be applied. The 7 Pillars don’t just explain mental fitness—they give you the tools to build it.
“A groundbreaking book—where neuroscience meets heart. A powerful roadmap to a productive, connected, and heart-centered life and mind”
Dr. Elia Gourgouris, Author of 7 Paths to Lasting Happiness
“Strikes a rare balance between emotional depth, scientific rigor, and real-world application. One of the most important books I’ve read on mental well-being.”
Dr. Frank Forgnoni, author of VISION for All Ages
“The 7 Pillars framework shifts us away from symptom-based diagnosis and toward a neurobiological, network-level understanding of the mind. This is the direction mental healthcare needs to go.”
Dr. Adrian Hodyard, MD, ScM
What sets this book apart
It’s Built on Over 3,000 Real Lives, Not Just Theory
This framework emerged from eight years of studying high performers across continents and disciplines—entrepreneurs, athletes, soldiers, artists, and clinicians. It reflects what actually works in the real world.
It Moves Beyond Mindset into Trainable Mental Fitness
This isn’t a self-help hack or a mindset shift—it’s a full system for building clarity, resilience, and emotional strength you can return to for life..
It Bridges Neuroscience, Psychology, and Lived Experience
Grounded in science, enriched by story, and designed to be applied. The 7 Pillars don’t just explain mental fitness—they give you the tools to build it.
Mental fitness starts here.
The 7 Pillars framework to strengthen focus, grit, and recovery.
Back Us on
Join the Early-Bird list to get your exclusive first-edition discount and extras.
Join the Early-Bird list to get your exclusive first-edition discount and extras.
launch coming soon!
Train Like The 1%
Build the mental strength top performers rely on.
launch coming soon — get notified for Early-Bird rewards.
What Makes This Book So Special
It’s Built on Over 3,000 Real Lives, Not Just Theory
This framework emerged from eight years of studying high performers across continents and disciplines—entrepreneurs, athletes, soldiers, artists, and clinicians. It reflects what actually works in the real world.
It Moves Beyond Mindset into Trainable Mental Fitness
This isn’t a self-help hack or a mindset shift—it’s a full system for building clarity, resilience, and emotional strength you can return to for life..
It Bridges Neuroscience, Psychology, and Lived Experience
Grounded in science, enriched by story, and designed to be applied. The 7 Pillars don’t just explain mental fitness—they give you the tools to build it.
Our ability to deal with stress ….. is directly related to our capacity for success.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Does mental fitness increase intelligence?
It doesn’t raise IQ scores overnight — but it does strengthen the foundations of intelligence that most of us overlook. Intelligence isn’t just raw brainpower; it depends on how well you can focus, adapt, recover, regulate stress, and connect with others. These are trainable capacities. The 7 Pillars of Mental Fitness build those capacities systematically. When you recover faster, you can think clearer. When your awareness sharpens, your problem-solving improves. When your attitude and grit align, you persevere where others stall. So while mental fitness won’t change the number on an IQ test, it will unlock the intelligence you already have — helping you access deeper clarity, creativity, and effectiveness under pressure. In today’s world, that’s what “smarter” really means.
Is this a mental health model or a performance model?
Is this a mental health model or a performance model? It’s both—and neither, in the way they’re commonly defined. Mental Fitness lives between the binaries. It’s not just for healing. It’s not just for optimizing. It’s for building capacity—across thresholds, across seasons, across demands. Whether you’re navigating trauma recovery, parenting in chaos, leading in complexity, or rebuilding after burnout, this framework gives you something to build on.
Why isn’t Gratitude one of the 7 Pillars?
Gratitude is powerful. It strengthens neural pathways for optimism, builds emotional regulation, and increases relational presence. But in this framework, it’s not a pillar. It’s a practice. The 7 Pillars are structural—they govern regulation, perception, persistence, and connection across all life domains. Gratitude supports several of these pillars—particularly Attitude, Awareness, and Recovery—but it doesn’t operate as a load-bearing function on its own. Think of it like hydration. Crucial to health, present in every system—but not a structural system itself. Gratitude is one of the most reliable tools for shifting your internal state. But in this model, tools serve the system; they aren’t the framework.
Why isn’t Resilience a pillar?
Because resilience is the result, not the raw material. Resilience is what emerges when the 7 Pillars are strong and well-integrated. It’s the composite outcome of vision held under pressure, grit tempered by recovery, and connectivity sustained through change. You don’t train resilience directly. You train the architecture that makes resilience possible. Think of resilience as the fruit, not the seed.
Is this based on evidence or original theory?
Both. Each pillar is grounded in decades of interdisciplinary research—cognitive neuroscience, behavioral psychology, somatic regulation, resilience theory. But the structure of the model—the way the pillars integrate, the way they stack, the way they build the “metaphysical body”—is original. It didn’t emerge from theory alone. It was forged in lived pressure. Refined in practice. And tested across hundreds of lives and contexts.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Does mental fitness increase intelligence?
It doesn’t raise IQ scores overnight — but it does strengthen the foundations of intelligence that most of us overlook. Intelligence isn’t just raw brainpower; it depends on how well you can focus, adapt, recover, regulate stress, and connect with others. These are trainable capacities. The 7 Pillars of Mental Fitness build those capacities systematically. When you recover faster, you can think clearer. When your awareness sharpens, your problem-solving improves. When your attitude and grit align, you persevere where others stall. So while mental fitness won’t change the number on an IQ test, it will unlock the intelligence you already have — helping you access deeper clarity, creativity, and effectiveness under pressure. In today’s world, that’s what “smarter” really means.
Is this a mental health model or a performance model?
Is this a mental health model or a performance model? It’s both—and neither, in the way they’re commonly defined. Mental Fitness lives between the binaries. It’s not just for healing. It’s not just for optimizing. It’s for building capacity—across thresholds, across seasons, across demands. Whether you’re navigating trauma recovery, parenting in chaos, leading in complexity, or rebuilding after burnout, this framework gives you something to build on.
Why isn’t Gratitude one of the 7 Pillars?
Gratitude is powerful. It strengthens neural pathways for optimism, builds emotional regulation, and increases relational presence. But in this framework, it’s not a pillar. It’s a practice. The 7 Pillars are structural—they govern regulation, perception, persistence, and connection across all life domains. Gratitude supports several of these pillars—particularly Attitude, Awareness, and Recovery—but it doesn’t operate as a load-bearing function on its own. Think of it like hydration. Crucial to health, present in every system—but not a structural system itself. Gratitude is one of the most reliable tools for shifting your internal state. But in this model, tools serve the system; they aren’t the framework.
Why isn’t Resilience a pillar?
Because resilience is the result, not the raw material. Resilience is what emerges when the 7 Pillars are strong and well-integrated. It’s the composite outcome of vision held under pressure, grit tempered by recovery, and connectivity sustained through change. You don’t train resilience directly. You train the architecture that makes resilience possible. Think of resilience as the fruit, not the seed.
Is this based on evidence or original theory?
Both. Each pillar is grounded in decades of interdisciplinary research—cognitive neuroscience, behavioral psychology, somatic regulation, resilience theory. But the structure of the model—the way the pillars integrate, the way they stack, the way they build the “metaphysical body”—is original. It didn’t emerge from theory alone. It was forged in lived pressure. Refined in practice. And tested across hundreds of lives and contexts.
Does mental fitness increase intelligence?
It doesn’t raise IQ scores overnight — but it does strengthen the foundations of intelligence that most of us overlook. Intelligence isn’t just raw brainpower; it depends on how well you can focus, adapt, recover, regulate stress, and connect with others. These are trainable capacities. The 7 Pillars of Mental Fitness build those capacities systematically. When you recover faster, you can think clearer. When your awareness sharpens, your problem-solving improves. When your attitude and grit align, you persevere where others stall. So while mental fitness won’t change the number on an IQ test, it will unlock the intelligence you already have — helping you access deeper clarity, creativity, and effectiveness under pressure. In today’s world, that’s what “smarter” really means.
Does mental fitness increase intelligence?
It doesn’t raise IQ scores overnight — but it does strengthen the foundations of intelligence that most of us overlook. Intelligence isn’t just raw brainpower; it depends on how well you can focus, adapt, recover, regulate stress, and connect with others. These are trainable capacities. The 7 Pillars of Mental Fitness build those capacities systematically. When you recover faster, you can think clearer. When your awareness sharpens, your problem-solving improves. When your attitude and grit align, you persevere where others stall. So while mental fitness won’t change the number on an IQ test, it will unlock the intelligence you already have — helping you access deeper clarity, creativity, and effectiveness under pressure. In today’s world, that’s what “smarter” really means.
Is this a mental health model or a performance model?
Is this a mental health model or a performance model? It’s both—and neither, in the way they’re commonly defined. Mental Fitness lives between the binaries. It’s not just for healing. It’s not just for optimizing. It’s for building capacity—across thresholds, across seasons, across demands. Whether you’re navigating trauma recovery, parenting in chaos, leading in complexity, or rebuilding after burnout, this framework gives you something to build on.
Why isn’t Gratitude one of the 7 Pillars?
Gratitude is powerful. It strengthens neural pathways for optimism, builds emotional regulation, and increases relational presence. But in this framework, it’s not a pillar. It’s a practice. The 7 Pillars are structural—they govern regulation, perception, persistence, and connection across all life domains. Gratitude supports several of these pillars—particularly Attitude, Awareness, and Recovery—but it doesn’t operate as a load-bearing function on its own. Think of it like hydration. Crucial to health, present in every system—but not a structural system itself. Gratitude is one of the most reliable tools for shifting your internal state. But in this model, tools serve the system; they aren’t the framework.
Why isn’t Resilience a pillar?
Because resilience is the result, not the raw material. Resilience is what emerges when the 7 Pillars are strong and well-integrated. It’s the composite outcome of vision held under pressure, grit tempered by recovery, and connectivity sustained through change. You don’t train resilience directly. You train the architecture that makes resilience possible. Think of resilience as the fruit, not the seed.
Is this based on evidence or original theory?
Both. Each pillar is grounded in decades of interdisciplinary research—cognitive neuroscience, behavioral psychology, somatic regulation, resilience theory. But the structure of the model—the way the pillars integrate, the way they stack, the way they build the “metaphysical body”—is original. It didn’t emerge from theory alone. It was forged in lived pressure. Refined in practice. And tested across hundreds of lives and contexts.
Does mental fitness increase intelligence?
It doesn’t raise IQ scores overnight — but it does strengthen the foundations of intelligence that most of us overlook. Intelligence isn’t just raw brainpower; it depends on how well you can focus, adapt, recover, regulate stress, and connect with others. These are trainable capacities. The 7 Pillars of Mental Fitness build those capacities systematically. When you recover faster, you can think clearer. When your awareness sharpens, your problem-solving improves. When your attitude and grit align, you persevere where others stall. So while mental fitness won’t change the number on an IQ test, it will unlock the intelligence you already have — helping you access deeper clarity, creativity, and effectiveness under pressure. In today’s world, that’s what “smarter” really means.
I'm Aram Cargill—Psychotherapist, counsellor, researcher-author, and father of nine.
Professionally, my research has been published in the International Journal of Family Medicine & Healthcare, the American Journal of Neurology Research, and the International Journal of Psychiatry Research. But it was lived experience—grieving the suicide of my father, supporting neurodivergent children, navigating personal collapse and the study of more 3000 individuals—that brought this framework to life.
I'm Aram Cargill—Psychotherapist, counsellor, researcher-author, and father of nine.
Professionally, my research has been published in the International Journal of Family Medicine & Healthcare, the American Journal of Neurology Research, and the International Journal of Psychiatry Research. But it was lived experience—grieving the suicide of my father, supporting neurodivergent children, navigating personal collapse and the study of more 3000 individuals—that brought this framework to life.