The Four Agreements: Timeless Wisdom from the Toltec Culture

Plus, last chance to enter the August raffle

I’m Brandon Wilson. I am constantly working toward improving my mind, body, and spirit using various ancient techniques and cutting-edge biohacking tools and devices. I want to be healthy, but not at the expense of being happy. This simple idea is what it means to be wellthy.

First time reading? Let’s get you in the club.

---

🎧 Audio Teaser

Here is a taste of the audio voiceover that Be Wellthy Club members can listen to in every newsletter.

The Toltec culture thrived in what is now central Mexico from the 10th to the 12th century CE.¹ The Toltecs were known as great warriors, but they were also scientists and artists who formed a society to explore and conserve the spiritual knowledge and practices of the ancient ones.

Massive Toltec Atlantean columns of Pyramid B in Tula

Don Miguel Ruiz was born into a family of healers in rural Mexico. He attended medical school and became a surgeon. After a near-death experience in the early 1970s, Don Miguel embarked on a spiritual journey that led him to understand the ancient wisdom from his lineage.

He captured this wisdom and published The Four Agreements in 1997. This book has sold over 15 million copies in the United States and has been on the New York Times Best-Selling list for over a decade. I recently decided to re-read the book and remind myself about these powerful concepts. Allow me to share a summary of my takeaways.

The Four Agreements

The first agreement: Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using words to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

The word is a potent force, a power to express, communicate, think, and create the events in your life. The word impeccable comes from the Latin im - without and peccare - to sin. Most people are familiar with sin as a religious concept, but you can view it more generally. A sin is anything you do that goes against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions but do not judge or blame yourself. You can measure the impeccability of your word by your level of self-love. How much you love yourself and how you feel about yourself are directly proportionate to the quality and integrity of your word.

“In your whole life nobody has ever abused you more than you have abused yourself. And the limit of your self-abuse is exactly the limit that you will tolerate from someone else. If someone abuses you a little more than you abuse yourself, you will probably walk away from that person. But if someone abuses you a little less than you abuse yourself, you will probably stay in the relationship and tolerate it endlessly.” from The Four Agreeements by Don Miguel Ruiz

The second agreement: Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Personal importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we assume everything is about “me.” When you take things personally, you feel offended; your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflicts. Even your opinions about yourself are not necessarily valid, so don’t take what you hear in your mind personally. The mind is divided like the body is divided. Just like you can use one hand to shake and feel your other hand, the mind can talk to itself.

The third agreement: Don’t make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and express what you want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama.

The problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are the truth. The biggest assumption humans make is that we assume that others think the way we think, feel the way we feel, and judge the way we judge. To keep yourself from making assumptions, ask questions and communicate clearly.

The fourth agreement: Always do your best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment. It will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Doing your best is taking action because you love it, not because you’re expecting a reward. Most people do precisely the opposite: They only take action when they expect a reward, and they don’t enjoy the action. Doing your best doesn’t feel like work because you enjoy whatever you do. You can only be you when you do your best. When you don’t do your best, you deny yourself the right to be you. You were born with the right to be happy. You were born with the right to love, enjoy, and share your love. You are alive, so take your life and enjoy it.

“The only measure of success is joy.” —Deepak Chopra

The Four Agreements summarize the mastery of transformation, one of the Toltec masteries. This short book (140 pages) is full of examples and insights worth exploring.

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz

Audiobook or Kindle or Paperback

(Note: These are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

---

The Daily Habit is where I share my habits related to the fundamentals: sleep, diet, physical activity, mindfulness, and stress management.

Take daily actions toward implementing the Four Agreements:

• Think before you speak. Ask yourself, “Is it true, is it necessary, is it kind?”

• Consciously avoid gossip.

• When you are upset by someone’s words or actions, pause and remind yourself that their behavior reflects their reality and not yours.

• When in doubt, ask questions.

• Be clear in your communication.

• Be kind to yourself when your best isn’t up to your usual standard.

---

I start every morning with a glass of filtered, structured water with BEAM minerals. This is the best mineral supplement on the market, in my opinion. They even have formulations for dogs and cats and a cheaper pill form of the liquid supplement. I provided more details in a previous newsletter. Go to the BEAM minerals website and use code BRANDON51920 to save 20%.

---

Last week’s answer

Free raffle entrants: Patty B., Tobias L.

Be Wellthy Club entrants: Scott L., Amy S., Ariel E., Scott S., Renata B.

Free subscribers can still enter to win one monthly raffle prize. Club members get an automatic entry each month to win one of two monthly raffle prizes. All you have to do is email bewellthy@substack.com the correct answer to each week’s brain training, and you will be entered into a monthly raffle to win cool biohacking prizes. You must be a subscriber to win! I do respond to every email.

This week:

I have two puzzles for you. Answer either one for one raffle entry or both for two raffle entries.

1. Your parents have six sons, including you, and each son has one sister. How many people are in the family?

2. I am the beginning of sorrow and the end of sickness. You cannot express happiness without me, yet I am in the midst of crosses. I am always in risk, yet never in danger. You may find me in the sun, but I am never out of darkness. What am I?

See the answer.

---

A year ago, I shared some of the tools I use to measure my health. The data don’t lie, and it’s essential to know your numbers well before reaching a disease state.

Keep your loved ones informed with the most up-to-date information about wellness by sharing this newsletter.

1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Toltec