Column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces. (paraphrased from Wikipedia)

So if you consider STRESS, which is the number one player in illness, you can see that a column or pillar is what helps to keep the roof from collapsing.  Moreover, a good column resists lateral forces as well.

Why 5?  Simply because they are easy to remember.  I created an interactive presentation for children and used this sheet for kids to color and discuss these important aspects of health, presenting to kids from Kindergarten to High School, from Elementary Schools to the Boys and Girls club, and this simple exercise started some incredible discusssions with all ages as the floor opened and kids would find an aspect of one of these five things that they wondered about or had a story to share.

I had kids do affirmations and I found that in Junior High, the teens were so self-conscious that they had trouble finding something good to say about themselves, whereas in Kindergarten, children were buoyant and happy to identify what makes them special.  It seems to me that we have the right idea with the very young, but somewhere along the way our children find cynicism about themselves.  Part of it is the psychological stages of development, but I am sure that it is also influenced by media, family, and peers.

And by the way, everybody likes crayons and coloring–it doesn’t matter how old you are.  I initially developed this sheet for the young, but found that the high school students were also drawn to coloring and decorating their “hands.”  I had older kids trace their own hands and create this picture themselves, decorating it as they saw fit, one finger at a time.  Oh, and everybody likes stickers, too!

One of the teachers creatively suggested the following slogan:  Giving Health a High Five!