In Debt to Ourselves
In our modern environment we are utterly inundated with stimuli. It’s a never ending circus of distraction, stimulation, and attention grabbing. Regardless of the source of attention grabbing, the common thread is that our time and presence has been monetized. Our entire human experience has become a means of consumption that creates profits. A theme of the entire circus is something that has become exceedingly common in wellness spaces as well: We are beyond rich in information, but we are in extreme poverty of human experiences.
Think of the wellness spaces you are a part of. This blog included, everything discussed is tips, tools, data, information, science, and protocols about wellness. It is information, information, information. There is an endless amount of information as it pertains to wellness. It’s a frustrating aspect of the industry as a whole that we are perpetually flooded with information about how we can optimize our wellness. There is conflicting evidence depending on who you listen to, the science you can keep up with is always saying something different or new, and the information you have heard in the past might be considered outdated. Health and wellness information seems to be ever changing and evolving and is perpetually monetizable. The funny part about this information is that it is classically cyclical. It almost always seems to come full circle at some point in time. By full circle, I mean we continually move as far away from our biological norms as humans as possible, only to consistently find the “groundbreaking” health and wellness information that comes out as “new” is in some way shape or form something we have or had been doing as humans for thousands upon thousands of years.
Think of the timeline this way: the first modern human (homo sapiens-sapiens) hunter gatherers emerged around 250,00-200,000 years ago. Hunter gatherer tribes still exist today. Ironically enough, this allows us to have incredible access to, you guessed it, information about how they live and how they spend their time. But there is something particularly unique about this form of information: it is all remarkably simple. Most of the information provided to us by the wellness industry gives us information that leads us to acquiring more information. Most of the information we obtain from studying, coming from people I refer to as wild humans (modern hunter-gatherers), gives us access to practices that are entirely free. They cost nothing for you to begin using and implementing, yet they are some of the most empowering and beautiful tools you can use, and instead of giving you more and more information, they grace you with experiences.
As I have mentioned before, the human organism has basic needs of sunlight, movement, procreation, food, sleep, connection and community, and creativity. Wild humans obtain these needs through means that are built directly into their environment. They don’t need to collect information to implement their naturally occurring “wellness practices”. It’s a process that comes to them via their relationship to their environment, and it allows them to be tremendously rich in human experiences.
In our modern environments, essentially the opposite is true. The biological norms and needs of humans have been turned into social extremes. In place of natural connection with our environments as children, which is phenomenal for learning, connecting to ourselves, and gaining a wealth of human experiences, we are endlessly educated; inundated with information, that is, in an environment disconnected from the one in which we use the information it is we are learning. This “educating” continues through until we are adults, and we spend such a massive portion of our young lives simply taking in information, depriving us of opportunities to become rich in experiences that connect us to our environment and to other humans. We wind up with so much information that we end up not knowing how to use it, rendering us impoverished in human experiences.
When I say human experiences, what am I referring to? I am referencing the tangible, undeniably powerful experiences in which we feel deeply connected to nature, ourselves, and other humans. This lack of connection to nature, self, and others has left us bereft and devoid of experiences that remind us and make us feel we are human, and it has created the bedrock upon which a society hellbent on destruction and dehumanization can thrive.
I cannot stress enough: we are information rich and impoverished of experiences. That being said, a slight perspective shift is remarkably helpful in framing a new lens on how we can experience, and not just take in information about, our own health and wellness. My offer here is to take a moment and strip away the tools, the gear, the equipment, the supplements, the ideologies, everything. Take a moment and examine what you have in your human body. It is enough, it is whole, and it has every desire and capability to be completely and perfectly healthy, right here, right now. Every capability and strength that allowed our ancestors to overcome tremendous adversity came from a body designed exactly the way your body is. At some point along the way, we were bamboozled into believing that all of the tools for wellness come from outside of us, as though we are somehow inherently in a state of lack. Internally, we possess everything we need to be healthy and whole. The intuition, the movement capacity, the healing potential, is all inside and is entirely accessible if we create and hold space for it.
Here are some tools that are completely free of charge and cost that can be used to foster a connection to and create experiential wealth within yourself:
Connect with your breath. Close your eyes, take a slow, deep breath in through your nose, and on the even slower exhale pay attention to the sensation in your body. Connect with your emotional, physical, and mental awareness, feeling into the sensation that all of your needs are met, and you have everything you need.
Stand on the ground with your bare feet. 26 bones, 33 joints, over one hundred muscles, and anywhere from 100,00-200,000 nerve receptors. The bottoms of your feet are as sensitive as your genitals. Our feet provide an understanding of and connection to the Earth beneath our feet, allowing us a direct line of communication with our environment. Spend more time barefoot (especially in nature) instead of putting 2 inches of rubber and plastic between the Earth and you.
Do something difficult and learn to become comfortable being uncomfortable. It can be a cold shower, a hard workout, a sit in the sauna, stepping outside in unpleasant weather, anything that puts you outside of your comfort zone. In these moments, you will connect with not only the true power of your body, but also the power of your mind. The only buy-in here is that you are willing to challenge yourself. Our ancestors traversed and survived terrains far beyond what most of us even dream of, and the entirety of this ancestral power is still baked into our DNA.
Today, I am honored to leave you with wise words from Eleanor Roosevelt:
The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
With all my heart and precious time,
Noah
