As many of you know, I returned to University at the ripe old age of 38, in order to understand the human brain and how we mentally function, in greater detail..
Yes, I am still on that mission to make the world happier!!
One of the most significant things that I have learned so far in relation to my grand mission, is all to do with evolution, which to be honest I am pretty shocked at since I am not that interested in this area of psychology.
In terms of evolution, our brains (in a nutshell), are the same level of evolutionary development as they were 12,000 years ago.
Yes, we have developed the world around us, significantly! But in terms of our brains and how our bodies work, this is still the same!
So let's look at the two differences, albeit in an massively oversimplified way;
a) Hunter-Gatherer - spend the light part of the day foraging for food. Spend the night time resting, hiding from predators and reproducing (ahem!)
b) Human in 2023 - ALARM RINGS!!!!!!! Check facebook, insta, tiktok, oh crap i'm going to be late for work, hardly slept because wife was snoring, bus is late, train is cancelled, car doesn't start, had to yell at the kids to get them moving so we wont be even later than we already are. Crap...forgot to get milk on the way home yesterday. Boss is an arse because you are late, first email of the day is from someone even grumpier than you.....all this and it's not even 9.30am and those fight or flight emotions have already been used several times.....there is much, much more to come before it's time for rest!
Do you see the point I am trying to make? Our lives have become so full of stress and deadlines and quite frankly, pointless doom-scrolling! Our poor brains don't understand if it's the kids arguing or a sabre toothed tiger running at you- it just sends the chemicals to make you react, and quickly!
It turns out, that all that reaction can be pretty bad for you if it's on a continuous loop. We need just the right balance of cortisol in our brains to allow us to thrive.
How to we find that balance - GREAT QUESTION! I am still working on that one myself! But a few great websites can explain the science far better than me and I have listed them below.
What is cortisol?
The main message that I wanted to get across in this post, is that if you feel overwhelmed, stressed and that there are not enough hours in the day to do everything that you need to do - well, sadly, that's our new normal! But we are in charge of our own destiny, and we can create the life that we want - so perhaps start today, and take one small step to creating a simpler life for you...and let's remember what our poor brains were evolved from and give ourselves a bit of a break!
Until next week...
Claire x
Comments