In many ways, we live much better, longer lives than Early Man, who was considered old at 30 and did not have any of the huge advantages of medical technology, global communication and ease of travel that enrich our lives so much today.
In other ways however, we’re much worse off. Even though we have almost infinite information literally at our fingertips, we could learn much from our ancient ancestors about how to live simple and authentic lives.
Take stress. Stress in the 21st Century has a very bad reputation – and for good reason. Our economies lose millions of man hours every year because 60% of our work force takes time off to deal with stress-related illness.
Originally though, stress – which is closely linked to our fear triggers – was designed to keep us safe and increase our chances of survival in threatening situations. Physical responses, such as increased blood pressure and heart rate, helped make us stronger and react quicker when danger struck. And as long as stress was only occasional, these responses didn’t hurt us. The problem with modern day life is that stress is often a constant state, and that’s why it’s making us sick.
You Are Stronger Than Your Stress
We tend to just accept stress as an inescapable bolt-on to life, and that the best we can hope for is to manage it to a degree where we can still go to work each day. This is simply not the case. We have to realise that what makes us human and what makes us stressed are two different things. We can learn to not only manage our stress, or even reduce it, but to actually gain mastery over it. And this comes from understanding and eliminating the root cause of much of our stress – our own thoughts!
“The truth is that stress doesn’t come from your boss, your kids, your spouse, traffic jams, health challenges, or other circumstances. It comes from your thoughts about your circumstances.” – Andrew Bernstein, author
It’s obviously not healthy – or even possible – to be positive about every bad experience, especially a truly awful one. And it’s perfectly OK to feel stress at these times, and to admit that despite your best intentions, life does just suck occasionally. But by learning to reframe the more everyday negative experiences, you’ll go a long way towards lessening their impact on your happiness and health.