150. mistaken acceptance
Comfort and acceptance have become mistakenly interchangeable. It’s commonly thought that we can all lead greater and more fulfilling lives, if only we were able to accept the things we cannot change instead of allowing them to fill our days with concern, right? Wrong. That is the slippery slope of acceptance.
The vast majority of what we choose to accept, in an effort to preserve a level of comfort, is in fact malleable. Everything from our station in life, career path, relationships with others, financial woes, and even the limits placed upon a supposed disability are changeable. Yet, it is far more comfortable to accept them as they are, than to make a concerted effort to change the situation for the better.
Our belief that something is unchangeable, is simply that; a belief. A story we have constructed for ourselves to find comfort in the “what is.” We are constantly finding bias against the way things could be, and instead opting to find comfort in the way things are. All because it is easier to accept a situation we know, instead of stepping into the unknown to create a life that is far more fulfilling than the one you currently find yourself within. We’re all erroneously choosing to live within the bounds of the old idiom; “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.”
66. life is too easy
Life is too easy. We’re all suffering from a deficit of physical challenge, exposure, and adversity. Modern life simply isn’t hard enough to promote optimal health. We sit too much. Move too little. Spend too much time indoors. And graze on “food” far too frequently. Our lives have become so easy that it’s detrimental.
We no longer need to hunt, gather, expose ourselves to the outdoors, fight or flee to survive, and rarely are we ever truly starving. Virtually everything our ancestors struggled for is now readily accessible to us. We’ve taken complete advantage of our ingenuity, and shifted away from the necessity to actively survive. Our bodies are inadequately challenged and our health is paying the price. The environment we built to serve our desires for comfort is failing to challenge our original programming past down from our ancestors. The stressors that made our species thrive are no longer applicable. We basically live in a zoo of our own creation.
If we wish to optimize our health we’re going to have to get out of the zoo and back into the jungle. This isn’t to say that we need to go live in a tree, but that we need to reintroduce ourselves to a little bit of discomfort. Everyone from Ancestral Health enthusiasts to Exercise Scientists understand that challenging the body in almost any form makes us stronger individuals — both in body and mind. We need to add some adversity back into our lives. Physically challenge our bodies by engaging in activities that push us to move in different ways. Expose ourselves to some of the elements by sweating in the sun or catching a chill from the ocean. In a sense, adversity nourishes the resiliency we once had, and without it, we will surely lose. It may be unpleasant to get started, but in the long run we’ll be better off.