Anxiety, the Gift that Keeps on Giving
Modern humans experiencing life in a fabricated world has drastically increased the rates of anxiety. Many of us live in an over worked society while also maintaining relationships, financial stability, personal goals and of course self care! Anxiety once had a useful role thousands of years ago where our ancestors hunted and gathered subsistence to survive, and needed to prepare to fight off predators if needed.
During these times, hunters and gatherers experienced a fight and flight response (also known as anxiety) to danger which at the time served well as a survival mechanism. Fast forward to present day where many people still experience this similar anxiety, but not in the same way as our ancient kin. Naturally, humans are genetically programmed to experience this emotion, however it is becoming more of a commonality for people to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders.
Nowadays, our bodies response to what the mind detects as danger could easily stem from circumstances not related to being attacked by a lion. The body’s extreme response, and often times crippling response, to anxiety-triggering events which are not necessarily life or death. These types of reactions to the environment around us are counter-productive for people working towards achieving goals and other life agendas.
No doubt, modern humans living in an artificial world has drastically increased the rates of anxiety within our society. So, how did we get to this point in our evolution where we are experiencing a startling amount of people suffering from anxiety and depression? Let’s begin by going back 200,000 years ago when the earliest recorded remains of modern humans, also referred to as Homo sapiens sapiens was discovered.
Before we, current modern humans habited the world, there were other earlier human like species who lived on Earth. These earlier species lived in a very different world to us of how we live today which is defined as an immediate return environment. Meaning, the basics for life’s existence such as food, water and shelter and of course survival were the only daily priorities.
For example, living in an immediate return environment if you haven’t eaten or drank and needed food and water, that would be your next to do on the agenda. If you were hunting or gathering food for dinner and a lion appeared in front of you, your fight or flight (anxiety) would flare up and you would then need to fight or run for your life. This type of anxiety served as an advantage for our evolutionary tasks: Survival and reproduction.
This type of brain activity was designed for survival and is essentially part of the reason we are here today, and simultaneously helped to protect earlier humans living in the world at that time. The brain was originally built to solve short term problems and acute problems such as being hungry or thirsty. Living in an immediate return environment, the only problems experienced are acute, so there is no chronic stress. Once the lion is gone, the anxiety dissipates and you go on with your day.
During the last 500 years humans have moved away from living in an immediate return environment and transitioned to living in a delayed return environment. The world we experience today. In respects to evolution history, 500 years is not a lot of time and to think of all the things that have happened within this short amount of time. The industrial revolution, the invention of cars, the development of technology!
No wonder our brains are in overdrive. Our brain, the same brain as our Palaeolithic ancestors are still adjusting to the environment before us. Historically speaking, in particular to the brain, our modern society is a very new experience. The overlap of living in a modern, fabricated world and our old brain has gradually come to a pinnacle.
For the first time in human history, people are required to think short term and also plan for the extended future like retirement. And everything that happens in-between. Old age brains, modern living, and the influx of information we receive from progressively advanced technology, which is constantly being developed, is a perfect storm for the surplus of anxiety diagnoses.
We have certainly achieved many outstanding milestones as a species, yet it has come with a cost. We are anxious as ever. We were never designed for this kind of environment. So how do we manage to overcome this? The antidote to anxiety is meditation and mindfulness, a valuable brain technique which is used to avoid default responses to stimuli and is a beneficial tool to allow yourself to be immersed in the emotional experience you may be in.
It is innate to experience emotions as humans, so learning to honour them as companions is key. We can also set daily goals and track our successes to help us navigate the uncertainty, and to influence the outcome of the future. If you are thinking of what can go wrong in the future, think of the action that can be taken today which could help alleviate the possibility of the worry to occur. For example, if your worry is about retirement, start saving a small part of your income and put it away into a savings account.
As many people with anxiety experience, the uncertainty of life is a major contributor to anxiousness. Our minds make up stories and the internal dialogue comes to irrational conclusions, thus catapulting anxiety through the roof (I know by experience and I know I’m not alone). This is a shy snippet of anxiety but an example nonetheless. The best solution for adjusting to our new environment as humans is to invest in self-care and to most importantly be patient with yourself. It is a crazy world we live in and it does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
Over the course of time, humans evolved to have emotional reactions to all types of stimuli ranging from spiders to public speaking. Formerly, emotional reactions had been greatly attributed to our evolution as a species, but they don’t always lead to happiness, especially in the modern world. Anxiety was once a necessary and productive emotion for surviving in an environment where animals may kill you.
Gearing up with effective tools will enable a life where anxiety will no longer be the one in control. The more we invest in our self-care and become increasingly aware of ourselves in respects to how we interact to the world around us, will inevitably lead to a less stressful life. We are equipped with our ancestral DNA, and so with this in mind it is something humans have mostly always experienced. Like our hunter & gatherer ancestors used anxiety to their advantage, we can learn to appreciate the evolution voyage of which anxiety has transmitted.
Our ancestors lived in an immediate-return environment, so their actions instantly delivered clear and immediate outcomes. At the present time, our priorities overreach into long-term trajectories and many of our actions do not deliver the same instant gratification. Moreover, one of the true powers of being your best self in this kind of environment is practising delayed gratification. Most of our decisions we make today will not give us immediate feedback. This is where exercising the brain to be mindful of ourselves and the decisions we make will serve as an advantage. Measuring the things that are important and shifting the worry to daily practices that pay off in the long run will help to reduce some uncertainty of life.
Living in a delayed-return environment, the lack of rapid feedback causes chronic stress. Without a way to quantify our decisions for the future it is easy to get caught up in the unknowing matrix. Altering the way we perceive anxiety may offer assistance to further understanding the emotion itself. While it served as a survival advantage historically, we can exercise the idea of the many possibilities of what the future may hold. If we knew everything that would happen in our lives, I believe it would make for an extremely boring world. The uncertainty and the unpredictable element is a formula for an exciting life. Learning to respect and acknowledge the very unique brain that makes us human is something I have come to be truly grateful for.
The gift our ancestors left us is the opportunity to utlilize the remnants of our evolution as a means to better ourselves. By learning to use techniques like meditation and mindfulness, time can be spent doing things that truly matter. I have experienced a significant amount of benefit by practicing these techniques and hope you find it in yourself if you are struggling with anxiety to try it out too. I will end this by saying. Thank you ancestors.
