Health, resilience, preparedness
An interesting measure of our health is our survival preparedness if we found ourselves marooned on an island...
Modern human and societal understanding of health tends to be based on some big assumptions and beliefs:
that we can make a phone call
that we can get tablets and chemical medication
that we can visit a chemist shop or grocery store
that there’s some sort of ‘health service’ or ‘emergency service’ like police, fire-service, ambulances, hospitals, etc
that there is internet and television and radio
that there is electricity and gas
that there is some sort of local governance and organisation
that we can discuss and cooperate with other people nearby
But think for a moment, what if none of this was available to us?
For whatever reason.
Really think about it.
Could you survive?
Do you believe you are mentally, physically and spiritually resilient and resourceful and creative enough to survive without any of these aspects and huge comforts of modern life?
Of course for the vast majority of people we only discover our depth of resolve and abilities to survive, alone, without any of the above ‘givens’ when we are forced to try.
Even the climbers of Everest mostly have huge support teams.
The runners of the Marathon des Sables are part of a vast support system of people and logistics.
The homeless certainly know a lot about survival, but typically they are quite or seriously ill, despite being generally able to access food, even if it is out of bins, and they have access to emergency services, charity and companionship.
Health and resilience are about much more than living in the modern world.
Health and resilience are about a strength of spirit and a trust in oneself to survive living with nature and energies that we cannot explain.
Each of us is born fearless.
We become more fearful as we age; becoming increasingly conditioned to believe that we are dependent on the unnatural world that humans have created.
The opposite is true. The unnatural world we have created in the past few thousand years has made us less healthy, in every way that we would understand being human and well.
Nature and energies that defy explanation are what sustain us.
What excites you?
Shopping and getting drunk?
Or the thought that you can become fearless again?