The most alarming signs that humans are devolving are shown in both our loss of ability to move and the loss of our ability to think.
Are you able to move freely without pain? Do you just believe and do what you are told without doing any thinking or investigation yourself? Are you living a life immersed in nature, creativity and connection, or a life in a box in front of screens? Do you even feel alive?
Living a life that we have evolved to live, performing tasks vital to our survival and being able to think for oneself are becoming lost traits.
Yet if we become disconnected from our nature, are unable to move well or think critically for ourselves, can we really call ourselves human anymore?
After some reflection, here are my 4 major signs that humans are devolving, and what you can do about it;
1. Less movement capacity.
Mobility is the ability to control a joint in the body through its full range of motion. If you want to see good mobility, look at a child move; they can squat down with ease and move freely. Our sedentary lifestyles are causing us to lose this natural instinct to the point where we end up with chronic pain and struggle to perform real world tasks vital to our survival. Our movement capacity is getting so bad that even walking might become a skill of the past! Proprioception is also key for good movement capacity. This is our ability to know how our body is moving in order to stay coordinated and balanced.
What you can do about it?
- Do you spend 5 minutes a day brushing your teeth to protect your oral health? If so, it makes sense to spend 5 minutes doing the same to protect your joint health. Just 5 minutes a day can do wonders to maintain your natural movement capacity. You can even do some of it whilst cleaning your teeth! It’s easy to search for a quick mobility routine online. Here is a good short routine for starters.
- Try to move as much as you can during the day. Even little bursts of 1-2 minutes of movement every half hour or so can help limit the negative impact of being sedentary and limit the tightness in key areas such as the hips which limit our movement capacity.
- Find some kind of physical hobby that you enjoy. It could be anything from dancing to hiking to gardening to cooking. Having to go to the gym is a lie that society tells us. What we need is more movement and anything not sat in the chair is movement.
2. Less consciousness.
Our brains have not evolved to deal with the endless distractions of the attention economy we now live in. From the indoctrination at school conditioning us to be obedient to the TV advertising and media we consume telling us what to believe and polarising us, we are not taught to think for ourselves. Rather, our perception of what we should be doing and what is ‘real’ is based upon the narratives that society tells us (which often have nothing to do with the objective reality). There is even a patent allowing for ‘Nervous system manipulation by computers and TV’. So in effect your computer, phone and TV can be used by the ‘powers that be’ as a form of mind and behavior control. We are now even being encouraged not to think critically now and just accept what the state says as gospel! That’s how dumbed down they want us.
What you can do about it?
- Cultivate your own critical thinking skills by questioning everything and doing your own investigations. Go to official and alternative sources. If using peer reviewed science check who the funder is and for any vested interests.
- Look at the words and body language being used – often people’s eyes and movements betray the words they are saying. Also learn to spot propaganda disguised as science. For example, often we hear terms such as ‘experts say’, ‘scientists and studies predict’. Which experts? Which scientists and studies? Who funds them? What is the funders agenda? Is this really the consensus among most other scientists?
- Block out the noise and distractions. Meditation, breathing exercises, journaling and walks in nature are great to take a step back and ignite your intuition and consciousness.
- Learn new things; reading, studying philosophy or learning anything new spikes your worldly curiosity, keeps your brain sharp and makes you more conscious.
3. Less strength and vitality.
Men are especially much weaker now than even a generation ago. From grip strength to foot strength to bone strength, we are becoming significantly weaker. We are also becoming significantly more tired. This is all leading to health problems such as arthritis, heart disease, stroke and mental issues. When we do think of strength and vitality in today’s society, we think of someone with a six pack, a fake tan and veins popping out of their biceps. This is just a superficial notion of strength for a superficial and fake society. Real strength and vitality is feeling full of life and being able to move your body and move objects how you want in order to perform real world tasks (And by real world I mean nature… not the man made fake world).
What you can do about it?
- Participate in real world activities such as rock or tree climbing, hanging, bouldering, hillwalking and carrying. Practice earthing as making direct skin contact with the Earth’s surface provides the body with an essential source of natural antioxidants called free electrons. More advanced movements like jumping and sprinting can be performed only if you are already active and conditioned.
- Perform strength training 2-3 times a week for the key human movements such as squatting, lunging, hip hinging (deadlifting), pressing and pulling.
- Get out your comfort zone: from travelling and conversing with people from different cultures to taking exploratory hikes and adventures. Some fear is good as it keeps our instincts sharp and reminds us we are alive. We seem to have developed an obsession with safety whereby it trumps actually living the life that we are designed to be living. Staying safe in a box is not really staying safe, because it is going against our biological nature and will come back to bite us sooner or later.
- Drink filtered water and eat a variety of whole foods, especially local, seasonal organic fruits and vegetables (or better yet grow your own food). Our environment is loaded with heavy metals and toxins leading to inflammation and disease so ensuring you eat a naturally anti inflammatory diet is important to fuel your vitality.
4. Less meaningful relationships
For 99.9% of human history we couldn’t survive without the support of others in a community. Paradoxically, even though we now live closer to others in cities, we now survive without others and any sort of real community. Digital lives replacing human connection is leading to a loneliness epidemic. The solution is not as simple as just going out and meeting people because emotionally healthy and genuine people are the exception rather than the norm nowadays. The loss of consciousness (as outlined above) seems to correlate with a lack of emotional intelligence and integrity.
What you can do about it?
- Like your own company first. The best relationship you’ll have is with yourself. A healthy self image is the foundation to a good life. Increasing your consciousness (as outlined above) can help with this to help you understand that your worth is inherent and inalienable. It is not determined by what society says you should be.
- Find groups of people with similar interests. Volunteer as a gardener or join a sports team. There are many ways to meet like minded people on platforms such as gumtree and meetup. Also, you could start with online groups.
- Choose human interaction over technology. When at the supermarket, speak to the cashier. When walking, acknowledge fellow humans rather than look at your phone. Choose to meetup with friends and family in person as much as you can.
Evolve or Devolve – which do you choose?
It’s impossible to avoid all of the issues outlined above. However, we need to be conscious of them and realise that modern society is simply NOT conducive to thriving human beings anymore. Being passive isn’t good enough anymore if you want to thrive. Take action to evolve your health.