Hunter-Gatherer's Survival Guide for the 21st Century- 4 Daily Habits
so [Music] foreign focus who are you meant to be i am your inner hunter-gatherer here to help you out tell me you look concerned about something maybe i can help you wouldn't understand okay nonsense i can help with anything come on tell me well where to start money bills politics pandemic fuel costs no one like my picture my cryptocurrency hasn't grown i should be successful existential i should be working i should have a better body but it should be a holiday in a sunny place hmm what well your numbers yes are you i'm sorry can't help you with that but i can help you with something i can show you the problems that your mind and body are hard wired to solve so that maybe you can find some habits and routines that will help you in your daily life while also training you for some basic survival and help keep me happy who are you again your inner hunter gatherer right right well go on let's get you moving here's the stick here's the ball careful those are pointy let's go you folks come too if you want hi folks time for fan diabetes thanks for tuning in so if you're new to the channel basically for the past four years i've been trying to make my living around my passion for wilderness survival skills i make youtube videos about it and i teach courses on it and through this i've kind of found myself living these two paradoxical lives on the one hand to spend a lot of time living in the forest out of phone signal being really active living simply and close to nature but on the other hand in order to edit and share videos and run a business i spend a lot of time sitting at a desk staring at a screen using technology for editing social media answering emails and driving around the country in my van so you can say i'm living both a historical and modern life at the same time and this has made me wonder about the difference of everyday challenges people have faced throughout the ages now throughout the ages humans have always had problems i'm not here to judge whose problems are worse just to recognize how they've changed for most of our past you'd be much more likely to suffer accidents and injuries from living a very active lifestyle something as small as a infected splinter could be a death sentence and starvation was ever present because it's really not easy to get enough food off the land with basic tools and weapons paradoxically nowadays at least in the modern western world you're statistically more likely to get health problems from living an inactive lifestyle from over eating and from mental illness so what can we learn here it's easy to see how modern technology has solved the problems of history but can we use our understanding of history to better solve the problems of the day what are the problems we've evolved to face that our mind and bodies are designed to confront and can we use this to better understand our brain chemistry so that we can find habits lifestyles ways of moving ways of thinking that can help us find balance in whatever present situation we find ourselves in now generally when people talk about survival we're talking about skills that help you in a crisis whether it's a plane crash a natural disaster being lost in the wilderness we're not talking about the everyday but there's a great quote from the russian playwright anton chevok that inspired this video and it goes any fool can cope with a crisis the difficult thing is to cope with everyday life but this got me thinking why can't i do both can i find routines that help train me for the complete back to basics hunter-gatherer survival scenario that also help me stay sane and healthy in the modern every day so for this video i've come up with what i think are four useful very basic hunter-gatherer survival skills that we can train as well as three modern day challenges that i feel are very unique to human history i've then come up with four habits and routines that i've been trying to implement into my day or my week to both help keep my inner hunter gatherer happy while also help me deal with the new modern day challenges and hopefully you'll find some of it useful now if you want to learn more you can go check out my playlists i've got some on survival trips highlander survival archery martial arts and much more if that still doesn't satisfy you go to my patreon page donate what you want and there you'll find a reference list of all the books and learning resources i used for this video if that still doesn't tickle your learning taste buds then click the link below and try a free trial with wanderium there you'll find a bunch of related in-depth online courses now if it wasn't for my patrons and sponsors like wanderium i simply couldn't spend as much time making youtube videos and would have to spend the time and other sources of income so clicking that link really does help folks a fascinating course i'd recommend is called food science and the human body and they've even got an episode discussing our hunter-gatherer past the hadza tribe of tanzania are one of the last hunter-gatherer groups left on the planet and have been found to have an unbroken genetic line going back between 35 and 50 000 years i learned this and many other mind-blowing facts from this course that discusses tribes like the hadza to study the origins of human nutrition one dream is the rebrand of the great courses plus and it's basically the netflix of learning but now with even more courses to choose from on one subscription you get access to thousands of courses on pretty much any subject you can think of from science music history philosophy relationship advice building a business you name it they've got it there's no homework or tests you just learn whatever you want whenever you want subjects are given by experts in their field from ivy league universities or organizations like national geographic and content is updated monthly favorite thing about it is you can download the audio of the lectures on your phone so you can listen to it whenever you want i also like the university style of lectures as it gives you a great academic background and context for every subject some past courses i've enjoyed include the celtic world surviving any disaster and cooking across the ages as well as real zen for real life you can try it out for free by going to wandream.com forward slash vandaby dozy or click the link in the description below but without further ado let's get into it let's first look at some history now human history is a complex and controversial subject but for the purposes of this video i'm really going to oversimplify it now it's generally agreed that over 90 percent of human existence we have been hunter-gatherers so if we put this in context and imagine the whole of human history like an eight-hour workday they've spent all the morning and the majority of the afternoon moving about hunting and gathering in the wild living in semi-nomadic tribes between 50 and 150 people who base their lives around the rhythms and movements of wild food and resources you then have settled down and planted some things in the last hour discovered fossil fuels in the last minute and only had a smartphone to deal with in the last few seconds so when someone asked you what have you been up to today you'd probably say well mainly running around the woods with a bow and arrow tried that a bit farming which is fun but the last minute has been intense so with this in mind let's learn some basic brain chemistry and the two pathways of our nervous system imagine you're a hunter-gatherer out for a stroll when suddenly a predator jumps out the bushes your brain triggers your sympathetic nervous system and your body is flooded with stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol causing your heart rate to increase and your eyes and blood vessels to dilate you are triggered for fight yeah yeah yeah or for flight by moving your body like this the built-up energy is released and the fight-or-flight hormones dissipate you can then return to your hunter-gatherer camp satisfied after killing or escaping the predator and all you need to worry about is keeping the fire lit maintaining your tools and resting for another day of predator fighting or flighting although there is times where you're working flat out just to achieve the basic needs there's also lots of time just waiting waiting for the weather to change waiting for the tide to turn for better fishing waiting for dawn or dusk for better hunting there's plenty of time away from distractions to be still reflect on the day the thinking mind is occupied with menial tasks that are directly related to meeting our basic needs our brain now triggers our parasympathetic nervous system and we are said to be in rest and digest mode the mind has time to settle and the body has time to repair itself go forward in time you are now a 21st century human just another day in the office when suddenly [Music] you get a mean comment on social media a terrible thing happened on the other side of the world [Music] something has affected your credit rating the exact same fight or flight hormones flood your system but the problems aren't tangible you can't just hit it with a stick and now it's increasingly hard to run away from even when we think we are resting and digesting constant stimulation from technology often doesn't really allow us to relax completely merely masks the symptoms and numbs of pain with short-term gratification if these fight-or-flight hormones aren't released from the body and we stay immobile studies are now showing that over time this can weaken the immune system and accumulate into some serious physical and mental health problems what i love so much about practicing wellness survival skills is the solving of the really basic tangible problems for example i'm cold i put on a layer i make a shelter i light a fire i'm thirsty i purify water i drink it i'm hungry i dig up a root i eat it i kill or catch an animal i eat it and sometimes your entire day is spent trying to achieve these really basic needs this is what i think is the baseline human reality what we are designed for and although i don't want to live like this all the time i have noticed uh inner peace and satisfaction that i don't really get in the civilized world so if this is a baseline human life tell me what would be some four really basic attributes that would be useful in order to live like this let me know in the comments now to me it would be one the ability to focus and have patience two have some functional strength and stamina three swing a stick what i mean by that is have some basic skill in using hand tools and hand weapons and finally four the ability to hit a target with a projectile whether a stone sling bowl spear they're all quite handy so these would be my basic skills to keep my inner hunter gatherer happy but the question is can they also help me in the modern every day you want to see something absolutely amazing i tell you this is going to blow your mind for me look at this [Music] drinking water just like that look at this wow wow now many things about modern life and technology are amazing but everything always has a flip side now for the sake of this video i've narrowed down three problems of the modern day that i personally think are quite unique to human history and these are one increased distractions from modern technology there's just so many things competing for our attention two inactivity i don't think there's ever been a time where the average job has involved so much sitting down and three non-tangible problems i might be a simpleton i am quite simple but my hunter-gatherer fight or flight hormones just don't seem to fit with these increasingly complex technological and societal problems obviously i still need to face these problems but can i find some healthy outlets to keep my inner hunter-gatherer happy so i can face the unique problems with a clear head can i train my four hunter-gatherer survival skills to cope with the three unique problems of the modern day well here are four habits and routines that i've been trying out in order to achieve this i'm not perfect at it but at least it's the start and hopefully you find some of it useful habit one focus discipline technology and find the stillness if something is a tool it is generally just sitting there waiting patiently to be used if something is not a tool it's demanding things from you it's seducing you it's manipulating you it wants things from you we've moved away from a tools based technology environment to an addiction and manipulation used technology environment i understand the irony of a youtuber telling you to limit technology but bear with me and that quote was from tristan harris from the documentary the social dilemma which discusses the dangers of social media for our mental health and society stability now like everything in life technology is not all good and it's not all bad either i'm really grateful for it because it's allowed me to make a living around what i want to do and i use platforms like youtube and one dream all the time to learn stuff but then on the other hand i have noticed that my mental health declines the more i'm on social media and just how peaceful i feel when i'm at a phone signal now technology isn't going anywhere so we just need to be wise about its use we just need to make sure that we are in control of it and not the other way around that we have at least one foot still in this physical reality so that we don't get completely lost in the virtual one as it gets dangerous when technology starts to know you better than you know yourself so here's some habits i've been trying out to make sure that i am in control one don't look at your phone for the first and last hour of the day this is when your attention is most vulnerable instead just stop and smell the roses two switch off notifications for the most distracting apps and put your social media into a folder titled addict just to remind you three intentioned and compartmentalized use know exactly why you're going on technology beforehand once you've completed the task put it down again four spend time away from it get yourself an old brick phone if you need an emergency contact and just go outside be a human talk to a real person we are made to be an active part of a tribe of hundreds we are now alone in a tribe of billions the instant gratification life isn't making us happy so don't be afraid of being bored it's good for you try things like meditation or some hobbies that require a lot of patience as everything takes a long time when you're in the wild using basic tools so it's good to get used to it so those are some habits that i've found helpful to help me cope with the first modern problem and it's at least a starting point to help us train our hunter-gatherer skills for focus and patience now remember this is just a tool and when it runs at a battery or the grid goes down it's about as useful as a coaster and we're back to relying on our mind and our hands so it's important that we prioritize training these before we reach for that phone habit 2 move big and small every day functional strength and stamina survival is basically just a game of calories try catch and forage as much calories as you can with as little effort as possible therefore you could make the argument that laying in bed eating a packet of crisps makes you an absolute survival master the paradox of course is it's this inactive high-calorie food lifestyle that is nowadays killing us faster on average and starvation is our inner hunter-gatherer is both desperately trying to achieve an activity but also doesn't know what to do with it when it gets it when you get stressed or anxious your inner hunter-gatherer is screaming at you for fight or flight so listen to it i don't mean go fight someone i mean move go for a walk go for a run do push-ups until you're exhausted just do anything to get those fight-or-flight hormones out of you the evidence is clear that exercise makes you feel better both physically and mentally it's not about trying to be an athlete or have a perfect body it's just about tiring yourself out my forest life is active by necessity but back in the modern world i can find myself falling into inactivity with a bad habit of sitting for hours on end with bad posture which ultimately led to a back injury so i've been trying to keep moving in big and small ways every day instead of sitting i now use a standing desk or try natural postures like squatting and have regular little breaks to stretch and move at least three times a week i train stamina and or functional strength my favorite things to use are gymnastic rings these are great you can just chuck them in a rucksack fling them over a tree or post and train all aspects of upper body strength in a dynamic way with plenty of options for progression integrating core training in every movement also just getting used to carrying a rucksack is a very useful skill to keep your mind and body in that basic survival zone movement is the obvious cure for inactivity it satisfies our inner hunter-gatherer fight-or-flight instincts and clears our mind and helps us focus so we can better tackle the unique modern problems i try to remind myself that we've evolved to run down and hunt big animals with pointy sticks i've only got one body so i need to look after it as if i had to rely on it for my survival habit three swing a stick and hit a target practice martial arts once upon a time a man finds a nice straight stick stick guess what happens next i bet you you'll first pick it up yeah then he'll swing it about he'll then find something to throw attacked or hit with it wow then when he gets bored with that he'll find someone to hit with it this is your inner hunter gatherer at work so it's good to give it a healthy outlet so it doesn't cause any mischief this is why i think we like sport so much because when you think about it most sports are basically variations of swinging sticks and trying to hit targets with projectiles so this particular habit could be anything you want it to be but my favorite thing is to practice weapons based martial arts and archery and i have many past videos on the subject practicing martial arts achieves all four of our hunter-gatherer basic skills training focus fitness use of tools and hitting targets it's also great for releasing that fight-or-flight aggression in a disciplined and controlled way and a chance to be regularly humbled it gets you out of your mind and in to your body i like martial arts for the same reason i like survival skills you are totally engaged in a very basic tangible problem hit your opponent and don't get hit back and try do this as efficiently as possible practice any style you like they all have benefits and if you want to progress then join a club or find a sparring buddy but also find things you can train by yourself every day work on having good basic form but also just have fun with it and play around with flowing movements the ability to throw and shoot a projectile is what separates us from other animals and is what allowed our ancestors to survive so practice any shooting or throwing you like they all share similar principles that can be used as a metaphor to help us in any other problem in life habit 4 re-wild yourself integrate the animal and remember home this final habit encompasses the mind the body and the spirit of your inner hunter-gatherer so it's hard to label it with just one thing but here are some ideas so you can pick and choose and make it your own the 21st century life has separated us from where our food and energy comes from the city lights have blotted out the stars the nine to five grind has knocked us out of rhythm with the seasons leaving us in a lonely stagnant box so every day find something to break that box have a cold shower practice survival skills or my personal favorite go outside and act like a weirdo run in all fours jump roll crawl climb swing or just hang out walk barefoot in the forest swim in a cold stream or just stare at a tree basically just being free to be free it might sound and look strange but that's just your domestication talking ask yourself the questions what wild edible plants grow in my neighborhood what wildlife live in my area and what are their survival strategies what native people once lived here how did they live what did they believe in to me this habit involves training all our hunter-gatherer skills and deals with the three modern problems all at the same time it's not about rejecting civilization or society it's just about remembering where we've come from and what we've been doing for the majority of the time we've been here as far as we are aware animals don't philosophize about things they don't worry about tomorrow they enjoy life when eating it and hate it when being eaten all our fancy technology in cities are still just made from minerals of the earth and all of it and all of us end up back there in the end so i like to remind myself just like the animals the trees and the stars we are home already and we all have a right to be here you
2022-09-05 21:08
