Nervous System Mastery: Leaning into the past to revitalise the present & empower the future
This maybe a big ask but as you read this stop and consider how your own personalised nervous system got to this point in time, whether it be good, bad or indifferent. Lets start way back at a macro level and I mean way back!
Planet earth was created approximately 4.5 billion years ago. Fast forward to approx 850 million years ago where the supercontinent of Rodinia was in existence, there were no plants and no animals. The only life form appeared as bacteria clumped together forming living mats, found in the coastal water. But in this time something new appeared -large cells stood above over the living mats. It turns out these microbes are ancestors to animal life. They are not bacteria but eukaryotes and the first cells with a nucleus powered by sunlight and food from the bacteria and minerals from the land mass. As you can imagine a rather basic, dull eco system but an interconnected system none the less.
Then bang- tectonic plates shift and Rodinia is tearing itself apart. For millions more years the land mass reshaped causing new river and coastal formations, which in turn led to land minerals pouring into the oceans. As a result the eukaryote population boomed -colonising and contributing to a more advanced eco system.
Notice how no living process exists in isolation and its cyclical. Evolution does not always ensure survival.
Now fast forward to just 7million years ago and the human family tree starts to evolve ultimately ending with our current form homo sapiens, derived from the latin meaning ‘wise human’. With time our brains have become larger, brain organisation has streamlined, we can be exceptional at learning from our experiences and those around us. We have populated the world across different terrain and environments. We have moved from a nomadic to static existence. Language, symbolism, culture, abstract thought sets us apart from other living beings.
But are we really collectively wise ?
Well the jury is out and what we do know is the world we have manufactured does not seem to compliment our nervous systems.
Homo sapien children grow up much more slowly than earlier human ancestors (homo habilis, homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis etc) taking longer to get to sexual maturity. Now the reasoning behind this is we need a really long time to learn how to use these brains of ours. If we can stay in childhood as long as possible the longer we can learn, but surely we are reliant upon enriched learning environments with movement, play, creativity, nature and collaboration being the focus. This is certainly not what we currently offer the majority of the worlds young population where processed food, cognitive centric, one dimensional static learning dominates, ultimately to fuel the corporate machines benefitting a tiny minority.
Our nervous systems are of course reliant upon the building blocks of the mega past on a macro level but also our building and learning blocks at a micro level (our family, our childhood, our friends, our schools, our community & our culture).
Interaction, resilience and intrigue are our superpowers but artificial intelligence, the digital world and extreme capitalism continue to negatively manipulate these powers. The brain is often working with immediacy and short term survival at a physical and psychological level. We are fed information and opinion (truth and lies) 24/7 activating the many systems, networks and feedback loops the nervous system juggles.
If you often feel that your nervous system is failing remember the mind boggling complexity it is dealing with to keep you alive in each moment, not just in the ‘now' but it is drawing from the past on how to respond. It is doing what evolution designed which is to keep you ‘safe’ in an extremely hostile world. Each nervous system is constantly adapting to the sensory data coming from the outside environment and our internal world. With that in mind maybe real wisdom is finding what simple things take you from survival to embodied thriving. It could be walking in nature, watching the sunrise, catching up with an old friend, reading a good book, a swim, a kick about, stretching, smiling at a stranger or infinite other ways to help the brain revitalise the present moment and empower the future.
Us humans are amazing, beautiful and so much more than the sum of our parts but like the eco systems we are all interconnected, not only to other humans but to the natural world. Lets find a better, kinder way.