Have you thought lately about the last time you really pushed yourself?
The last time that you felt you were on your physical edge?
How did you respond?
Did you keep yourself in this space, suspended here in limbo?
Did you push yourself - knowing you had that more in you?
Where did your mind go when you were in this space?
Did you check out- not wanting to experience what you’re experiencing, because it was too scary or too real?
Did you go straight to the thoughts of ‘it’s over soon it’s over soon’?
In our lives today we create such stress within our bodies’ mind, any hardly ever have it in our physical bodies.
The stress comes from deadlines, schedules, overthinking, or goals.
The stress doesn't come from outside (animal or natural) threats, territorial guarding, protecting the home or the family, extreme weather and subsequent necessity to go into survival mode.
Our survival mode comes from documents or from movies.
We have, from birth, a house/shelter, a safe space to operate/community, and food at our disposal/at the grocery store. This is what we were given. Sincerely a gift from man, sincerely a blessing to be able to have it so good.
But, when was the last time you felt an actual real stress outside of your body, like we used to in the wild?
Do you notice how disconnected we are from this world?
Sheltered from any sign of danger with nature - we are comfortable.
And in that comfort, our stress response turns inward. It builds inside of us as we think too much, as we absorb the news, as we set ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ to make our way in some made up business or necessary operations.
We attach to money, power, fame, and the need to make our mark in this world.
Have you every thought about bringing it back home to the world we came from?
To place so much focus on protecting and being there for your family and community, instead of focusing on serving the system more than the people.
To realize that the simplest things in life are where you find happiness, like seeing your kid laugh and smile and hearing about her/his day - and not in the milestones of work or other people’s demands of you.
To be present when you take bites of your precious food, the food that has an incredible story of being cultivated, or caught - and delivered right to you, right to your home and onto your plate.
To understand that everything around you in part of a system, and that system is fragile - just like the system within you.
It is a great time to recognize that we have drifted far from where we came from - far from the necessities of what our body needs to operate on an earth like this.
This thought came from my new-found sport of Freediving - and the places that it takes you. It is physical, it is mental, and it gets you so present.
It is raw, and makes you vulnerable - floating in the ever-expanded ocean - such a small speck in a great big piece of water full of predators. The real threat outside of you.
Those who hunt here are those who go back to the basics of exerting energy to catch their food, only to be given back that energy by the food they catch.
The perfect exchange of energy.
When I think of a sustainable world, this fits in the frame.
What hunting in the blue does is it brings you back into your physical body - needing the strength, mental capacity, and agility to capture the food that you are craving. Needing the hunting skills - to track your prey and to let go of the ego in the process.
To know that you may or may not catch what you want today - and that is up to the wild.
I challenge you…
In these next 6 months, do these following things:
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