The Origins of Our Future

Last year, I wrote an inspired vision of what I believed the origins of our existence may have looked like. I hesitated to share as I was worried that it might be too subjective, but now it seems we are all at a crossroads. So, I am hopeful that the beauty will out-weigh the risk of my lacking of measured certainties. When I envision our origins, it seems a time of great ingenuity and an ever growing space of imagination and wanderlust. Science has recently reported a village located on the shore of what was once a lake that has now become a salt flat. It is most likely the home of our most distant ancestors. At our base for millennia we were industrious beings creating stone tools, making fire for cooking and warmth, care taking, hunting, fishing and creating clothing and shelter. Creativity and looking into the unknown were also being explored with arts including painting, singing, dancing and in my opinion our most immense innovation, symbol making and the origins of language. These beautiful occupations were all being developed simultaneously with our bodies in motion. Trekking great distances, to over time inhabit the entirety of our planet. To me this important factor of rhythmic movement was crucial in lulling our nervous systems into balance. I imagine us walking in-sync in small family groups, likely singing to keep time and creating a trance like state of calm to rest the system. I imagine the end of the day as a time for resting, eating and sharing wisdom. A time of reflection and understanding the lessons of the day. A space of sharing stories about the past, as well as sharing innovations and ideas for a continued future. Our wild environment was filled with integrating sensory input of forests, mountains, coasts, rivers, lakes, with wind, rain, crashing waves, fires flickering, birds calling and leaves on the breeze. Nature contains its own quiet, slow rhythm and we all evolved immersed within this stillness. In my view, the lack of nature in our modern lifestyle is the current cause of our ever growing levels of mental health concerns. To me our occupations and the natural environment in which we carried them out, gave us regulation and well being. A human sensory system requires heavy work, rhythmic movement and shifting senses to evaluate a dynamic environment. For most of us it seems we are only in nature occasionally, which most likely results in our collective sensory deprivation. This creates a system with no way to relieve inner built up body tensions. This constriction remains stored in the body with limited ways to release it. So in my view, all of the conditions we evolved within for millennia were necessary for our well being. Things have shifted rapidly in our culture over a short one hundred years. From the invention of the light bulb, now to endless access to any technological feature. This drastic shift seems to be taking it’s toll on our sensory regulating systems. The speed of culture is taxing and creates a sensation of dis-regulation and overwhelm. While, of course I am grateful for our advancements, some return to a slower more balanced pace if even for brief moments in one’s day would be exponentially beneficial. These moments of deceleration will expand overtime making room for respite, well-being and inspirations. These quiet moments of insight might possibly help us to find solutions to the issues we are challenged by at this current time. This could possibly create an explosion of stored up creativity and beauty and a currently unknown level of successful adaption. A potent time for all of us to be living, with the signals to adapt and to reach toward our greater potential. This will be the new frontier of our wealth with compassion, freedom and communion to crush fear and division. A lofty common goal for connection of our intertwined family tree.