We need communities who live closer together in a natural environment to bring out the best in ourselves. It reduces our costs, makes us appreciate smaller things properly and extends our lifespan. Here's why...
2. I wrote this article after hearing a fascinating
interview with Joe Rogan and Sebastian Junger , the
author of 'TRIBE'. The conversation blew me away
and here I am sharing my own main takeaways...
You can see it here...
Remember the Will Smith movie 'I am Legend'?
We need communities who live closer together in a
natural environment to bring out the best in
ourselves.
I am not saying this will remove depression
completely but I believe that there are many factors
which contribute to mental illness which may be
removed forever after reading this and taking
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3. People are tribal animals. That's in our DNA.
When evolution happens it takes place over millions
of years.
We have moved from hunter-gathering and farming
to living in massive cities in less than 50,000 years.
Our cultures may have adapted to these new
changes but our actual nature hasn't.
Let me explain...
In tribes we would do the following...
Live in small interlocked communities of 40-50
people.
Move constantly chasing the herds/ food.
Eat whenever food was available and fast in
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4. Look after each other's interests and know each
other very well indeed.
Face danger on a regular basis and have to make
constant decisions that kept us alive and safe.
Carry very few possessions as we needed to be
light on our feet whilst following the herds.
Communicate clearly and look after each other in
case predators got our scent and tried to pick us
off one by one.
Have different expectations of life. Survival was a
huge win. Eating well was too. Hunting and
raising successful families mattered above almost
everything to continue the tribe for future
generations.
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5. Now let's analyse depression and how it could be
linked to our lack of the above...
1. Live in small interlocked communities of 40-50
people.
The modern dream is to own a big house with a big
garden and be able to go home close your gates
and live in isolation from preying eyes of
neighbours or unwanted guests. This is NOT how
we are meant to live. The entrepreneurial culture
tells us that this is the pinnacle of a healthy,
successful lifestyle but in truth it leads to feeling
isolated, unwanted, lonely and abandoned.
Compare this with living in a housing estate, or
apartment block where you meet your neighbours
on a daily basis. You chat, take an interest in their
well being, get to know their families and look out
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6. 2. Move constantly chasing the herds/ food.
We drive now. Everywhere. We get road rage, we see
our vehicles as a status symbol and we avoid
interactions with other especially in heavy traffic.
We don't interact on public transport because we
find it intimidating to see so many people we don't
know. We don't want to make eye-contact with a
dangerous person so we mostly withdraw inside
ourselves so we don't have to make small talk with
complete strangers.
When we used to walk 2 hours per day chasing prey
and following herds, we got exercise and burned
off any excess weight. The act of moving liberated
us and made us feel energised and full of
endorphins, dopamine and other exercise driven
natural happy drugs. We sit on the sofa and get
bored, then eat to break the monotony. Without theHire DAVE CRANE - www.davecraneglobal.com
7. 3. Eat whenever food was available and fast in
between.
It's perfectly natural to go without food for long
periods of time. Our bodies have a better chance to
restore balance to our shape and detox. Sugars and
fats are essential parts of our diet and in nomadic
tribespeople would be cherished by your body and
used sparingly for energy release over a long period
of time.
It got stored for this purpose.
That's why you can't burn of calories quickly
because our systems are trained to retain those
luxury nutrients. We can't handle so much access to
fast foods, candy and cakes so we just get fatter
and fatter.
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4. Look after each other's interests and know each
other very well indeed.
Can you name 40 people who live nearby who truly care
about you and will bring you food when you are off work? I
can't I can barely name 40 whom I would call to say
anything important. I may have a hundred thousands
connections across my social media platforms but I can
still feels on my own every day.
The missing interactions would be there to laugh with you,
encourage you, lift your spirits, solve problems and help
you plan. Nowadays, we pay for life coaches to pretend to
care like this but it used to be given by elders and
neighbours for free.
Think about countries that face a war - suicide rates go
down and everybody feels valued. Afterwards, everyone
talks about the 'good old days' when people cared for each
other and 'pulled together' against a common enemy.
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As a British citizen that nostalgia still lives for the second
world war where people cared for each other against the
common foe. Take Sarajevo, Vietnam and other war zones
and talk to the people who lived through the hardships.
They will all say people were nicer to each other then.
5. Face danger on a regular basis and have to make
constant decisions that kept us alive and safe.
We miss out on celebrating several little victories every
day. Like accomplishing some tough job or eating well.
These are all standard and expected as part of your job
description and daily life. Only vain people go on and on
about how proud they are of themselves, but constant
approval from our peers is essential for our continued
happiness. We bypass the things that really matter like
looking after our health and family and look for celebrity
sized declarations of achievement.
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Look for 'wellbeing rights' rather than 'bragging rights' they
make little explosions of happiness throughout your day
which boosts your immune system and makes you feel
loved which makes you feel happier.
When soldiers come back from a war zone they often have
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) which then leads
to clinical depression and far too often suicide. This makes
perfect sense. In a tribe (or platoon) everyone has a job to
do and the success of the group is 100% dependent on
each other doing it right. Their survival is interlinked and
re-evaluated by peak performances daily in the presence
of an enemy which is out to kill them.
It can be both scary and exhilarating. We all need that
level of challenge and achievement. Instead, we have
ZERO dangers to deal with (credit card payments aside).
In the western world, statistically speaking, we can ALL
eat, we ALL have some kind of shelter and NOBODY is out
to kill us.
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This is a great thing. It also leads to a lack of buzz from our
daily lives which can lead some to extreme sports and
others to extreme depression.
6. Carry very few possessions as we needed to be
light on our feet whilst following the herds.
Look at the things in your house. How many of them would
you need on holiday? Therefore how many are truly
essential to your happiness?
Phone
Laptop
Clothes
Access to Netflix
Somewhere to sleep
Food
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few.
It's really hard to push the essentials list much further than
that. All else are consumer driven status symbols and
conveniences which felt nice to buy but most often sit
unused in a box.
So think about how hard you have worked to get these
things?
Now think what made you feel you needed them in the
first place?
Peer pressure?
TV advertising?
Recommended on Facebook?
You REALLY needed them?
Imagine living in a smaller house where you couldn't
store all your junk and how much simpler life would be if
you only replaced essential items.
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7. Communicate clearly and look after each other in
case predators got our scent and tried to pick us off
one by one.
When did you last have a proper heart to heart with a
friend, neighbour, relative or stranger?
At a religious celebration like Eid or Christmas?
At a social event like a school sports day or work
meeting?
At a family gathering like a wedding, birthday or funeral?
These are usually specially orchestrated and arranged
events.
They are infrequent and take time and planning in
advance.
We used to do this every day at meal times!!!
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How did it make you feel afterwards?
o Connected?
o Satisfied?
o Wanted?
o Enlightened?
Much closer than before and knowing that someone is a
kindred spirit and they understand you?
In a small community that happens far more often.
It's part of your daily life.
In times of crisis whether economic, illness, fire or crime
etc communities pull together and sacrifice individual
freedoms for the common good. They feed each other,
watch over each other, shelter each other and protect each
other.
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They know their kindness may never be repaid financially
but if the roles were reversed the beneficiaries would
undoubtedly do the safe for them.
8. Have different expectations of life. Survival was a
huge win. Eating well was too. Hunting and raising
successful families mattered above almost everything
to continue the tribe for future generations.
Think about how this fits onto the above context. We are
bored. Life has little meaning except what we get to
consider from the media as important. The current political
systems seem to drive values which are so alien to what
we actually want or need.
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We don't hate foreigners.
We don't need to buy as much as the adverts say.
We love our families.
We enjoy challenging and interesting tasks and work.
We need appreciation of the smaller stuff.
We DO NOT get happier in isolated ivory towers far
removed from contact with other human beings.
The human race only continues with a survival of the
fittest.
If you are a pair of rich business professionals and
decide to amass wealth and do not have kids, your
gene pool and influence on future generations ends
right after you die.
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Fact.
Upper white middle class areas now have the highest
level of suicide rates.
Fact.
Breeding amongst the best survivors is how we
continue the human race.
Fact.
If you have a wild trait in your personality that takes
dangerous risks and has a large percentage penalty of
death for failure the odds are your bloodline will disappear
soon too.
Lucy, possibly the most ancient discovery of early man's
existence had broken bones consistent with fatally falling
out of a tree.
Stupid thing to do?
Evidently.
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So where do we go with this?
When America was formed a number of white settlers who
had integrated or been captured by Native American tribes
returned back to the tribes after liberation. They missed the
lifestyle, the culture of togetherness and the way people
cared for each other. In contrast, there aren't many (if any)
recorded incidents of the opposite. The Native Americans
didn't see value in the communities of the white settlers
driven by religion and material wealth or inherited status.
Whilst I am not saying you should go and live in the
wild (we are not very good at it in small groups and it's
suicide on our own), we should consider the benefits
of living in a community who cares who we are, what
we do and lives in a symbiotic and
interdependent partnership with us.
It's how we can live longer, feel truly wanted and enjoy
a better quality of happiness every single day.
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Find your voice...
http://davecraneglobal.com/speaker-training/
Dave Crane recently won the Al Arouwad/ MTV award
as the best motivational speaker in the MENA region.
He is also an award-winning broadcaster, NLP
hypnotherapist, author and speaker coach. In his
career, he’s run radio stations, coached many of the
world’s favourite brands and worked alongside some
of the biggest names in entertainment and sports.
Connect with Dave directly and watch his online
motivational TV show ‘Turbo Charge Your Brand TV’
for business tips and interviews with Jack Canfield,
Brian Tracy and Dr John Grey.
Find out about Dave’s Comedy Stage Hypnosis Show
too.