A human being’s desire for security is one which goes unnoticed by the majority of us, the majority of the time. This is because it is so ingrained it is hidden in plain sight. From childhood we are programmed with the idea that we need to be secure, safe, certain. Whether that’s physical security, financial security, security of knowledge; to be certain, security of our future; to know our next step. We are conditioned with all of this from an early age and as a consequence we grow up with the subconscious assumption and trust that this is healthy and serves us best.
To trust this premise makes perfect sense because as much we have been programmed to keep this desire, the desire for security is one which is already innate to us. This desire has been wired into our DNA for thousands of years. Back in the golden days of hunter-gathering it was this need for security which kept us alive, and ultimately led us here today. Life was a zero-sum game played out in a world of scarcity. Someone else’s gain was likely your loss and when you lost, your next opportunity to win was not necessarily right around the corner. If you lost out on food because another tribe got there first then that was you hungry, and you had no way of knowing when the next meal was going to be in front of you.
Fast forward to today. Someone grabs the last meal deal at Tesco Express, you walk down the road to Sainsbury’s Local and grab one there. Someone got the job you applied for, you apply for another one of the thousands recruiting the next day. We evolved to desire security because we lived for millions of years in times that were inherently insecure and unsafe. We needed that innate desire in order to survive. Those times are far gone now in this world of abundance in which we live. However that hardwired desire remains within us.
And it is this desire that has been taken and used against us. We do not need the security that we once did. The world is now a very safe and secure place for the most part- despite the media’s efforts to convince us otherwise. However there are persons in this world that thrive off the principles of security and certainty. These are not natural persons, but persons we have constructed out of collective imagination: companies, governments, organisations and other collective bodies. These phenomenon thrive off of security, certainty, predictably. Maintaining these principles is how they live and grow. They need them and because they do, they make sure that we feel as though we still need them too.
We are the perpetrators and the victims. We created these entities to benefit us, and as the cycle turns we have now become burdened by them. We create a government, a council, to bring order, to protect us. We create a business, to bring us income and wealth. These creations for good however have in the long run ended up restricting us, imposed obligations on us and most importantly tied us up in ideas which have burdened our lives and killed our spontaneous nature. These ideas are ones such as we need to have a plan for everything, we need to know where our next pay cheque is coming from, we need to know what career to embark upon, we need to know where the economy is going, we need to know when we can afford a mortgage, a car, a child or to retire, lest we are spun away in the whirlwind of uncertainty.
We do not need to know. This world today is one of abundance. More people die from obesity than starvation, more people commit suicide than are killed in conflict. These are not the jungles and savannas we evolved on. Newton’s third law of motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. There is no give without take. We are presented with security and certainty, and we think “Why not? Seems like a good deal” without looking at the other side of the coin. The more secure, the more restricted. That is the trade off; security for freedom.
Having the security of a good job is great. You know how much money you are getting each month, you can plan for bills and expenses, set money aside for nights out, holidays, a new house or car. It’s great, until you realise how restricted you are. You can’t go for a spontaneous walk at noon on a random Tuesday, you can’t take a month to go travelling, take some down time, enjoy a creative passion. It’s great until you realise you are bored with the monotony that is now your day-to-day life. You are on autopilot. You have lived the same day a thousand times over, so now it does not even require your presence of mind. You are stuck going through the motions, whilst you are away dreaming of leisures and pleasures you would love to enjoy but you cannot, because you are safe and secure.
As much as we are evolutionarily wired to desire security, we are also spontaneous beings who for thousands of years lived in adventure and mystery. We did not sit upon a rock and plan out the next 10 years. We took each day as it came, living presently, adapting to each moment and the changing times. We now live in a world where we can live out in this same adventure and mystery, but without the dangers we were exposed to back then. Instead we have holed ourselves up in the name of keeping ourselves safe and protected in what is today as aforementioned, a relatively safe world.
We need mystery, we need uncertainty. It is what gives us vigour and life. Our minds have been programmed to desire the opposite but at the essence we want to be set free. In this world you do not need to know where each pay cheque for the rest of your life is coming from. There so much money in circulation now that you will be able to find a way of getting what you need when you need it. You do not need to know at 18 years old what career you will have for the rest of your life. The idea itself that you need to decide one career forever is ridiculous. We are all multi-faceted and talented people. Add that to the local to global connection that the internet and tech provides, and you have a place where you can offer the breadth of skills you possess to a whole host of customers whenever you want to.
Your company needs to know its profit forecast for the year, your government needs to know where the economy is headed, the rate of unemployment and the taxes its receiving. They need you and the certainty you provide more than you need them. That is not to say we do not benefit from the certainty companies and governments provide, in the form of pensions, healthcare, sick pay, etc. However the pendulum has swung too far the other way. I believe the majority of us are burdened more than we are benefitted at the end of the day by this game of security. There will of course be times in life where you need security. If you’re reading this and you have three children or are suffering from a chronic illness, then quitting your job today without any plan or prospect of future income or wealth might not be the wisest move. However for the majority of us, what is stopping us? The fear of the unknown, of instability and insecurity.
We live in a world where the pursuit of financial freedom is in strong popularity. Except it is not. Everyone is pursuing the financial and forgetting the freedom. In my experience nothing tastes better than freedom, certainly not money. And remember the trade off: the more secure, the more restricted and the less free you are. Delve into uncertainty, life’s greatest joys are on the other side. Life should be an adventure not a process. Explore the world and yourself. Travel, meet new people, learn a new language or instrument, play a new sport. Despite what you have been told all your life, there is no rush. No rush to become financially independent or free. No rush to “figure it out”. There is nothing to figure out. Life is here to be lived. We are only ever rushing to one place at the end of the day, so why rush there? Take your time, enjoy the ride and don’t get caught in the security trap.
Inspirational Individual of the Month
This section is dedicated each month to an individual who has inspired me in some way or another. The individual in question may be well known or known to me personally. They may be alive today, historic, or even fictitious. Whatever the case, I have gained inspiration from them and hope in sharing the individual and their story you can too.
Makka Pakka
Our inaugural inspirational individual of the month is a bit of a silly goose one-children’s TV celebrity Makka Pakka. Famous ‘In the Night Garden Star’ Makka Pakka lives a life of carrying, stacking and cleaning stones (and is also made out of stone himself I believe?). It is a life he seems very happy and content with, despite the presumably strenuous nature of it, as he is always smiling.
As some people reading this may be aware, I recently carried a rock up to the top of Snowdon as a fundraiser for The Azaylia Foundation. Both beforehand and during the challenge, I genuinely drew inspiration from Makka Pakka. Fictitious children’s character or not, Makka Pakka carries out intense, physically demanding work on the daily and always does so with a smile on his face. If he can do what he does everyday I thought, then I can carry a rock up a hill for one day and have a great time doing it.
There is of course a good metaphor behind Makka Pakka and his work. The metaphor being that no matter the burden of what is in front of us, we always have the power to decide how we carry it. Don’t be afraid to gain inspiration from silly places, and never be too mature to be a bit childish. Just because something is born out of fiction does not mean it is not real, and there is a bit of Makka Pakka alive inside us all I believe.
Momentary Meditations
In this section I share things I have meditated or reflected on recently, some very deeply, some in momentary passings, some more serious and some rather silly. Just sharing them for whatever they are worth.
“Where does the line fall between being true to yourself and not offending others?”
I am a big believer in being true to ourselves in each moment. I am also a big believer in being kind, polite and not offending others where possible. What happens when a conflict occurs? Which “should” be sacrificed first? If someone says something to be funny and I don’t find it funny, should I force a laugh? If someone holds a door open for me and I don’t feeling like smiling as I thank them, should I force a smile? If someone says something I disagree with should I voice that disagreement if I think it will hurt their feelings? If I feel like voicing my opinion on a matter but feel it will offend those hearing it, should I still voice it? If someone I love needs my help but I don’t feel like helping them in that moment, should I still do so? The answer is always dependent on the specific situation of course, but when I think about it there are many situations where the “right” answer really is not clear.
“At what point did we decide we needed bags to carry our babies?”
I was sitting on top of a hill on my birthday a couple of months back and watched as a family walked past. The Dad was carrying his baby in one of those harness type things on his back and the thought randomly occurred to me, “Why? At what point did we decide we couldn’t carry our babies in our arms anymore?” We obviously used to. It may not be possible at times of course, if we’re carrying groceries, etc. However this guy’s hands were free. I am not trying to shame him, he probably did not even question or give it a second thought when he popped his baby into that back pack. It may seem a trivial thing to ponder on, but over the years surely this will have some kind of an impact on the connection between the parent and child? Carrying it in an artificial pouch whenever you are out and about, instead of in your arms against your chest, skin to skin.
General Health Tip of the Month
This section contains a science-based protocol or piece of advice to benefit your general health day-to-day.
Cooking Oils
This month’s tip is concerned with diet and nutrition. Most people when considering nutrition place their focus solely on the foods they are eating, which is of course both important and necessary. However what is equally important to health when talking about nutrition is the oils we cook our food in.
Some people will already know where this is going. The oil or fat we cook our food in and therefore consume, can be the difference between our dinner full of nutritious foods being supplemented with good quality, health benefitting fats, and it being rendered effectively worthless on the whole from a health perspective due to it being poisoned with toxic, inflammatory oils.
To get straight to the point: under no circumstances should anyone with their best interests at heart be consuming “seed oils”. What do I mean by seed oils? Essentially any variety of vegetable oil; rapeseed, sunflower, soya, sesame, etc. Why? To answer that fully would require a long lecture on the manufacturing process these oils go through and the biological processes that occur in the body when we ingest them. The short answer is these oils at their finest quality create a huge amount of oxidative stress and therefore inflammation in the body. Contextualise that with the fact that these oils are not of good quality whatsoever, having been made through heavy industrial processes, and you have got something that you really do not want to be putting in your body. I think McDonald’s provided all the information we needed in advertising they recycle their cooking oil as fuel for their trucks. That’s right. You are cooking your food in diesel.
So if we should not be cooking our food in seed oils what should we cook it in? High-quality, stable fats. Lard, tallow, dripping, butter, ghee and other animal fats work great (for best quality look for organic and grass-fed). In terms of plant-based options coconut oil is king (and is an oil I would recommend consuming regardless of whether you are plant-based or not). Other safe options are olive oil and avocado oil. There is absolute nothing wrong with these oils in principal, however I am less keen on them as unfortunately many of them are made from rancid olives and avocados, and are diluted with seed oils (manufacturers heinously do not have to disclose that fact on the bottle). Therefore if you are going to opt for olive or avocado oil ensure you go for a high quality one. “Extra virgin”, “single origin”, “cold-pressed” are all markers of good quality. Less nuanced but still pretty reliable markers are glass bottles and higher price tags- you get what you pay for.
I could write about seed oils until the cows come home (with some beautiful grass-fed butter), but for today take the following conclusion away. Biological and historical evidence irrefutably shows that seed oils cause heart disease and diabetes through the inflammation they create, and weight gain and obesity by ruining our body’s metabolic functioning. They should be avoided at all costs. Switching from seed oils to more stable cooking fats/oils is both the easiest and most effective change we can make nutritionally speaking to move towards better health day-to-day. I recommend you do this before bothering to change anything else about the way you eat.
Athletic Performance Tip of the Month
This section contains a science-based protocol or piece of advice to help you maximise your athletic performance.
Pre-competition Cooling
This month’s tip for improving athletic performance is to do with cooling the body prior to competition in order to maximise endurance. Keeping the body’s core temperature down through cooling protocols helps maximise endurance as thermoregulation is the body’s number one priority behind breathing. This means when the body heats up during exercise it will prioritise cooling the body down through sweating over all other functions such as hydration and making sure the muscles have enough oxygen, glycogen, etc. Therefore the cooler the body stays the more energy is has for other processes necessary to carrying on performing at intensity.
This may lead to people thinking the best thing to do prior to their athletic endeavour is to jump into an ice bath. The use of cold water is very popular at the moment not just for athletes but for anyone looking to better their health generally. However the best way to cool the body is through the use of cool water as opposed to cold- cool water being 17-28 degrees celsius and cold water being anything lower than that. That is not to say cold water does not have its benefits, it most certainly does. However it has been shown that cold water exposure prior to competition can inhibit power output, whereas cool water exposure has not shown such negative effects.
The optimal protocol for cooling the body prior to competition is as follows:
Immerse the whole body (up to the neck) in cool (17-28 degrees) water, for 30-60 minutes as close as possible to your warm-up before you compete.
Of course depending on logistics and facilities it may not always be possible to cool the body immediately prior to warming up. However, performing the protocol even a couple of hours prior to competition or having a cool shower if you are not able to do full body immersion, i.e. in a bath, should still have performance enhancing benefits. Utilise the protocol prior to a hard training session to test it out and see if it is something you feel you would benefit from pre-competition.
Caught in the Moment
I would like to leave you with a photo that I have taken. A moment that I took myself out of briefly, in order to try and capture it.
Closer to Heaven
This photo was taken at the summit of Yr Wydda, or as it is more commonly known- Snowdon. It was quiet up at the summit that evening. Serene. I remember my brother Perry’s fascination at the fact that there were clouds both above and below us. Are we in heaven? It felt like it. I don’t think I have ever felt more detached from the world than when I have been on the top of mountains. I love gazing at the sky and from the summit of a mountain you feel, and I suppose you are, in it. If you are able to climb a mountain I recommend you take the opportunity to do so. There is something Godly to be felt at the top of each one.