Navigating a Modern World with an Evolutionary Mind

How aware are you of what is happening in your subconscious?

As the psychoanalyst Carl Jung beautifully phrased it:

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” 

 

Teaching ourselves the skills to properly integrate the two remains an essential skill for excelling in life and actively shaping our realities to our desires instead of blindly reacting to our external world.

 

We’re human beings living in a highly developed modern world, but what if evolution didn’t have time to catch up? Would that leave us running on an ancestry code that is manipulating us on a daily basis, if we don’t pay attention?

 

Our human experience is a product of both biochemical processes inside our bodies and deep-level subconscious evaluations in our minds. The good news is that we hold the power to actively impact these processes through mindful life choices. By consciously ‘fuelling’ our minds and bodies, we can positively impact our brain health and immune response. 

 

Here comes the tricky part…

 

Our evolutionary minds cannot differentiate between reality and perceived reality. Negatively loaded language, for example, puts our systems into survival mode, and triggers the production of stress hormones such as cortisol. 

 

While this biochemical response aided us to escape threats in cavemen times, it can be very harmful if experienced on a daily basis. Our modern world exposes us to triggers everywhere we go, as our minds simply cannot distinguish between real and perceived threats. 

 

The stress response is the same. 

 

If I say to myself, “This work is killing me”, my mind will hear the word “kill” and put me in a fight-or-flight state. Experiencing this state on a daily basis keeps our bodies in a highly destructive state that shuts down our immune response and digestive systems, and may even impact our reproductive systems. 

 

However, we can take back control to actively navigate our modern world in a sustainable and beneficial way. The exciting potential lies in reverse engineering these processes.

 

Numerous neuroscientific studies have shown that our brains are plastic and can literally grow new neural connections (neuroplasticity). Mind engineering techniques like neuro-definitions, neuro-associations and neuro-linguistic programming can help us to unlock unlimited potential and self-control in our lives by actively improving the quality of our language and adopting a mindful life design.

 

The less we make ourselves aware of this, the more we will remain players that only react to our environments instead of claiming the power to live our lives on our terms. 

 

Here are a few ways we can move away from mindlessly reacting towards mindfully creating:

• Choose brain foods

The food we consume directly impacts neuronal growth and the efficacy of neuroplasticity. Through our choice of food, we can positively impact our brain health and immune system response. 

• Choose positive thoughts

Our thoughts create our reality. If you want to be healthy, think healthy. Give your body positive thoughts to react to.  

• Choose quality sleep

Investing in our sleep promotes our emotional balance, and is essential for regulating our emotional responses. 

• Choose nature

Connecting with nature grounds our bodies on a biological level, calms our nervous systems, and rewires our brains. 

• Choose mindfulness

Mindfulness practices activate the prefrontal cortex, which leads to better mind and impulse control. 

• Choose awareness

Relaxation achieved through hypnotherapy allows us to access deeply-seeded information about our belief systems, and gives us clarity about our negative self-talk.

 

Investing in ourselves teaches us critically attuned skills, which - paired with the right level of awareness - will determine our entire human experience on this planet. 

 

Let’s start tapping into that potential!

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Lisa Zimmermann is a certified hypnotherapist, mental health expert, and author of Pandemic Phoenix: Navigating through Crisis, Hidden Psychological Effects & How to Rise again. Visit www.thelisazimmermann.com or connect on social @thelisazimmermann for more.