Survival Instincts: The Legacy Of Our Ancestors

Our Brain Is A Supercomputer

Humans as a species have evolved millions of years ago. Our ancestors, the primates, who have evolved alongside us, have a brain of around 400 grams. Humans, on the other hand, 1.2-1.4 kilograms. This makes humans the highest on the brain-to-body ratio.

This also comes with a cost: our brains use 20% of our total daily energy, which is around 260 calories per day. This is a significant percentage, especially for our ancestors. Imagine sitting under a tree, thinking, using up your energy, when, all of a sudden, a tiger jumps out of a bush nearby. You need to conjure up a huge amount of energy in an instant.

Save Your Energy

To avoid situations like that, our body is optimized to conserve energy. This made our brain shut off easily, and choose the path of least resistance. Have you ever felt the pull, during learning or reading, to do something less taxing to your brain? Like turn on the tv, or start scrolling instead? This is the signal that our brains are trying to conserve its energy.

Since we are not living in the jungle with scary animals lurking around, this instinct causes more harm than use to us. Our brains cannot comprehend the change that happened in the last few thousands of years. On an evolutionary scale, this is just seconds. Evolution happens in millions of years. No wonder our brains couldn’t adapt to the new living conditions just yet.

Feasts For Days

Now, for the next part, imagine you are a hunter-gatherer from hundreds of thousands of years ago. You spend most of your mornings foraging for mushrooms, edible roots, or hunting small animals. It’s very rare you get more nutrients than your body can use. No leftovers, calorie intake is just in par with your needs. However, sometimes you may run into fruits that are packed with calories. Obviously you take the chance and devour as much as you can, before other animals find this treasure chest as well.

Unfortunately, this habit is still kicking in nowadays. We are now full of calorie-dense foods, the shops and markets have everything we could ever need. But, your brain still goes ape-shit when presented with high-calorie options, even though there’s no animals racing you to the source. We still devour it like there’s no tomorrow, your brain giving you the signal that you now did something good for your survival.

Of course, this creates a problem in the long term. What happens to the excess calories now? Are you using it to escape dangerous animals? Or hunt for your daily food? Hardly. You continue your comfortable life, spending most of your days sitting, standing in place, barely thinking, as to conserve your energy for emergencies. Do you see the problem here?

Taking Back Control

This is where our consciousness comes into play. Our body and brain have evolved to thrive in a completely different environment, but our consciousness is capable of evolving together with our worldview. Your thinking is not attached to your evolutionary state of your body. It’s only dependent on how you see yourself, your environment, your opportunities, the whole world. When you can make the connection between calorie-dense foods and your lifestyle choices, you might choose high-nutrient foods when you spend most of your time sitting, and eating less than your brain wants you to.

We have been at the top of the food-chain for so long now, without any other living thing being a threat to us. Our biggest enemy might just be ourselves. We need to start thinking more than following our natural reactions in our brains, as those yet to catch up with the rapid changes in our environment.

We have created a perfect world for ourselves, but a confusing one for our brains.

Learn how to adapt your brain to this new day and age, and marvel at the possibilities you unlock.