It was very cold, the wind was blowing in my face, and the sun was starting to set, as I sat in a tree stand bowhunting. I watched as about a half a dozen squirrels scurried back and forth, up and down trees, and fended off their territory, as they prepared for the coming winter.
Had I been hunting squirrels, it would have been quite the hunt. But as it often goes, those weren’t what I was after. I was hunting whitetail deer. How many deer did I see that evening? None. But that’s hunting. And for those that think hunting is all about killing animals, it is so much more than that. It’s a time to immerse yourself in nature, experience the elements, smell the smells, feel grounded, watch the sun rise or set, watch the other wildlife, break away from the daily grind, and most importantly, to think.
On this particular hunt, I couldn’t help but think about how hard these squirrels were working. It wasn’t the hard work that got me thinking, but the idea that they didn’t think of it as work. Of course, their brains are much smaller and less complex than ours, and their capacity to ponder, analyze, and complain is much less. But they hustle, climb, jump, carry, fight, and build non-stop each day preparing for the months of winter without giving it a second thought. They don’t complain, they don’t try to pass the work on to others, and they don’t take a day off. They reinforce their nest for colder temperatures and gather nuts so they have enough to survive the winter, knowing it will get dangerously cold and that food sources will dry up.
As humans, it seems like we have one goal… make life as easy as possible. At some point, we decided that we were above doing hard work. We avoid it, complain when we have to do it, and spend a lot of time creating a life with as little of it as possible. We’ve worked so hard to not have to work hard. And have been very successful with that. But it has backfired.
It turns out that along with food, air, and water, humans require a certain amount of physical activity. Sure, we move and exercise to lose weight and/or gain muscle, but moving our body each day does so much more. It affects our hormone balance, our brain function, our mood, our sleep, our digestion, and even our self-esteem. Daily movement and hard work upregulate our health-promoting, disease-fighting genes, and downregulate the bad ones.
Imagine how hard our ancestors had to work just to survive. They did not have central heat, there were no grocery stores, no motorized vehicles, and they couldn’t take days off. Their constant activity and difficult lives were a big part of why they did not have many of the current ailments plaguing us today. They did not have obesity or diabetes, had very little cancers, likely no auto-immune issues, and heart disease (our number one killer) was virtually unknown. According to Michael Easter, in his great book, The Comfort Crisis, “Scientists are finding that certain discomforts protect us from physical and psychological problems like obesity, heart disease, cancers, diabetes, depression, and anxiety, and even more fundamental issues like feeling a lack of meaning and purpose.”
Exercise is not just something we should do daily, it is a required nutrient. And hard work is something that needs to be embraced. Our bodies need to bend, lift, twist, climb, walk, and run. Pushing our bodies and minds, testing our resolve, and welcoming hard stuff, is part of what makes humans human. We, unlike wild animals, have the capacity to create a life of ease, but it’s our success in this area that has led us to become the sickest, fattest, most unhappy species on earth.
Move your body every day. Push yourself. Stop trying to make life as easy as possible. Your body and mind need to be challenged. Stop striving for a life of ease. And know that the grind, both mental and physical, that you are trying to eliminate is the very thing that you need to be fully well.