Supplement what is not Organically Occurring
Written By Kyle Ligon - MovementLink.FIT Head Coach
Trillions of cells, each encoded with our DNA, work together to make us who we are. Through electrical and chemical signals, our body communicates and executes countless functions, most of which are subconscious. These not only to keep us alive, but continuously adapting to stimuli around us. Although these processes are highly complex and tied into the more evolved part of our brain, the neocortex, a more primitive area of our brain, the limbic brain, has massive control. To understand the root of the current health crisis we find ourselves in where chronic disease and mental health issues have skyrocketed, we must understand how this primitive area of our brain is being fooled by our modern technologies and comforts.
“…a radical new body of evidence shows that people are at their best—physically harder, mentally tougher, and spiritually sounder—after experiencing the same discomforts our early ancestors were exposed to every day. 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.”-Michael Easter, The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self
Our bodies have evolved to use a wide variety of naturally occurring stimuli and stressors as triggers, not just for adapting to our circumstances, but to set in motion normal, daily bodily processes. Historically, the timescale in which humans have evolved has been similar to that of the world around us. But, we have relatively recently reached a tipping point where our current technologies and innovations are changing our circumstances and environment faster than our more primitive systems can evolve. For example, before light bulbs, high amounts of blue light exposure only came from the sun. Our body developed many end-of-the-day processes, like releasing hormones like melatonin to prepare us for quality sleep, that get triggered as the amount of blue light that passes through our eyes decreases, like when the sun sets. These days however, because of light bulbs, it is common to be exposed to high amounts of blue light long after sunset, which can be highly detrimental to our sleep. Obviously, the invention of the light bulb has brought about many positive things, but light bulbs being 99% positive for humans doesn’t negate the reality that some strategies that the primitive part of our brain uses and had worked for us for practically all of our existence are being foiled with our new technologies and comforts. These evolutionary mismatches produce supernormal stimuli and as technologies rapidly advance and integrate more seamlessly into our lives, it raises a critical question: what amounts of stimuli and stressors are essential for us to thrive, in what amounts are they organically occurring as part of our modern lifestyle, and how can we ensure our exposures fit what our body needs?
“The relentless pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, leads to pain. Pressing on the pain side, resets our balance to the side of pleasure.” -Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation
We want to take advantage of as many comforts and efficiency gains as possible, but there is a balance to be struck if we actually want these things to translate into a boosted quality of life. As we inevitably embrace technologies that change our lifestyle faster than our bodies and minds can evolve, it is imperative that we implement strategies into our lifestyle to regulate and supplement the nutrients and stimuli needed to thrive.
The MovementLink Method simply involves:
identifying the types and adequate dosages of beneficial nutrients and stimuli that would help us thrive,
determining what our current lifestyle is organically adequately providing, under providing, or over providing, and
seeking to integrate habits and strategies into our lifestyle to balance out what our bodies need with what it is getting.
This method produces an individualized approach as the circumstances of each person’s lifestyle will expose them to different stimuli. It is imperative that this underlying perspective lends itself to customization as not only is everyone’s life different, but an approach that works great today may not fit the realities of the future.
The result of adopting this universal and timeless perspective is adopting a series of supplemental lifestyle habits that, when implemented consistently over time, helps the less evolved parts of our body thrive alongside our perpetually improving technology. As both our body and lifestyles evolve, we update our strategies based on the gaps.
Here are a few examples:
Potentially Limit Exposure To:
Processed Foods
Sugar
Alcohol
Social Media
Pornography
Gambling
Lights at Night
Potentially Add Exposure To:
Exercise
Mobility Exercises
Being Active Throughout the Day
Changes in Temperatures
Protein
Certain Vitamins and Minerals
The specifics that we feel best fit our current world make up The MovementLink Method.