DISCLAIMER: I haven't been paid to flog Mark Sissons' work or anything. I just
happen to think it's a good framework for healthful living. I'll
probably touch on the Primal Blueprint in later posts, once I'm able to
start eating how I want to.
The concept of hypervigilance is one I first heard about when I conducted research into fitness and diet in an effort to curb a habit of eating terribly that I had developed. I was put onto the wonderful Primal Blueprint by a friend who knew that I loved food so wouldn't stick with anything that restricted my choices. The Primal Blueprint goes further than a way of eating though - a lot of it has wider applications.
Hypervigilance is one of the Primal Blueprints' central lifestyle laws, and though I haven't been able to apply too many of the other laws for one reason or another, this one really stuck with me and eventually led me to the Holistic Thinking mentioned in my last post.
So what is it? As I read it initially, hypervigilance is the state of being aware of the environment to a high degree in case threats present and cause trouble. Here, 'environment' means a few things - the Primal Blueprint takes a focused physical approach, but I tend to apply it to social and even financial situations as well. It's constant scanning and evaluation of a circumstance and being aware of a 'worst possible scenario' so that it can be avoided without too much effort. It's keeping your eyes peeled, your head in the game, and your heartrate down. That last part is very significant, but I'll discuss that in a moment.
For a loner, being aware of a concept like hypervigilance is a massive boon - it helps you anticipate things before they happen, but mostly it keeps you out of trouble before you get into it. If you're going it alone, oftentimes there won't be anyone there to help you get back on your feet, so avoiding situations that could be dangerous to you and help you stay safe so you can enjoy new experiences and places with some sort of security becomes principle. Once you've got to go into damage control, things can get messy when you haven't got a support network or readily available help. A strongly independent person equipped with well tuned avoidance mechanisms will sustain themselves and grow healthier and longer than someone who can't get themselves out of a jam until they're damaged. At the core of it, this brand of hypervigilance is about cutting the crap out of your life and keeping it out, using nothing more than your own judgement and intelligence.
I realize that I'm probably using a couple of pretty problematic terms here - a basic googling of hypervigilance will bring up a lot about how it's a form of psychological injury, one step down from full blown paranoia, and something that needs to be treated so 'sufferers' can enjoy life. I don't disagree with these suggestions if someone is suffering from a full time hypervigilant state. What I'm suggesting in this post is that the state is a useful tool to minimize involvement in any stupid situations. It's a conscious state to bring oneself to in situations that might provide that 'slippery slope' of a damaging situation - and the main thrust of it is to remain mindful of these threats so you can get along with enjoying life at some point. I absolutely don't recommend fostering a state of hypervigilance on a permanent basis - that's unhealthy and missing the point of what the state is meant to achieve. Like a couple of beers can help you unwind after a stressful day but a whole case will destroy you for the next two days, so a bit of conscious hypervigilance can help you avoid a lot of detrimental situations, whereas a permanent state of it will be just as unhealthy as the aforementioned situations. Everything in moderation.
As always, I hope this has been useful to someone and that the concept gains adoption in the wider community. It's certainly been useful for me and has probably been the main reason I have gained not only independence, but happiness too. Feel free to comment with any questions, or even your own experiences.
Holistic Thinking - a base mindset idea.
We all have a guiding way of thinking that dictates how we handle different situations. I've given a fair bit of thought to how to say this lately - it's hard. It's different from a world view or an attitude in that this guide isn't caught up in how one feels about something. It's more like a tool box of things that you use to deal with a given set of parameters to produce an outcome you want. Your attitude might dictate the outcome you want, or how you approach the situation, but that's not what causes the change itself. The toolbox of your awareness and your different skills does that.
The purpose of this post is to describe the toolbox of what I call 'holistic thinking'. Until very recently I thought of it as 'design thinking' but realized that this concept is far more nuanced than what I apply in my life. Eventually I'd like to have enough of a working knowledge of design thinking to call that my approach in life, but this is going to take a lot more research and application of knowledge. For now it's holistic thinking, and I feel that this is a useful way for those lacking a broad support network and easy points of reference to think. As an attitude, I feel that the phrase that best sums up my current one is 'everything in moderation - even moderation'.
The main idea with holistic thinking is that it keeps the mind open to all aspects and factors in a given situation, and is centred around what you need and want. It is also very much about being mindful of what a situation and the variables within that situation are not - this not only keeps unneeded concerns out of the picture, but it keeps one aware of things that could 'come into play'. This concept of being mindful of the entire field of possibilities and using only those which will benefit the situation was born from the concept of minimalism, which is also close to my heart. Keeping this awareness is especially useful for the aforementioned sort of person, who may find themselves dealing with a lot of different situations due to their independent nature. I've heard this sort of thing referred to as 'wearing lots of different hats'. This is just one aspect of the loners' life that can be improved by keeping a holistic mindset.
There are a few ways that this mindset helps the person who has it, particularly if this person is the sort of person I hope ends up reading this blog regularly. I've listed the advantages below. I tried writing them all out but this post was (is?) turning into a novel.
This has become a bit of a monster post, so I'm going to leave off here. Next post I think I'll talk about the role of hypervigilance in an independent persons' life. I hope this is useful to someone – it’s certainly helped me. Please let me know if you enjoy these posts, and what you'd like more on. I probably have some more stories I'll post up before long too - I handwrite all of them and then have to transcribe them, which can be a pain.
Peace.
The purpose of this post is to describe the toolbox of what I call 'holistic thinking'. Until very recently I thought of it as 'design thinking' but realized that this concept is far more nuanced than what I apply in my life. Eventually I'd like to have enough of a working knowledge of design thinking to call that my approach in life, but this is going to take a lot more research and application of knowledge. For now it's holistic thinking, and I feel that this is a useful way for those lacking a broad support network and easy points of reference to think. As an attitude, I feel that the phrase that best sums up my current one is 'everything in moderation - even moderation'.
The main idea with holistic thinking is that it keeps the mind open to all aspects and factors in a given situation, and is centred around what you need and want. It is also very much about being mindful of what a situation and the variables within that situation are not - this not only keeps unneeded concerns out of the picture, but it keeps one aware of things that could 'come into play'. This concept of being mindful of the entire field of possibilities and using only those which will benefit the situation was born from the concept of minimalism, which is also close to my heart. Keeping this awareness is especially useful for the aforementioned sort of person, who may find themselves dealing with a lot of different situations due to their independent nature. I've heard this sort of thing referred to as 'wearing lots of different hats'. This is just one aspect of the loners' life that can be improved by keeping a holistic mindset.
There are a few ways that this mindset helps the person who has it, particularly if this person is the sort of person I hope ends up reading this blog regularly. I've listed the advantages below. I tried writing them all out but this post was (is?) turning into a novel.
- Good for avoiding stagnation and ignorance in a situation - good for preparation
- Helps avoid stress, the 'root of all evil' in a loners' life
- Helps evaluate what's really important and makes other things secondary - here's that minimalism again
- Helpful in establishing routine, a set of behaviors that can again reduce stress and prepare for almost anything.
- Good for establishing points of reference about what's acceptable behavior and things like that - no 'crazy hobo syndrome'.
- Nurtures active reactivity - a state of readiness but not anxiety about what's going to happen in the future. You can deal with almost anything because you're aware of what may or may not happen. Helps avoid stress no matter what's going to happen.
- Nurtures hypervigilance - a high degree of awareness of all factors in play, especially environmentally.
- Keeps you interested, gets you off your arse and out the door - there's always things to find out and creche into your knowledge base.
This has become a bit of a monster post, so I'm going to leave off here. Next post I think I'll talk about the role of hypervigilance in an independent persons' life. I hope this is useful to someone – it’s certainly helped me. Please let me know if you enjoy these posts, and what you'd like more on. I probably have some more stories I'll post up before long too - I handwrite all of them and then have to transcribe them, which can be a pain.
Peace.