A childhood favourite of mine, The Flintstones is 65 years old this month. A classic cartoon sitcom, set in the ‘stone age’, which is still probably second only to The Simpsons in popularity for this genre. Its success was largely due to the juxtaposition of modern living and modern concerns in a stone age setting, with the anachronistic inclusion of dinosaurs running most of their ‘technology’.
Humans being a ‘stone age man’ living in a modern world is a popular concept amongst psychologists. The idea being that we have a nervous system that evolved for living in a simpler and less stressful world than the one in which we live today. Because evolutionary change generally moves at a slower pace than does the rate of change in our society and technology, particularly these days, this is perceived as a problem. We have two automatically running settings within our nervous system. The sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic is the action setting, it is activated in fight or flight, or stressful situations, or situations that require immediate action. Typical physiological responses in the sympathetic system are a faster heart rate, shallower breathing, tensed muscles, and an increased blood flow to our limbs. In this mode we are usually more alert to threat, we have a narrowed focus, and we make decisions more quickly. It is very useful in these ‘quick-action-is-required’ situations but can be exhausting if we spend too much time in it. By contrast the parasympathetic system is about rest and recovery. Here we have a slower heart rate, deeper breathing, relaxed muscles, and increased digestion. We feel safe and calm, and we are able to socially engage more easily. As I said, the psychological perspective here is that we are over stimulated and spend more time in the sympathetic system than we should, over stressing the body. Social media, emails, deadlines, long working weeks, financial worries, noise, and social pressures all combine to keep us more often in our action setting than we were in the past. Which, of course means we aren’t spending enough time in our parasympathetic ‘rest-and-digest’ state.
I don’t fully buy the idea that we spend too much time in the sympathetic system because we don’t live in the stone age. Personally, I think living in the stone age must have been pretty stressful too, just differently so. The psychological point I do fully agree with is that we need to consciously and actively reduce stressors in our lives. We have designed this world we live in, if it is stressing us too much, then we should re-design it. Short of being able to singlehandedly restructure society, we can all take some simple steps to rebalance our own system. Everything begins with awareness. Start by paying more attention to how you are feeling, and what does stress you and what doesn’t. We are all different. I remember seeing a TV presenter tested for stress back in the 1980s. He got very stressed playing a computer game but was calm and relaxed as soon as the cameras rolled and he was presenting his show. Simple things like taking a moment to deliberately breathe more deeply, or a walk outside, a meditation, or some other mindfulness practices, or even social engagement can all help shift us back into parasympathetic functioning. Also pay attention to what things do stress you and see if you can in the short term, and more importantly in the long term do something to address these.
Finally, the thing that will stress you out the most is trying to be who you are not. I guess that as hunter gatherers, we were much more able to achieve that, because the list of options we had was more limited. Today we have more ways in which we can express who we are. But perceived family or societal pressures can force us into a life path that just isn’t us. So be honest with yourself, are you really being you, are you fully expressing the you that you feel you are, in all areas of your life. As I said, the most stressful thing you can do in life is to try to be someone you are not. Give yourself permission to fully be yourself now. I think it’s what Fred and Wilma Flintstone would do. Can I get a “Yabba Dabba Doo!” of excitement from you for that idea?
“We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.” John F. Kennedy
