What did primitive man have in common with modern man today? Primitive and modern man share the same survival instincts of fight-or-flight. The issue is that modern man lacks understanding of fight-or-flight and has yet to evolve concerning being in fight-or-flight.
Primitive man did not have a sophisticated mind. Primitive man only knew existence through innate survival instincts and fight-or-flight. Primitive man did not have the same sophisticated issues as modern man does today. The nature of fight-or-flight for the modern man is the same as it was in prehistoric times. The survival instincts of fight-or-flight will perform what it is meant to do which is to keep us alive and safe. Unfortunately, this natural phenomenon rules our very existence since the fight-or-fight response does not know the difference between hunting, gathering and self-protection in the primitive days and modern man’s issues like winning a competition, getting good grades or paying the mortgage in the modern day. Since the brain of modern man still has the identical fight-or-flight response as the primitive mind, any stress that the modern man feels mimics the stress response of the primitive man’s survival instincts. The stress responses are non-distinguishable to our survival fight-or-flight instincts since fear is fear. There is no intelligence in the survival instincts of fight-or-flight. In a competitive situation, there are offensive and defensive moments from one second to the next, which is challenging and confusing for the human brain to be able to switch gears constantly since defense resembles flight and offense resembles fight in nature. Primitive man probably did not have these same challenges going back and forth from fight to flight and flight to fight so often. Primitive man was most likely on the run from harm or defending from harm rather than going back-and-forth between one and the other. Modern man has competition. Competition is supposed to be fun or recreational but to the primitive fight-or-flight response it still thinks that modern man is in danger or harm when competing. Human’s survival instincts have no idea that competition is a recreation or that our modern stresses or problems are in general not life threatening.
I make sure that my students understand this natural phenomenon that is happening to them. The depth in which fight-or-flight governs our lives is greatly misunderstood. Everyone thinks that their issues are always a technical issue in sports. The focus on first correcting technique, especially in sports, is a form of abuse to the mind. The truth is that the student needs to be mindful of whether or not they are falling into flight when in defense and fight when an offense before blaming technique. Exercises can be done specifically working on the nature of fight-or-flight without overburdening the mind on technical issues only. I have recently written a book called the iZone Formula that focuses primarily on the understanding of fight-or-flight and how to find one’s Zone in sports, business and in life. The iZone Formula is the key to learning how to overcome and evolve from the effects of fight-or-flight to become a better athlete, better person and have a better life. The book release will be in January and available for sale at The Houstonian.
By: Mike May