The nature versus nurture debate has been around since Plato in the 4th Century BCE. How much of who we are is determined by our nature or genes, and how much by our nurture or the environment? I would suggest that the closer we lived to nature, the more determined we were by our nature. But with human development towards post-industrial civilizations, and the rapid urbanization and globalization of the past 300 to 3000 years, we are largely determined by nurture. This has placed a far greater burden of responsibility on the shoulders of our parents, teachers, and preachers, to provide us with an accurate roadmap of reality. Unfortunately, the growing levels of competition within a financially driven economy as opposed to a more ancient agricultural, subsistence economy, has resulted in a top-heavy reliance on nurture. I believe this imbalance between nature and nurture, and our subsequent disconnection from our natures is the root cause for the exponential growth in human disease, both physical and psychological.
When we look at nurture and nature as a fraction, we could call the numerator on top, nurture, and the denominator underneath, nature, because nature came first. Now if we were to place a number on top in terms of the period of years that human civilization has been around, it could be a lifetime, 70 years, or an epoch, 700 years, or an era, 7000 years. When we do the same with nature, and how long the history of nature is, carbon dating would suggest that 700 million years would probably take us back to the earliest life forms. This fraction, 7000/700 000 000 clearly demonstrates the importance of a proper appreciation of our nature if we are to live fully and effectively. It is high time we gave more attention to understanding and connecting with our deep, inherited nature, and less time worrying about water under the bridge we can do little about. We need to learn to nurture our own nature, something we should be teaching children in senior primary at the age of 10 to 12, before puberty. By doing this, we will give future generations access to a host of stress busting, resilience building, problem solving abilities grounded in our highly evolved human natures.
To take back responsibility and autonomy for nurturing your nature, Steve Biddulph in his groundbreaking book, “Fully Human”, introduces The Mansion of Being, We live out our lives in a mansion which consists of four distinct floors; first floor is your physical being (Body), second floor is your emotional being (Heart), third floor is your cognitive being (Head), and forth floor is the roof top or spiritual being (Soul). When you know how to nurture your nature on all four floors, you start to align yourself at a body, heart, head, and soul level, which is when extraordinary things will start to happen, because as Martha Beck in “The Way of Integrity” says, ‘It’s pure physics!’. Based upon ancient practices which kept our ancestors grounded, switched on/turned on to their glorious lives, I want to introduce you to the four practices of being present in your own life. Conscious breathing, emotional regulation, ‘The Work’ of mental flexibility by Byron Katie, and meditation, will help you nurture your nature and unlock your gold, the potential of 700 million years.
For information on each practice, please see the previous blogs.
https://www.brianblem.co.za/harnessing-the-wind/
https://www.brianblem.co.za/fuck-fuck-fuck-i-feel-so-fucked-up/
https://www.brianblem.co.za/developing-mental-flexibility/
https://www.brianblem.co.za/meditation-the-fine-art-and-science-of-detachment/