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Thinking outside the box: five ways to feed your brain

Matilda Lee | 23.05.11

Australia’s Climate Change Commissioner Tim Flannery points out in his new book Here on Earth that modern humans' brains have actually shrunk by 10 per cent relative to our ancestors. The theory behind this is that living in a society based on a division of labour means having other people do things for us that we once had to do ourselves- from catching our food, to making our own shelter and tools and defending ourselves. Today we live pretty much in a comfort zone compared to our ancestors, but is there a case for diversifying to ensure we don't lose our ancient intelligence? Can we nurture our shrinking brains?

1. Work with your hands
Matthew Crawford wrote a wonderful book called The Case for Working with your Hands: or why office work is bad for us and fixing things feels good. The gist is this: while many of us lack the skills to fix or even understand the most basic technologies and have convinced ourselves that office life is the only type of job worth doing, each of us could be one of the countless thousands actually unsuited to office work and missing out on a rewarding and independent lifestyle working with our hands.

Sian Berry, former green party candidate for London Mayor, manages to combine both office work and getting her hand dirty and has written a great book called ‘Mend it’  which takes you step-by-step through many household fix-it jobs. There is great satisfaction (mental, physical, philosophical) from being able to control the many things that dominate our lives –fixing a bike, a leaky tap, mending clothes, building a fence, and so on.

2. Get closer to your food
Hunt it, grow it, forage it, bake it...whatever it takes to open up the world of sustenance. Author Shannon Hayes in her interesting book Radical Homemakers extols the virtues of ‘tomato-canning feminists’ and takes readers and would-be homemakers – both men and women – along the path to self-reliance.

3. Get connected to your local surroundings
How connected are you? Getting to know your local area will make you more open to and perceptive of your natural surroundings and aware of the natural cycles of life. The Woodland Trust’s Visit Woods programme can get you in the mood for forest walks.

4. Meditate
James Thornton, founder of the brilliant environmental law firm ClientEarth says that he has been practicing Zen meditation for 25 years and swears it helps prevent burnout. Meditation can be achieved through physical exercise as well - swimming is my personal example.

5. Live wild
We’ll never understand just how difficult our ancestors had it, but learning how to survive in the wild – albeit for a weekend – can be an invigorating and mind nurturing experience. In other words, go camping. Feather Down Farm Days  offers camping on small, sustainably-run family farms. While roughing it you can learn about the people who produce Britain’s milk, eggs, beef, fruit and vegetables...


 

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