Primal Primer 21 (Mentality)
Meditation has been practiced by humans for thousands of years, even before formalized religions or spiritual systems developed. While early Homo sapiens may not have engaged in meditation as we define it today, forms of mental focus, introspection, and awareness was incorporated as adjunct in survival.
Origins Of Meditation
Prehistoric Roots – Meditation likely began as a natural extension of early human’s need for mental focus and awareness. Sitting in stillness, reflecting, and focusing on breath or sensory experience, helps Homo sapiens maintain alertness, manage stress, and improve decision making, animal hunting, and evasion.
Shamanistic Practices – Earliest forms of meditation has been tied to shamanic rituals, where altered states of consciousness is induced through repetitive actions (like drumming or dancing) or hastened by consciousness altering substances. These practices allowed early humans to develop deeper connections to environment, social group, themselves, and cosmos; promoting meaning and guidance for survival.
Physiological & Cognitive Benefits Of Meditation
Stress Reduction – One primary effect of mediation is stress reduction. Reducing stress helps regulate fight and flight response, conserving energy, and preventing burnout from chronic states of high alertness.
Improved Focus & Awareness – Meditation sharpens attention and focus, which are essential for hunting, gathering, and detecting dangers. By practicing mindful awareness, early Homo sapiens could better attune to surroundings, improving abilities in prey detection, predator avoidance, or navigating complex social interactions.
Emotional Regulation – Meditation fosters mental clarity and leads to insightful solutions to complex issues. Clear thinking without turbid colors of emotion are critical in developing tools, planning hunting strategies, or navigating social hierarchies within tribes.
Empathy & Compassion – Meditation is shown to increase one’s ability to cultivate empathy & compassion; all being important when sharing resources or caring for others in times of need. This ability to form strong social connections is critical to our species success.
Coping With Existential Anxiety – Meditation helps humans deal with existential fears such as death, illness, and the unknown. By engaging in reflective practices, meaning creation, purpose, and resilience are cultivated; sharpening psychological tools essential for navigating hardship.
Exploration of Consciousness – Some forms of meditation allow Homo sapiens the ability to explore different states of consciousness. This internal journeying engenders creativity and imagination, both being critical in the development of new tools, technologies, and social structures.
Meditation Is Intentional Consideration
Meditation is an ancient practice done innumerably in variation, while providing similarly wide ranges of effects. Paradoxically deep in consideration while not in thought is one of many definitions of the meditative state; a process of structured form concentration with purposeful presence. When the brain is quiet, focused on nothing but breath or step, the Sapien shifts into a different gear of consciousness. Seek out time to breathe and quiet the mind. Similar to fasting, meditation is a fast of the ego and the processing it seeks. Clarity of mind, calmness of soul, and overall down regulation of the autonomic nervous system are powerful levers to pull for anyone looking to increase quality of life, relationships, and prowess of mind body.
~Cave Implementation~
Meditation takes on many forms, modalities, and time investments. Like any skill, practice leads to progress: results being accumulative. Yoga, Kundilini, Wim Hoff, and any breath work where silencing of brain is intent, are powerful entry ways into the ancient technology of meditative practice.
When The Brain Is Quiet, Focused On Nothing But Breath Or Step, The Sapien Shifts Into A Different Gear.
