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elib.tech Exclusive… sharing elsewhere will result in being banned!Class OverviewThe modern world presents us with an unprecedented set of challenges, crushing stress and lifestyle disease. The solution is understanding, but we also need experience, participation and engagement. (Check out the Top 10 Big Ideas from the class below!)Your ProfessorFrank Forencich is an internationally-recognized leader in health education and performance training. Frank has over 30 years teaching experience in martial art, performance and health education.The Top 10 Big Ideas1. We are Stressed and SufferingThe human body is unhappy. We are suffering from a long and growing list of lifestyle diseases: obesity, heart disease, depression, anxiety, suicide, substance abuse and attention disorders. We have the most extensive knowledge and most powerful technologies in history and yet, public health is declining around the world. We long for a solution to our suffering and we search for a new way to live. 2. We are Living a MismatchOur health and life predicament is often explained by the “mismatch” between our evolutionary history and the conditions we experience in the modern world. The contrast is stark: our bodies run an ancient “legacy programming” that helps us to survive in a world that no longer exists. We now live in an “alien environment” that challenges our bodies with circadian disruption, toxic foods, sedentary occupations, noise and chronic stress.3.We Have a HistoryIt’s only in the last century that we’ve come to realize that the human body has a deep history, a history that has shaped our brains and our behavior. Our primate heritage goes back tens of millions of years. Our species is some 200,000 years old and our hominid ancestry goes back some 6 million years. Agriculture is only 10,000 years old and our major lifestyle and health challenges of modernity are only a few hundred years old.4. Paleo is the NormFor the vast majority of history, human beings have lived in small tribes in natural environments, gathering, scavenging and hunting to make a living. We have lived in intimate contact with the natural world. Every detail of our anatomy, physiology and psychology is the way it is because of this deep history. We are here today because of our ability to survive in natural environments; the modern world is a radical exception to our experience.5. Exposure is TherapeuticThe most powerful lesson from the Paleo is that exposure and physical adversity can be powerfully health-promoting for our bodies. (Up to a point of course.) Exposure to natural sunlight, long-distance walking and running, climbing and outdoor striving stimulate an anabolic response that’s hundreds of millions of years old. Primal people lived a high-contrast life of intense striving and deep rest. This lifestyle oscillation can also serve us well in the modern world.6. Our Predicament is UniqueIn the modern world, our historical challenges of exposure and infection have been largely tamed. Stress, sedentary living and poor diet are now the major threats. This has never happened before in human history and no one really knows what to do about it. Most modern health care infrastructure is built around the challenge of infectious disease and trauma, not lifestyle disease. Experts have some good ideas to be sure, but individual and cultural creativity are essential to finding a solution.7. There’s Another StoryThe story of mismatch and its twin narrative, “looming planetary catastrophe” are disturbing and largely true. These are stories that must be told, but they are not the only stories of our time. If we get stuck these narratives, we make ourselves vulnerable to cynicism and depression. If we treat the modern world as “alien” to our bodies, we wind up blaming modernity for all our woes. Instead, we need to concentrate on the emerging stories of human growth and transformation.8. We’re Entering a Golden Age of TrainingFortunately, modern growth narratives are pointing to as almost unlimited capacity for human transformation. For a long time, we assumed that the body was a fairly static form and that people are born with certain pre-determined aptitudes that defined the trajectories of their lives. But today, with recent discoveries in neurobiology, we now know that our bodies, brains and behavior are incredibly plastic. With training and practice, we can improve almost any dimension of our behavior and performance.9. We Need a PracticeUnderstanding the primate’s predicament and our modern mismatch story is crucial, but understanding is never enough. There must also be an experience, an authentic, full-body life experience of risk, effort and engagement. It’s essential that we train our bodies and our attention with regular mindfulness practices. Without this kind of training, we’ll simply remain reactive to the world around us, swept along on the current of stressful current events. We need a special time and a special place to train.10. Empty Your Cup, Sweep the MatBegin your practice by getting back to “bare attention.” Get back to your non-verbal and pre-cultural origins. Adopt your beginner’s mind. Give up your relentless narration and explanation. Relinquish your attachments and your expectations. Then, once you’ve brought your attention into focus, you’re ready to begin your practice.