Shifts in mindset to the Primal way of life
For those who’ve tried to eat ‘healthy’ and do ‘healthy’ exercise like jogging for a long time with little or no results, this mindset shift is even more surprising but certainly more rewarding. From restriction portion size and eating on the clock 6 small meals a day, you can eat all you want, when you want and eat delicious fats and stay away from ‘toxins’ and hey you’re losing weight doing fun stuff.
This lifestyle has opened me up in many ways. No longer do I read things when it comes to health and wellness without taking it with a pinch of salt. Many times in conversation with a group of ‘healthy’ people I listen with a smug smile of self-satisfaction thinking I’m in on a secret that you guys don’t have privy to.
And this lifestyle has helped me relate all aspects of life to how things must have been and how they should be done.
For me, it’s really more than weight loss and being healthy and fit, for me this lifestyle tells me how to lead life in a logical manner and not get lost in a crowd.
For example, I’ve always had this mindset about how I’d like to raise kids. It’s a rather western mindset in that I’ve always admired the way in the West babies were put in their own rooms from day one and have been encouraged to cry and kept in their car seat or cribs until they just get used to it.
I always thought wow! I’d love to do that, how nice for the parents, they can get back to their own lives so quickly with that attitude.
How far we’ve travelled from being the mammals we once were. Yes we are superior beings but still able to procreate and do a lot of things that nature intended us to. Babies and children are pretty primal. A baby comes into the world none the wiser today than he or she had 200,000 years ago.
A baby is absolutely dependent on his caregivers. He cannot move, he cannot feed himself, he feels helpless in a new world, he needs loving hands to let him know that he is going to be cared for, his every need is to be taken care of by some one else. If a parent has chosen to become a parent (because we choose rationally unlike other mammals) she had better be prepared to provide the baby with every comfort he or she needs.
And still, the most common advise I’ve received from people who’ve been mothers and fathers before is: don’t pick him up, you’ll spoil him, don’t respond too soon, you’ll spoil him, let him cry, you’ll spoil him.
- It’s unnatural not to respond to a baby immediately because he or she is telling you something always. Back when things were simpler, there was always someone around to respond to a little baby.
- A car seat is unnatural (because a car is unnatural).
- The young of any mammal are always attached to their mothers in the beginning. Today as we all have many more things to take care of than we did back then, we’re so worried about making infants and children needy that we ignore the youngest most defenseless ones amongst us.
- A crib in a separate room is unnatural because mothers used to exclusively breast feed at one time and having the baby in bed with them made much more sense.
In India, we have help, and a house full of people to pitch in and hold when possible. At first it didn’t seem ideal and I worried about how spoilt my child would be, but now I am thankful to have helpful pair of hands always, when the little one demands attention.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Thanks for reading xx
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