By Ahsan
I remember my first school trip to the zoo. For some reason, the monkeys were most fascinating for me. Perhaps it was because I liked watching the old Tarzan movies and liked how Cheetah was his pet. One thing that stood out in my mind is that I was glad it was the monkeys living behind the caged bars and not me.
I read somewhere that the first zoos basically put animals in a cage and fed the animals the appropriate food, plants for herbivores and meat for carnivores. Over time, they began to find that this crude set-up led to unhealthy animals. These poor creatures were exhibiting declines in both physical and mental health. They got sick, depressed, anxious, stressed and subsequently, lived short lives.
The smarter zoo-keepers then came up with a better plan, and that was to approximate the natural conditions of the animal living behind the "enclosures." The now roomier confines were adorned with more natural surroundings, cold water and ice for the polar bears and grass, shade and dens for the lions. They made sure there was ample sunlight for the animals and food that the animal would have eaten in the wild. No more monkey-chow and other various pellets.
An interesting thing happened, the animals were living longer and with less physical and mental short-comings.
The moral of the story is that zoo animals just like human animals will thrive even though they both live in cages! Yes, you heard me, we too live in cages called houses, apartments and office buildings.
Many of us are not any different from those captive zoo animals. We stay indoors too much, are sunlight and sleep deprived, eat processed foods (monkey-chow), don’t hang out with other members of the tribe enough and do not move around like our ancestors of just 100 years ago. On top of it all, we stay in go mode and are stressed to the hilt when we are active. We operate at extremes.
The modern human whether living in Asia, Europe, Africa, or North/South America is not living the way that promotes health. A lot of them are living short lives brought on from poor lifestyle habits.
Many modern humans stay cooped up indoors, don’t exercise, eat junk food, don’t sleep well, live with high stress, are anxious, lonely and depressed. Are you one of them?
If you feel like you might share the same circumstances as a monkey living in a primitive zoo, here is an action plan to consider:
1) Become aware of your level of health, both mentally and physically.
2) Educate yourself about the five pillars of total health: Diet, Exercise, Sleep, Stress-Management and Social-Connection.
3) Assess how you fare on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the highest score), on each pillar. Start tuning up for more awesome habits.
4) Make this year the year of focussing on your Five Pillars of Total Health.
5) Rest assured that by doing so, you will take on the role of a wise and caring Keeper of your own health.
So, are you living like an animal in a zoo? The curious thing is that these days, many of the animals, it could be argued, are living better than us!