What the Primal Blueprint means to me. Law#10 Use your brain

Ironically enough, I have had to put off this post due to two coursework deadlines, dissertation programming and exam preperation - however, putting aside that mental exercise for a moment, lets briefly consider Primal Blueprint Law 10 - using your brain. If I were a harsh person, I might note that the brain is currently one of the most underutilized muscles in the human body, with many favoring the overuse of their mouths and/or TV strained eyes. But I am trying to not be a harsh person, so we'll look at the positives. Society, for better or worse, would not be the way it is if our brains had not evolved to be as useful, creative, and essential in attaining mastery. Our ancestors survived because they were intelligent, sentient individuals who used their brainpower constantly to survive. Think about it, knowledge of local wildlife, plant life, geography, and conforming to law#9 (avoid stupid mistakes) requires a level of consistent brainpower to avoid injury and death while enabling them to live full lives.

My cognitive faculties allow for the deduction that pointy end goes in hairy beast - then I eat beast.
Meat make Grok happy.

Modern life bombards us with stimulation and it is easy to simply sit-back and absorb this constant stream of information from TV and the internet. But, as this blog has taught me - it is better to be a producer of information, rather than merely a consumer. It is similar to the way that teaching another person the lessons you have learned enables you to develop your own understanding of the same concepts.

How can we use our brains more? I would consider myself to do a lot of mental gymnastics most days, with University, work and the many activities associated with these integral components to my current life. The addition of this blog has increased my adherence to Law#10 because while I am discussing concepts drawn from other sources, I am referencing how they apply to my own life. So what can we do to increase the use of our brain? Here are my top suggestions that I think everybody will be able to follow.

• Spend an extra few hours weekly (or daily if you are a high user) away from the TV or computer screen. This gives you time for other activities that will benefit your life in a far greater and healthier way (see the exercise laws fro example). This includes those late night Netflix binges that destroy sleeping patterns.
• Read. During the day, read anything that you find stimulating. I have no love for gossip magazines and all the associated nonsense, but at least it is better than the TV. During the night, before bed - read fiction. It avoids the dreaded blue-light build up pre-sleep that avoids healthy sleep cycles and allows for a nice wind down from the day. Why fiction? because it is inconsequential to the real world - you will not be trying to assimilate information from factual sources while you try to sleep. Even though textbooks send me to sleep, they are perhaps not the best late night reading.
• Write, or draw - use the things you consume, to produce something. The other side of the coin. Keep a journal, write a story, or write a blog. Lots of options and you have the benefit of creating something, even if it's just for you to read.
• Learn a new skill. Pick something you have wanted to learn for a while; an instrument, a new language, or even a new sport/martial art. New stimulus, new people and new skills to assimilate - all awesome ingredients for expanding the mind. If you're worried that you don't have the time, check out this TED talk from Josh Kaufman on how to learn anything in 20 hours.
• Reassess your consumer behavior. If you decide you need a few hours in front of the TV, then what are you watching? is it something trashy that will in no way influence your life, or an award winning series with seriously amazing acting and scripting? do you pick reality tv, or documentary? one of the two might be more 'entertaining' in a sort of mindless way, but the latter is by far more mentally stimulating.

Books are great - and there are millions of them out there

So there we have it, the last of the primal blueprint 10 laws. It's also probably the most important, because everybody should be using their brain to choose the primal blueprint as the healthiest way of living, supported by modern scientific observations and our human evolution.

Respectfully, 

Sam