Becoming Triggerless: The Modern Quest to Reclaim Our Mental Health

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The human mind evolved to survive in a world that was often harsh, hostile, and unforgiving. Our ancestors survived famine, drought, ice ages, and global-scale extinction events. They accomplished this not by being the fastest, strongest, or most physically adept animal, but rather by being the “smartest”.

Your brain is the result of hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary pressure; haphazardly crafting a machine capable of surviving in almost any circumstance through a brutal process of trial-and-error.

The game of Biology is tough!

For our ancestors to survive, they had no choice but to strike out into the world to hunt and gather what they needed. If you succeed, the reward is that you get to keep going another day! If you fail, however, you are on a slippery slope to a permanent “game over”.

Victories are small, but defeats can be huge. The human mind, thus, evolved a bit of a negativity bias. Our brain is more sensitive to bad news than good news. We are more anxious about threats than we are excited about possibilities.

On average, we are more pessimistic than optimistic.