Growing up in the 1970’s I vividly recall Sunday evenings with my family gathered around our small TV watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins. Marlin Perkins was the Steve Erwin of the 1970’s…but much more dapper…he looked like Walt Disney’s older brother. Marlon had snow white hair and a distinguished Disney mustache, and he always wore an old school safari suit. My most vivid memories were of the African episodes when we were treated to various chase scenes on the savannah: lions chasing wildebeests, cheetahs chasing gazelle, leopards chasing monkeys and other small game…

The dangers and stressors that we face in our day to day lives aren’t lions, tigers, or bears that are trying to kill us; our modern day stressors tend to be more intellectual and less physical, less life-and-death and more existential.  We will often say, half-jokingly, that we are “our own worst enemy”, but the truth of the matter is that this is more true than we would like to admit.  

We live in a state of constant uncertainty, always on edge, never knowing what is coming next, and this is slowly taking a toll on our bodies, brains, and relationships. Politics, public health, the economy, and even public safety are all highly uncertain at the moment but many of us are pretending like everything this fine. Our bodies and brains are on edge, flooded with adrenaline and cortisol, and we are primed to explode with rage or run away as fast as we can, but most of us are just sitting at home watching the world burn…

Biological creatures seek situations where their basic needs can be met with a minimum of stress and danger. Although we can’t understand how animals think or ask them about their thought processes, we can gain insights from their behavior and in most situations, animal behavior seems to indicate that they prefer predictability over unpredictability. Although from an evolutionary perspective, humans are infinitely more advanced than other animals, we still need an environment of safety and trust in order to function best.