Wisdom in Primates – The Four Branches

Wisdom in Primates – The Four Branches

Have you ever looked over at someone and seen them doing some fairly impressive physical or mental feat? You might say to yourself, wow, I don’t know if I can do that?

The other day, I was taking a yoga class, and I noticed a new student next to me bending all the way down until her elbows were touching the ground. I thought to myself, I can’t do that! She didn’t seem to have a lot of experience doing yoga – in fact, she seemed somewhat uncoordinated – but she was just super flexible. I was kind of impressed. I thought to myself, ahh to be young again.

When you’re young, you just “do” stuff. You are either able to do it or you’re not, but you have the urge to try it. Let’s do back flips off the 20 foot bridge into the water below. Let’s ride 50 miles. Let’s hike 20 miles. No problem, when you’re young, life just kinda happens.

As you age, you might become more sophisticated in your analysis. When you see something cool that you want to try, you might come to any of the following conclusions:

  1. I have never been able to do that and will most likely never be able to do it in the future either.
  2. I used to be able to that when I was younger, but I can’t do that anymore. I will probably never be able to do it that again.
  3. I used to be able to do that when I was younger, but I can’t do that anymore. I might be able to do that again, if I focus, and move like a plant.
  4. I can do that now and execute it like a tiger.

So, the next time you see somebody doing something cool and you kinda want to try it, put it in one of the four above categories. Move like a plant, or move like a tiger, but may you never confuse the two, and wind up injured. Bring clarity to your mind and consciously choose the path of the plant or the tiger. Pluck the strawberry and eat it…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *