One of the most important realizations that I have come to recently is that we are really just an advanced form of those animals that came before us.
Of course, we have increased brain functionality, but underlying us is really a life-form that has slowly developed over thousands of years from protozoa or some long last ancestor.
This is important, since if we really want to understand our true selves, we can simply look to the behavior of animals and then see how it applied back to us.
I have noticed this quite a bit recently, but one of the more fascinating applications of this fact can be seen in the pecking order of animals. Specifically, there is one. A trip to Monkey Jungle in Florida to see the Macaque Monkey’s eat according to their social order, really brought out that point.
This directly relates to us humans, as we too establish hierarchies that are created based on worth, which is further defined by society. Where we see ourselves in this pecking order, directly relates to our own personal opinion of ourselves, or our self-esteem.
What is important to realize is that in truth, we humans, no longer have a pecking order – unless we create one for ourselves.
Humans have the logical dimension needed to realize that we are all just the same value. However, the leftover “bag of rocks” that we carry around, really impacts our life, even though it no longer should.
Hopefully, this recognition of the impact of our natural tendencies can help us overcome them.
(On a side note, the second part of this post is not really an original idea, rather one inspired by the writings of Susan Anderson.)