4. Scratching the Primal Itch

I run five miles per day and have done so since I first discovered the psychological benefits of doing so in my mid-twenties. Though my friends and associates are apt to question my sanity for such dedication and exertion, I console myself with the thought of what that sanity might look like if I were to forego my daily fill of nature and physical effort.

In much of my early adult life I was a largely sedentary creature.  I didn’t fare too well. Episodes of mania or depression were frequent and hospital visits not uncommon. I twice overdosed on medication and count myself lucky to be alive. I’m sure my lifestyle at that time was largely to blame. The common modern circumstance of deskbound inactivity, I believe, is one we have not yet had time to adapt to as a species. A mere 30,000 years ago – a snippet, in evolutionary terms – homo sapiens were an active, nomadic, hunter-gatherer species endlessly engaged in the task of ensuring their survival. Our brains and bodies still crave that action. Movement, particularly the vigorous kind done in the outdoors, has therefore become my surrogate for the prehistoric ‘hunt’, the release or ‘out’ which has allowed me to scratch that primal itch, get my daily endorphin hit, and burn off the energies that otherwise might be used to fuel either of my neural nemeses.