I had a professor in my doctoral studies who proposed that humans, with their advance cognitive capacity, would be able to solve whatever problems or issues emerged in the building and maintenance of a working culture. I found this to be anathema, as it seemed a rather narrow and 'human-centric' way of looking at things. It has taken me years, decades, to perhaps see where he was coming from.

My thinking now flows this way: Humans, to survive in raw nature, were not physically outfitted to do very well in a world of 'survival of the fittest'. Not fast enough to elude many a predator, and not strong enough to defend against said predators if and when they found their human prey. The sole advantage our earlier brethren had was the problem-solving nature of a thinking brain. So, in the overall scheme of things, humans remained in alignment with the very nature that they were. Fire, tools, social collectives and such were but tiny ripples in the overall flow of things.

Seems to me that when our abstracting brains started projecting into the future is when our estrangement from nature began to inch forward. Based on a desire for security as well as a fear of the unknown future, literal and metaphorical structures were created. The amassing of whatever wealth looked like at the time also became a fact of life. All this, often based in fear, took focus out of the present and into the abstract future. 

From these simple beginnings cultures specifically, and civilization in general, took monumental steps over the millennia. Zoom into today - massive cities, enormous industries, cyber-connectivity, a plethora of wealth-creation strategies, religion, murder, war, and on and on into a monster of convoluted complexity. 

It is my contention that the convoluted complexity of it all has estranged us from the nature all around us, as well as the very nature that we, too, are. I think there exists a deep dissonance in many as a result of being estranged from the very nature of who we are, and that the problem-solving capacity of our human brains has led us a bit astray, on an aberrant path that is not in service to helping create a solid foundation from which to craft a life consistent with the properties of nature.

My work is to help people relax through the layers and layers of 'hustle-bustle' culture, of 'hyper-culture', with the intention of stepping at least temporarily out of the convoluted complexity and re-establishing a connection with the very nature that they are. 

While I practice 'one nervous system at a time', perhaps I am a part of the problem-solving that my professor from way back when spoke of. I can only hope...