英语书籍：The Genius Of Instinct（节选三）

英语书籍：The Genius Of Instinct（节选三）ZT

I've learned how your instinctual tools can help you have better health, lose weight, and bring the family budget under control. I've learned how parents can use evolutionary psychology concepts to advance their child's creativity, stimulate their interests, transform sibling rivalry into sibling support, and create more family fun. Also, evolutionary psychology can teach you how to help your college-bound son or daughter select the right school, and how to get them to help with family chores.

My corporate consulting and teaching experiences have enabled me to understand and learn how companies and individuals can use evolutionary psychology concepts to attract new clients, manage interdepartmental conflict, give an effective presentation, select the right job, and become a more effective executive. It will become obvious to you as you read that the advice gleaned from evolutionary psychology offers the world real solutions for real problems.

What I find most exciting is that this perspective will help you enlighten yourself to the 'revelation of what the natural tools for success are in work and at home--with your family, with your partner.'


PART ONE
'Shelter Seek...So You Can Find Your Home'

'Enhance your life by using your shelter seeking instincts'

CHAPTER ONE
'Selecting an Empowering Environment'

'Your Evolutionary Heritage'

'Any roost used by female bats must provide a safe and secure environment that protects them from predators and adverse weather conditions, as well as providing a microclimate conducive to the growth of their offspring while in the womb and after they are born.
It must also be a space with design features that allow the bats to interact socially.'

It's not surprising that you would encounter a nest of bats in an old vacated building or church: The bats are there because of their shelter seeking instincts; they have found an environment that suits their needs and allows them to perpetuate themselves.

Studies show that bats living in buildings enter a state of torpor, or deep sleep, less often than bats living in rocky outcrops or caves. Because they enter torpor less frequently, the bats can be more active on more days, giving them increased time to grow and develop their fetus and give birth earlier than those in rock roosts.

Bats in buildings are also better energy conservers than other bats, such as cave dwellers. By roosting in the warmer microenvironments of buildings, females can reach higher body temperatures during the day, and juveniles can achieve higher body temperatures during the night when females are away foraging. Being inside the building helps juveniles grow more quickly, and young building-roosting bats fledge earlier than rock-roosting bats.

In effect, the bats have put themselves in an environment that protects them against predators, helps them save energy, allows them to give birth earlier, and lets their young to grow faster. Their shelter seeking instincts have allowed them to find an empowering environment, or in their case, the ultimate bat cave.

'Getting yourself into an empowering environment' is the foundation for enhancing your life, according to Mother Nature.


'Your Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness'

Life cannot exist in a vacuum, so for every living creature, there is an environment that it must adapt to if it is to survive, an 'Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA).' Different species have different EEAs, but the common denominator of each is that it presents standard challenges that tax the adaptive capacities of its inhabitants, whether that environment is a desert or a polar region.

'Environment' refers to anything external to the organism that impacts its existence, whether it is an ocean, a tree, or another creature.

Shelter seeking has evolved in humans so that we can, like the bat, get ourselves into environments where the externals we interact with are favorable to our existence and enhance our lives.

To take advantage of the genius of your shelter-seeking instinct, I suggest that you think of your environment as anything external to you that impacts your existence at work and at home. Your boss, colleagues, clients, partner, children, house, and office are all parts of your EEA. To get a little ahead of ourselves, start to ponder whether these surroundings make you feel good.

Despite the fact that animals and humans can adapt to their environment, literally thousands of studies show, independent of the individual, the adverse effects that result when an animal or human is in a "negative environment."

Thus, while every environment offers life a chance, some environments are more conducive to enhancing life than others.


'Surviving More Than Thriving'

I am not going out on the limb to make the generalization that many, many people--be it in their work environment or their marriage environment--are closer to "surviving" than "thriving."

"How are you doing?" is the question, and, "Hanging in there"; "Taking one day at a time"; "Not bad"; "Okay"; and "Getting by" are the answers from the straw man. Surviving--just enough money to pay the bills, getting through a job that's just a living, or dealing with daily marital stresses--for too many people is as good as it gets.

Why do people stay in environments that prevent them from flourishing, be it a marriage or a job? I've heard all sorts of reasons that aid in people disconnecting from their instinct to seek different shelter, and I am sure you have your own too, especially if you are one of those folks in a nonempowering environment.

Some people blame extenuating circumstances: "I stay married for the kids." Others state a lack of options: "There is no other job for me." Also popular is: "The grass isn't any greener elsewhere." Each pat response shares the perception that all "environments" are the same. While it is certainly true that all environments present problems, we all know people who left their old environment--be it a marriage, job, college, community--and are thriving in their new grounds.

Understanding your evolutionary heritage provides another reason that explains why people tend to be disconnected from their shelter seeking instincts and, thus, remain in anemic settings.