Why Practice Primitive Skills?

Description

Why do we practice these primitive skills when we have modern, convenient solutions we could use instead? I share some ideas of why these skills are important, and ask for your thoughts on why you practice them.

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Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods

Video Transcription

[Music]

greetings my friends if you are if you're into any of this stuff if you're a real Wilder or bushcrafter survival is whatever you do out in the woods you probably have come to people who have and said why in the world would you learn and row we have lighters wait why would you learn these primitive skills when we have these awesome you know technological improvements that make things so much easier and there's so much more effective and this is a good question I'm sure you've been asked it and at the end of the video I'd love to hear what you think of it in your responses but I wanted to share the thoughts set that came to me with this and it's kind of funny because often I think of our ancestors and you know no matter who you are just you know twelve fifteen thousand years ago your ancestors were hunter-gatherers and think about their their life their world for a moment because they lived in a world of ice ages they had megafauna bears the dwarfed our modern Grizzlies saber-toothed cats these these are amazing creatures that they lived with and they had no cellphones they couldn't dial nine-one-one they had no firearms had no bear spray all they had was each other and stone tools and if you think for a moment every single one of your ancestors this is amazing every single one of your ancestors had to live to breeding age and have children in order for you to be alive right now so you have this lineage going back of this incredible ancestry and the funny thought that comes to my mind sometimes is if I'm out in the woods and let's say I'm gonna use a lighter to start a fire and sometimes I can almost hear those ancestral voices say like I can't even look seriously you're using a lighter if we're using a GPS unit to navigate and you know ancestors are just going seriously

look there's the Sun right up there their shadows you can navigate just fine without that and so for me there's almost this humorous take on it where I can imagine our ancestral selves just just rolling in their graves as we sit on it we sit on the sofa and use it a remote control - let's say change the channel on television because we can't even get up and walk across the room on a more serious note though I think this idea of using a lighter or using hand roll it it asks us a really important question that is important for us to think about living in the civilized world where is our line if you've seen that movie wall-e about the robot all the humans they don't even walk anymore they just go around in these hovercraft chairs with screens right in front of them they're all you know that they can't even walk because because they don't and so as our technology gives us more and more things to simplify our lives to make things easier and easier and easier then each of us has to ask that question where's our limit where are we gonna say that that's enough if we can be you know have a watch that Tunes us in to our social media constantly is that too much for us or is that a smart move if I could have clothing that keep me warm at just you know 70 like 72 degrees Fahrenheit all the time so I never feel the discomfort of cold or if heat is that something I want all these things that that magical set of clothing I'm talking about or the lighter we no longer have to exercise some of the skills or abilities that we had in the past in order now to accomplish starting a fire or accomplish staying one and and it asks us all kinds of questions about about physical health am I willing to no longer walk and just be go around on a hovercraft maybe you are and that's there's no judgement here you you get to make your own choices of where your line is but when we stop walking our muscles degrade our bones grow weak we lose something intrinsic to ourselves and I think that is where for me going back practicing some of these ancestral skills these primitive skills it brings us back into some of our original gifts a strong body senses that can be aware a mind that feels vibrant and unclouded it's a big topic and I think in the next 10 20 years a lot more of us are going to find ourselves really confronted by this this idea of where we draw our line because if technology continues as it does we're gonna have so many offerings that make our life so much easier to give us access to health to a clearer more steady-state emotional state are we going to use you know a little headset that I wear that always makes me happy or do I want to learn to experience sadness and frustration and anger and happiness which is a more vibrant life so that was a long way of saying in short that I think these ancestral skills they wake something up in us because when I see somebody start a fire with and roll or bow draw a joy blossoms inside of them an excitement that says something inside of us that's really us is getting to come out those ancestors they're no longer looking away in embarrassment they're going like right on and they're really proud of us in that moment and we feel a bond with them whether it's the skills here or its mental emotional skills or its forging our body what are you going to choose is it going to be this path of continued ease or is it going to be giving yourself discomforts giving yourself in canvas

giving yourself tougher situations because you know that it creates something inside of you that those comforts never can in the comments please share your thoughts about this where is your line where have you gone too far into comforts and conveniences and what have you found there have you gone so far the other direction have you gone really far into making yourself uncomfortable and challenging yourself what did you find there between those two extremes where right now are you drawing your line in the future as things get easier and easier where do you see yourself drawing a line and saying this technology looks really really cool but it's just too much so thank you for watching my friends and please share in the comments I can't wait to read [Music]