We Can Take Humans out of Nature, but you Can't Take Nature out of Humans

For decades, centuries even, we’ve been fascinated by humans’ cortical ability to evaluate and categorize things – including other people. Along the way, some became fascinated by defining the ideal human. Anything that was not the ideal was a problem. In striving for this ideal, we’ve lost touch with the reality of humans as creations of nature. Segments of one. Imperfect.

The more we attempt to ‘get’ ourselves or others to be the ideal, the more we threaten our innate adaptive intelligence.

Getting others to an ideal invites conflict about what is the 'right' ideal. Ideologies are nothing more than a thought that grew to a group level of attachment. Perhaps ‘proven’ with a study in a fixed context. Yet humans are dynamic; context is everything.

This does not mean that change is not possible. Healthy change depends on accepting that human nature offers scaffolding for being the best version of who we each can be. Not shaping everyone to a cookie-cutter ideal. Guiding each person to become the best version of who he or she can be.

By accepting and appreciating natural human development, we could

💫Stop viewing children as miniature adults and see them as undeveloped offspring that need protection and nurturing, not behavior and chemical modification to conform.

💫Stop trying to control stress and work with it as a natural prompt for growth, particularly through adult development.

💫Start separating stress response from threat response from faulty developmental scaffolding, providing tools and resources to address the causes not the symptoms.

💫Stop pushing band-aids quick-fixes that interfere with vitality and long term wellness.

💫Education system would stop seeing children as objects to get to perform to standards and start nurturing each child to advance to the next level of scaffolding.

💫Healthcare system would stop artificially fixing symptoms to get ahead of something, only to create more symptoms. Instead, foster natural restorative and vital processes that are in humans by nature. Particularly the emotional and autonomic guidance systems.

💫Mental healthcare would stop pathologizing natural human adaptations to threatening and unsupportive habitats through struggle and challenges.

💫The workplace would bring more human into HR rather than machine-based models of productivity and manufacturing-line-design of human work processes.

💫Stop believing struggle shouldn’t happen and that something is wrong with us if we struggle.

💫Start accepting that struggle is a natural experience for growth, yet depends on sufficient support of others for it to occur.

If you are intrigued by the idea of reconnecting to your human nature with an empowering approach to navigate your lifelong wellness and being in continual development for living and leading, join the upcoming Coaching Circle.

You can even try it on for free in November and December 2025!