Hierarchy of Needs, Pyramid of Desires

One of the components of living my life, as long as I can recall, has been the awareness of needs and wants. Necessity and desire dictate our lives. I’m a big fan of getting my priorities straight…although I tend to fail the execution of that ideal on a daily basis; I’m only human, shit happens. Regardless, I think a healthy balance of striving for perfection and accepting imperfection is the way to go. If you’re interested in this ideal maybe you can garner some ideas from my experience.

Disclaimer; I’ve never been into “woo-hoo” so all this Yoga “stuff” that I’ve been doing the past five years has been fought tooth and nail. I’m really only interested in results, so abstract ideas, that are either unobtainable or plain incorrect, are not my jam. However, this shit IS real. The way Yoga dissects our hierarchy of needs is legit and extremely useful. I like that. Of course, I have my own take on this because I don’t agree with everything in the sutras or the way things are presented by certain…gurus… Underlying philosophies are key. In Yoga we have this covered in the first two limbs: Yamas and Niyamas. It’s like your ten commandments (which is also a good place to start). This is all about morals and a fundamental understanding that humans are not animals, but rather, astral beings with animal bodies. However, these concepts are just that; concepts. The first action takes place in the body. Movement and breathing are where we really begin.

Obviously I would agree with starting in philosophy and an overall goal for your life. This is essential so you can navigate life’s waters as opposed to being a victim to them. Adopt a mantra, a sort of theme for your life. I’ve decided my life should be about strength. You may want to look into the zodiacal references to figure out your aim. I always felt weak deep down so I figured I’d fake it till I make it. I want to be strong and I want truth in my life so my objective is to become strong. In the pursuit of strength training you figure out what is true and what isn’t. If it works; do it. If it doesn’t…don’t. Same goes for personal character development. I’m not here to tell you what your theme is, only you can decide…but it is extremely useful to know where you are headed, else you may go the wrong direction.

After achieving a fundamental understanding of where your life is going you MUST develop physical aspects of strength, endurance, body control, flexibility, etc. You live in this physical plane of existence and you’ve been given a body that must interact with its environment…honor this fact. The “how” isn’t nearly as important as the “doing” of the aforementioned development. Of course I will detail, later, how I personally go about it. Physically speaking; I look at survival needs first. We need air more than anything. Quality air is super important…but I don’t think we consider this very often. The best option here is to get away from the city but not everyone has interest in moving to the boonies. I think a proper air filtration system is a good place to begin in the home and/or at work. Try to mitigate the effects of the modern, poor air quality as best you can. Now, another aspect here is breathing in general. You people don’t know how to breathe for a damn! This is a big topic because there are so many techniques and uses for certain situations but I’ll cut to the point: belly breathing or diaphragmatic breath. That’s where you want to begin. Breath more often and deeper. Oxygentate your blood more often and move that crap out of your bloodstream! Go to Yoga and become conscious of your breath.

What’s next if you’re in the wild? Since we’re rather soft, squishy little creatures make sure you get your delicate little ass out of the elements. I’ve gone 5 days without any water or food before, under duress. You don’t need nourishment right away. You need protection. Internal and external. Internally, I will refer you to the Wim Hof method which teaches you how to protect yourself against the elements. Externally..well, we all have houses so you’re pretty much covered there, lucky! Back to the Wim Hof method; all you’re doing here is a system of deep breathing and acclimating yourself for cold water. Ice baths and cold showers can boost your immune system and make you stronger in general. You will be able to handle the elements with less strain on your organism as a whole. This system also builds off our first foundational principal; breathing and air quality.

Now we can move onto water and food. Water from the tap is laced with chemicals and trace pharmaceuticals, toxic fluoride and all sorts of harmful shit. Bottled water comes in plastic. Well water is probably your best bet here but it should be tested for contaminates and you’ve got the problem that most of us don’t have well water anymore. Natural spring and well waters are best because they have high mineral contents and its what you’d get in nature. Nature has no lies, always look there for answers! Distilled and Reverse Osmosis are good options for ridding the water of man-made contaminants but the lack of minerals can actually strip your body of electrolytes so be careful here. Some swear by it but I don’t think most of those people are training or exerting themselves to high degrees. If you use distilled water then add some good natural sea salt and maybe some other natural minerals to be on the safe side. First, though, do we really need water? Obviously yes, but do we need to drink it? I did a 17-day experiment where I went without water completely. I consumed raw meat, raw milk, and raw eggs for the first four days, by day five I stopped the milk and egg consumption and only ate raw meat for the remaining 13-days. I was training at a fairly high level; squatting and deadlifting with heavy poundages. No water or salt needed and I’ve actually never felt better! I’m not suggesting you do this but it gets you thinking about what we would have done in the wild. Primal peoples don’t have unlimited access to water all the time. Just test things out for yourself and see how much water you really need. I usually go a few days at a time without any need for excess liquids even with my heavy training schedule. Now, as far as food goes; I’ve experimented A LOT here. I feel like everybody is different, of course, but overall people tend to do better when they add more animal-sourced foods in their diet; especially grass-fed ruminant animals, like cows. Through experience I can tell you that 99% of what we are told about diet is either terrible advice or plain dangerous. I am still not sure if plant-foods are necessary in any capacity. Meat, on the other hand, I have thrived on. My students who start off, unable to consume lots of meat have a break-in phase where they SLOWLY add more quality meat into their diets and practically all of their health problems clear up. Acid reflux? That means you don’t have enough acid in your stomach and slowly sending signals to your body to increase HCl production is the only “cure” for this problem. How do you do that? Eat things that require more HCl production. What are those foods? Animal foods. Again, I am only interested in results and not dogma. If you find a whole-food diet that works for you then do it. I simply caution against plants as they need to be prepared properly. Beans, grains and legumes need to be soaked and prepared extensively in order to reduce the phytic acid content and actually allow you to absorb SOME of the nutrients. Ever see corn in your stool? Yeah, you didn’t absorb that. Kale, that’s a toxic plant with clever marketing - sorry to break it to you but it wi destroy your thyroid if you eat it on a regular basis. Anyway, this is a GIANT topic and everyone will have different results depending on where they’re at in life and the health of their gut etc. The takeaway is to eat whole foods and not processed shit. Also, stop eating factory farmed meats and go to a local farmer raising his herd on the grasslands, they can use your support.

Just as important as being fed a quality diet; you must fast on a fairly regular basis. This is the key to long life at a high quality! There are so many protocols here it’s just as overwhelming as the food issue so make sure you do your research and figure out a routine that works for you. Most people start off with intermittent fasting on a 12 or 16-hour daily schedule. A GREAT introduction; I did it for years at it helped a lot. I’ve tried skipping breakfast and skipping dinner. I’ve had better results with skipping dinner but it’s a no-go for my social life so I usually don’t stick with it for very long. A, perhaps, more effective approach is simply one meal a day. Again, breakfast-only has been my favorite for performance but I have a life full of friends and kids so I usually end up doing dinner only. I’ve also practiced 3-4 feeding days each week and that’s been my favorite for performance so far. I feel so damn good on this routine but, again it’s tough to be social. Basically I eat a giant breakfast, train really hard later in the day (around 1500 beef I teach class) then eat another 3-4,000kcal of mostly meat; I do this Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Saturdays I like to do some conditioning so, if I hit it hard I’ll probably eat in the evening with friends. The other days are either salt-water or dry fasting. No other intake. Seems hardcore but you get used to it. Mind you I’m training with weights 3x/week and Squatting about 450 at the moment and I won’t be satisfied until I’m hitting 600lbs. Plus; I’m sprinting 1-3x/week, swinging kettlebells, running, swimming, doing breathing, stretching, cold therapy, etc. and I’m not being run down at all, in fact it’s the opposite. I couldn’t do this routine on a normal eating schedule. I take ZERO supplements. Never taken a drug and am completely opposed to the use of testosterone. I heal incredibly quick and I keep getting stronger every week, even after multiple injuries sustained in childhood and during my time in the military. Fasting and a mostly meat diet have HEALD ME.

Once you know how to breathe, air quality is acceptable, you have a roof over your head, you understand what to eat, and have a fasting routine; it’s time to work on developing your body to be strong a resilient. I’m not advocating everyone lift barbells or so heavy as I do, not at all. Yoga will be 90% of what most people will need…however, that 10, 20 or even 50% extra activity better be some sort of lifting. Kettlebells, calisthenics, barbells, whatever it is you need to work your hips and low back. Most of my students use kettlebells in the form of the basics (Swings, Get-ups, Squats, and Presses) and add in some supplementary basic calisthenics (push-ups, chin-ups and ring exercises) a few of them even lift the barbell on a fairly regular basis and they are all the stronger for it. Take is slow and add slow. Enjoy the process. Flexibility is huge too. Yoga can pretty much cover this aspect. You might as well attend a few Yoga classes each week to get in some deep-breathing, stretch out, add some endurance and strength to your frame, and UNWIND the mind and body a bit. Honestly, a good combination of Yoga, Kettlebells and Calisthenics is all 90% of us will ever need. You’re looking at two to three, one-hour sessions of Yoga and two to three, one-hour strength training sessions each week..that’s a four to six hour weekly commitment. You waste more time in a day on your phone! MAKE THE TIME FOR TRAINING AND ACTIVITY. Obviously things like running, walking, or pick-up sports can get your movement in but they tend to be injury-inducing / asymmetry producing for most people and I’ve found they’re not worth the risk or time commitments for most people. Of course, if you enjoy basketball or whatever I’m not suggesting you give up on your hobby. In fact, a regimen like the above will make you MORE capable at your sport.

Now, I realize I’m what most people would call an “extremist” but I work with “normal” people whatever the fuck that means. I’ll use Peter Gibbons, from Office Space, as an example. Ignore, for a moment, the theme of the movie conveying that our modern life is slowly killing you and that you must leave it in effort to truly live…this just isn’t going to happen for most of us. We need our jobs to feed our families and survive. If this article somehow produces a desire for you to go AWOL then prepare for all of those challenges because it’s not all sunshine and rainbows in nature…nature is a hard bitch! Anyway, look at Peter as an average dude doing his nine to five. His existence consists of waking up earlier than he’d like to get in a car and drive in mind-numbing traffic to a job that he hates so he can gain enough money to cover his apartment, food, and other basic living expenses. He watches tv and fucks off on his phone until he finally goes to sleep way too late to start it all over again. The two days he gets on the weekend are spent watching tv, maybe going to the bar, and dreading Monday. In the winter he is especially depressed because there’s not enough sun and everyone else is depressed. How does a guy like this (sorry if that’s you right now) feel alive again? Well, if his job really IS sucking the life out of him or he have a bad situation then he needs to get the fuck out and go get another job, seriously. If, however, he’s in a good place and his co-workers are at least tolerable; there’s a TON of shit he can do! Let’s start off by giving Peter a morning routine where he may have to wake up…gasp, earlier than normal!!! 30 extra minutes can give him the following, and feel like a win for the day already: he places his alarm in the bathroom and makes sure it’s a LOUD one. He now gets up ONCE. Once in the bathroom, he does a tongue scrape, swishes coconut oil in his mouth, takes a piss, brush teeth, etc. He does a quick little joint mobility routine, maybe 10 minutes and spend a couple minutes with leg swings as a dynamic stretch for his tight areas. Now he’s circulated some of the spinal fluid and is ready to sit in silence for a moment before taking some deep conscious breaths. He performs three rounds of Wim Hof method breathing and already had a ton of dopamine in his body, plus a huge serotonin release which will help him facilitate more testosterone and lessen depression immediately right there. He uses this feeling to get the courage to get in the shower and turn it to cold. At first he’s only able to do a few seconds but eventually works up to full showers in the cold. No he’s feeling ALIVE. He eats a hearty man-breakfast of eggs and steak, whatever else feels right, until he’s full. He forgoes his jacket in the winter and gets strange looks from the neighbors but the feeling keeps him in the moment an awake. He is also barefoot anytime he’s not at work to connect to the earth and develop his foot strength and get rid of any foot pain that lingers. He gets in his car and turns on an audiobook or guided meditation or even some isochronic tones to facilitate a wavelength in his brain for relaxation. He gets to work and parks the car. He closes his eyes and spends one-minute being thankful for everyone in his life. He imagine himself listening to people without interrupting and trying to hear what they say instead of being annoyed by them. He feels deep appreciation for the humans in front of him and the comforts in his life. A couple of deep breaths (if he has time maybe he does an extra round of Wim Hof) and he’s headed into the office. He keeps his chest high and shoulders back to signal his brain to excrete more pheromones and testosterone. He is feeling rather good, especially considering it’s winter! He has already decided, in the car, that he will do the best he can for his co-workers. He’s on a team and he will go above and beyond. This is his time to work and not focus on himself. He will approach this work day as a chance to meditate on something other than himself. This “work” is now a relief! People start to notice Peter’s posture and attitude improvement. They can sense his confidence building. He doesn’t expect anything in return. He takes the time to hear people and notice little things about them; hair, new clothes, etc. Lunch time rolls around and he uses the space to practice Yoga Nidra, a guided sleep meditation, for about 20-minutes. He wakes up and practices his joint mobility routine from the morning again. He’s ready for the second half of the day! Sometimes he drinks coffee around 1000 or 1200 time but he’s considering quitting the habit altogether, one thing at a time. Through the fasting and denial of snacking he is building his discipline and making better choices in his life overall. Sometimes he fucks up but he doesn’t allow himself to dwell on it, just start over tomorrow. His cubicle also has a little air purifier on the desk, nice touch. He gets off work and makes sure to say goodbye to people in the office. He smiles and takes a big breath of fresh air when he walks outside. He hops back in his car and takes care of any chore or errands that need to be done on his way back home. His audiobook / documentary plays but sometimes he just sits in silence; observing things around him as he drives and gets a chance to ponder his day. He is not tied to the traffic and allows others to pass him as some terrorize the other lanes. He arrives at the gym on certain days and performs strength training with kettlebells and calisthenics, working on some basic movements, on other days he visits a local yoga studio and dives into this physical practice. When he gets home Peter prepares his food for the next morning, if any prep needs to be done. He reads about things he’s interested in or performs a hobby. He decides to stop using pornography, realizing the detriment it has wreaked on how he sees women, sex and relationships in general. He uses this extra energy to talk to women and build his confidence. He begins to date and eventually has a girlfriend, one day a wife. Occasionally he plays a video game or watches a movie but never allows himself to be programmed by what is on the tv. He enjoys these activities for what they are; a way to unwind a bit. He is careful to turn the electronics off an hour before bed. He performs his evening routine and gets ready for bed. Occasionally he sleeps on a couple yoga mats to help realign his his spine and to not get too soft. Peter is happy, healthy and full of life now. He realizes we cannot change the messed up world around us but we can change ourselves. We can choose to be loving, kind, and honest and our karma will reflect this. We can choose our morals but we cannot choose our karma, only our actions.

Peace my friends.