EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY

25/9/09 (Day 30, Retirement)

Today is exactly a month since I retired. It is a milestone for me and probably for my wife too. You might say it is ridiculous to call a month, a milestone but if you take the analogy of a new born baby it becomes obvious. For the parents, a week, a fortnight, a month, all become occasions to celebrate. And the retirement is like a new baby! Delighted to have it but a source of anguish none the less.

I have to be really very watchful; otherwise my physical activity level will rapidly fall down below the critical line. This is because of my inborn aversion to unnecessary & unpleasant physical activity. Before retirement I had to walk a lot, stand a lot, just as a part of the job, but not now. Now I can easily spend the whole of the day just reading, watching tele or surfing on the net. I am fully aware that this will be extremely counterproductive to my health and hence to my plan to draw the pension as long as possible. But apart from that I also feel psychologically unwell when I spend the day without any physical exercise. So with great effort I try to do at least an hour of yoga with an in built physical exercise programme.

Why is physical exercise necessary when it is really no longer needed by the modern life style? I am not talking about obvious physical health problems to my cardiovascular or musculoskeletal systems. I know them well. What I am talking about is the feeling or the sense of being unwell. I have been searching the internet for the enlightenment. Where else? And I think the answer is in Evolutionary Psychology (EP). I came across this term as I was looking at today's news headlines at BBC website. The news was that there will be more spiders this year due to favourable breeding conditions caused by temperate summer. There was a link to arachnophobia on the page and from there another link and so on till I reached EP.

Just as Darwin's physical evolution which selects certain physical attributes which are advantageous to the organism during a prolonged period of particular environmental pressures there is psychological evolution, whereby a set of necessary psychological adaptations to combat the recurring pressures of prolonged ancestral environment becomes part of the developmental nature. A good example of this is fear of spiders or snakes. A recent study from US published in New Scientist remarked that women have a genetic aversion to dangerous animals such as spiders. Spider phobia is much more common in females than males. This is because their ancestral role as a new born protector. Overtime they developed a natural aversion to any animal which can sneak in and may be dangerous to their baby. Baby girls showed this as early as 11 months of age compared to baby boys. EP also explains why men and women look for different attributes in choosing a life partner.

This feeling of being unwell is also due to ancestral pressures during a period when not being able to do strong manual tasks was fatal. Overtime our brain developed in a way that it automatically creates an unpleasant sensation when you do not do the minimum required physical activity.

Well that is what I think anyway. And now I have to go to do my yoga which I conveniently forgot this morning. I am looking forward to your thoughts. Bye for now.

day two, retirement

27/8/09
It has been cloudy and windy today in Manchester.
As I said yesterday I planned to do an hour of simple yoga exercises and meditation. I started in good faith at 9 am. Yes, I know it is kind of late but if I still have to get up by alarm, what is the fun in being retired!
About halfway through the yoga, I suddenly remembered I had to ring the finance department to clear some discrepancies in calculations of my pension (between theirs and mine). As a good citizen it was my duty to alert them. Would I be so eager if my estimate was not higher! Thank god, I was not given that choice to test my morality.
Anyway I could not concentrate on my breathing and I had to abort from my lotus position and pick up the phone. It was answered by the now omnipresent machines giving zillions of options. Finally managed to get the attention of a Homo sapiens and the matter was amicably sorted out in only a fraction of time that I dreaded it would take.
Rest of the day passed quickly, it does when you have got a nice novel on your e-book. I finished almost half the book Last Theorem by Arthur C Clarke supplemented with lots of tea and food.
Saw a film on the box and watched the news. Now to bed, Good night.

day one, retirement

yesterday was my last working day at the hospital where i worked as a plastic surgeon for the last 15 years. i had decided many years ago that i will retire when i am sixty and i was eagerly looking forward to my last working day. but when the day came i really felt very sad. why this contradiction? i was puzzled. then it dawned on me that it must be because i had a lot more good and happy times here than bad. i must have met more good people here than bad. i must have very good friends around me here.
i had emotional and tear hiding farewell encounters individually and collectively with a lot of people who have worked with me over the years. my wife made a retirement cake and a poem, more emotions more tear hiding something in the eye moments.my finally a hearty farewell dinner at lime tree restaurant. in bed at 1am, call it exhaustion and also fare amount of wine i slept like a log.

i was awake at half past six. how come? normally my alarm goes off at 7am and i force myself to get up after a few nudges and pushes by my wife at about 7:30. and to day when i do not have to go to work i got up by my self at 6:30. what is going on?

went down ,made tea for my self and my wife ( usually it is otherway round) listened to radio 4 news , went in the garden and took bath ,yoga bla bla .i even went to cinema in the afternoon and did a bit of gardening. tidied my email and contact folders on the new net book.

why am so active and trying to keep my self so occupied? i think it is the fear that if i do not keep doing something i will just slouch on the sofa in front of the telly and will not get up. though that is what i wanted to do uninterrupted till yesterday.
i have to overcome this fear and relax. may be yoga, starting from tomorrow, see just planning this made me feel better, of to bed now to prepare for tomorrow.