Go Wild By John J. Ratey, MD And Richard Manning

n this paper I would like to discuss the book that I chose to report on and why I chose that book. In addition, I have picked two topics of interest to specifically talk about. These are exercise that involves the brain and rest that truly restores the body and mind. These are key components of this lifestyle. I will conclude with corroboration of the information.

My Book Choice

Health and wellness have long been topics of interest to me. For some time now, I have believed that these can be found in living as “natural” a life as possible. This involves principles of wellness such as eating whole, organic foods, keeping active and avoiding many of the traps of the modern lifestyle. Such as poor sleep, poor diet and plenty of stress. Exercise,

Consequently, I chose to read and report on the book Go Wild, by John

J. Ratey, MD and Richard Manning. I found this book to be very inspiring. The title could be misleading since it does not refer to abandoning rules and behaving like a crazy person. It simply refers to returning to the roots of our existence from the perspective of what our most ancient of ancestors did in their everyday lives to just survive. It refers to the time before civilization. They ate food as it grew naturally, without chemicals or genetic modification. They moved their bodies constantly in order to hunt and gather, plant and harvest and used their brains while doing so in order to keep safe or find food. They rested as needed while others kept watch for safety purposes. By necessity, they were a social group, depending on one another to survive. They existed in nature, rather than unnatural urban surroundings as many of us do today. One can view our lives through the lens of modern life and get a good look into how far we have deviated from those roots. It is that ancient lifestyle, that “Wild” way of living, that produced abundant health

BEFORE CIVILIZATION then and, with the same principles applied to our modern lives, still can today. This is especially

He refers to exercise in the sense of activity that not only builds the body but the brain as well. “Our brains are literally built on and inextricably tied to movement of our bodies. Movement builds our brain because movement requires a brain” (Ratey & Manning, 2014, p 100). The authors go on to say that more complex movement requires more complex brain activity. Therefore, walking on a smooth paved road does not exercise our bodies or our brain in the same way that a rough, varied terrain does

(Ratey & Manning, 2014). I have been incorporating this into my current exercise regimen. I have been walking on the shoulder of the roads in my neighborhood. It is sloped, rocky in places, and the grass makes the surface unpredictable. I feel this practice had helped increase the value of my workout both physically and mentally. It uses a wider variety of physical muscles and I have to constantly look and think about where I need to put my feet in order to stay safe, which benefits my brain.

Rest and sleep are often undervalued in our modern society, yet their value to restore the mind and body is of utmost importance. The authors of this book maintain that sleep