Natural Living Tips

“Going green”, “Eco friendly”, “environmentally conscious” and “living natural” are terms that are now part of our daily lives.

You hear about it on the news, your read it on magazines and newspapers and continuously on the internet. Even news services have a nature category.

Going green and living natural. It seems as if everybody is doing it.

But what does it mean?

It can go from a full scale change in life, going 100% natural and even be militant about it, to small continuous changes without affecting your quality of life except for the better. My suggestion is starting little by little. Rather like eating the proverbial elephant (at least I hope you don’t actual try the elephant).

Take food for example. You can increase your fresh fruit and vegetables intake. What sort of packing does it come in? Every day you have more green food choices - look for them and learn about them. Your proteins - the meat or fish you eat; they are being farmed. How are they fattened?

Or energy requirements. At home, with a little effort, you can reduce your electric bills just by turning down the air conditioner or heaters. A simple formula is: use what you need. Leave a little.

Can you afford to do it?

Yes you can. Just start with a conscious decision. At the end of the day that is all it takes. There is an enormous amount of information and consumer alternatives around, and there will be more each day.

Be creative. A British couple have recently taken their honeymoon in the US and paid their flight with recyclable aluminum cans.

Can you afford not to?

A few thoughts for you. How about your health? We really don’t know the toxicity levels we have or a clear idea of the long term effects. We do know that heart problems, cancer, diabetes and others are much greater than at any other time. Think about it.

What about climate change? The weather has always been unpredictable, specially long term but we must all be aware that something is going on. We hear the news, we see the images and many times we are right in the middle of it - and these are not just isolated news items. We are just not sure of the long term changes or the subtle effects that are happening. The butterfly effect must be overworked.

What about the next generations. Will they be able to see animals in the wild or outside a zoo. Or even worse in a book or on film?

What about energy sources. How renewable are they? What about solar power and wind power? Developments in these area are indeed amazing.

If you reduce your waste (and probably waist, as well), your bills will go down and so will your carbon footprint.

You can find many sources of information all over the place. Just give yourself a bit of research time and you will be able to live a little greener.

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The term Eco-conscious has become quite popular now. And so there is a growing risk that it will be misused and become another marketing success.

There should be no problem with an ethical use of the term “Eco-conscious” but the probabilities are that many non-green products will try to benefit from it. In other words it can be used to manipulate people into buying things under false pretenses.

There is a growing awareness that we have to start changing the way we treat ourselves and the environment.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with material things, at the end of the day they are developed, produced and used to make our lives better. The point is that they are all tools to be used for something, and not an end in itself.

Some natural resources are non-renewable, but we keep on wasting them as if tomorrow never comes. The waste and disposal attitude of our society complicates matters and is usually based on cost, profit and comfort levels.

Attitudes are difficult thing to change, but they do. Sometimes what is needed is a crisis to force the change. But the best way of changing attitudes is to open our minds and break away from reacting in the form of habits.

A natural life is possible once we change our attitudes.

If you look back forty or fifty years ago, the ordinary household did not have all the conveniences we have today, and the idea is not to turn back the clock, but perhaps we can learn form them.

Fifty years ago the term Eco-conscious, or green, hadn’t been coined, but in general terms (there are always exceptions to every rule) life was lived in greater balance with nature, basically because there weren’t as many options as today.

Old clothes were reused as cleaning cloths instead of paper towels. When cold, people put on another layer of clothing. The house was lit at night with the right amount of light, and bulbs were turned off when not needed.

The food was fresh and varied. Cooking was an event in itself and mealtimes were family times with less stress and more bonding opportunities. This had the added benefit of strengthening the family and providing a healthy environment - which has now been shown to reduce health issues, such as heart disease and so on.

If you look at some of the benefits of eating healthy and varied food, companionship, family relations and community spirit, you may notice that the levels of diabetes, heart disease and stress, was much lower than today.

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To make your home into a green friendly house one of the major areas that you can begin with, is energy efficiency, with the added benefit of savings in the form of lower utility bills.

• Energy Efficiency - Use Energy Star appliances. Energy Star is a government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency.

Products and appliances that have the energy star logo are allowed to be classified as energy efficient.

Home appliances in this program, range from refrigerators (perhaps the highest consume or electricity in the home), stoves, dishwaters, microwave ovens, washers and driers, as well as music delivery systems.

Some models may cost a little more, but the day to day savings will definitely be worthwhile.

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Natural living has a very nice sound to it, especially now that more and more people are aware and even concerned about the environment.

But what exactly do we mean when we say “natural living”?

For most people the issue will revolve around recycling, use of renewable and clean energy, organic food production and consumption, as well lowering our carbon footprint.

It also relates to health. Health as in the individual, the family, a group, society, nature and the world at large.

A natural living choice should also include quality of life, and quality of life implies much more than the material side of things.

A lot of the information on natural living is based on recycling, energy, organic food and environment, and so it should. If we don’t solve these issues, the consequences will probably be catastrophic.

But sticking to the quality of life side of things, I suggest that a natural living choice should include more:

• the psychological aspects of the individual and the community,
• the family,
• the spiritual,
• the physical,
• the environment,

A slogan could be “healthy minds with healthy bodies”.

All life should strive for harmony and balance. A simple equation would be:

Body(Harmony+Balance)= Health

Simplistic perhaps, but with more than a germ of truth.

The US constitution states: “The pursuit of happiness”. It doesn’t guarantee happiness, but the freedom to pursue it.

So, my definition of Natural Living is.

“Pursuing a positive and satisfying existence, in a style that respects and seeks to achieve harmony and balance with nature, ourselves, and the future”.

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