Natural Living Tips

Natural living has a nice ring to it. There are many organizations, businesses, web sites, articles and people that

are into natural living or natural health in one way or another.

There are also many ways of practicing it.

1. Nutrition: Consuming it; Producing it
2. Health: Alternative medicine; Herbs; Antioxidants; in natural form or supplements
3. Environment: Eco- consciousness; Active participation; Recycling; Reducing waste
4. Energy sources: Solar; Wind
5. Lifestyle: Family; Consumer
6. Sharing, writing, working, filming, talking.

There are many ways of looking at natural living depending on the degree of involvement, participation and even creativity.

The interesting thing is that it is a fact of life today because people are aware of it; there is a positive attitude towards nature and our relationship with it; it is an emotionally charged subject; there is fear of “nature’s revenge” if we continue the way we do.

At the same time we have to accept that synthetic development (to coin a phrase) has brought material quality of life and is an economic consideration in our society.

Having said all that, what do we mean by “natural” and by “living”?

• Natural: “free from artificiality;” “in accordance with nature;” “relating to or concerning nature;” “functioning or occurring in a normal way;” “existing in or produced by nature;” “not artificial or imitation”; “being unprocessed or manufactured using only simple or minimal processes;”
• Living: “pursue a positive and satisfying existence;” “the experience of being alive;” “the course of human events and activities;” “condition of living or staying alive;” “inhabit or live in;” “be an inhabitant of;” “lead a certain kind of life;” “live in a certain style;” “in its natural state and place (not mined or quarried);” “still in existence;”

Natural living would have to take into account these definitions, but above all it must come under the umbrella of “Harmony” and “Balance”.

So after all that, how does natural living sound with this definition?

“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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When you look at medical practices over the centuries, specially in the Western world, there is the idea of ignorance and near savagery.

The middle ages for example had barbers, later to be known as doctors, whose main practice was to remove teeth and molars.

When sickness and fever struck, patients were bled either with knives or leeches. Maggots would be put on an infection to eat, and therefore clean, the infected area.

The idea of cleanliness was not an issue. After all a bath once a year was a risky business with the real danger of catching a chill and then worse.

Perfumes were expensive and brought from the East, and were the main alternative to body odors. They weren’t readily available so smells were an interesting ingredient of day to day life.

During the 14th century when the Black Plague struck Europe, it ravaged populations everywhere, but specially in the cities where sanitation was lacking in extreme.

But there is another side to history. The Moors and the Arab culture at the same time had taken great strides in many subjects, including mathematics, astronomy and medicine.

The Chinese and oriental societies, as well as those in the Americas, in India and even Africa, had a down to earth knowledge of medicine which was based on the natural world.

Herbs and plants were the necessary ingredients of medicine.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, the day to day medical practices were in fact more advanced than has generally been acknowledged.

Natural remedies were the only options. A lot of mumbo-jumbo did take place, but then again hasn’t it always.

In fact today, in this day and age, isn’t there also a lot of mumbo-jumbo, camouflaged in pseudo-scientific jargon?

In the thirteen hundreds there was a magical thing called “the sponge”. It was rarely used and thought to have magical properties. Few doctors had access to one of these.

It was a sponge that had been soaked in a herbal mixture - nobody was really sure what it was but amongst other things it had a paste of opium.

The sponge was soaked in water and placed over the patient’s mouth. When his breathing became deeper and louder the doctor knew he had fallen asleep and proceeded with the operation.

Although the magical qualities that surrounded the sponge were unknown, it was in fact a form of anesthesia. Unfortunately the knowledge behind it was lost and so was anesthesia (except for large doses of alcohol) for five or six centuries.

Now at the early stages of the XXI century many natural remedies are again coming to light. Some new, some known to different cultures and some being resurrected from days gone by.

One of the major benefits of natural health is that an important part of the philosophy behind it is the view of the person and his community, the physical side of the individual as well as the psychological and spiritual side.

In essence, a holistic view. And all this stresses the health issue from the point of view being healthy, before needing to heal.

In short the process would be:

• Being healthy (current state),
• Keeping healthy (preventive)
• Correcting ill heath (healing)

Many years ago I read about medical practices in China, and the practical wisdom this society used. A doctor received a monthly retainer from his patients, as long as they were healthy.

The moment they became ill he immediately applied his healing knowledge, but the payments stopped. Professional success was measured by the patients that were healthy and not by those that were cured.

In short a doctors job was to keep his patients healthy - he also had to cure them, but if they reached this state, he had failed on his first obligation.

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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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