What is Natural Living?
By Carl Munson
The terms ‘alternative’, ‘complementary’, ‘holistic’, ‘green’ and even ‘spiritual’, all seem to find a home under the umbrella of natural living. Alone, they may conjure up images and prejudices that we may not want to necessarily associate with, but mixed together as an all-encompassing way of life that honours our health, our communities and the planet, who in their right mind is not into living naturally?
The Natural Living Guide, created recently by Holistic Local - a search engine and on-line resource that sits right in the middle of this mindset – covers what it considers to be the key areas namely: natural health, healthy eating, going green, connecting with nature, personal development, relaxation, creativity, community, living your dreams and giving something back.
Author Andy Metcalfe maintains that natural living concerns every area of our existence. “It’s the whole lot, otherwise it’s not holistic,” he says, “the way we eat, work, travel and relate to each other and everything in-between.”
Critics may say natural living is the indulgence of a few self-centred navel-gazers, but with an energy crisis looming, chronic disease at epidemic rates and increasing numbers of wealthy, yet depressed people asking what life is all about, others argue it’s nothing less than a stage in human evolution.
Indeed, growing concerns about health, food and the environment are spawning a new breed of green and ethical businesses and – amid the escapism - there’s no avoiding the environmental catastrophe coverage, how to change your lifestyle ideas and a seemingly endless enquiry into what makes us happy within the media.
Books and magazines too are taking a noticeable natural living turn, both in editorial re-orientation as well as new titles that feature healthy lifestyles, personal growth and the notable subject of organics, which only ten years ago was a burn-at-the-stake occult speciality.
Like all changes in consciousness that face firstly ridicule, thereafter adoption and often a “what’s the big deal?” nonchalance once embedded in everyday life, natural living is a big subject and therein lays perhaps the biggest challenge. With so many possibilities and issues to explore, many people find it difficult to balance their ideals and dreams with the realities and pace of modern life.
“Trust yourself,” says Jacqueline Nicholls-White of Kevala.com, a worldwide holistic therapy centre that is training a quiet army of holistic healers – another key aspect of the natural living zeitgeist. “Like any big journey, take small steps in the right direction. Try something that takes your interest and inspires you to live in a more positive and healthy way. Avoid guilt!”
Janey Lee Grace, BBC Radio personality and author of ‘Imperfectly Natural Woman’, a natural lifestyle handbook that recently topped the Amazon chart, also believes in taking the natural living journey one step at a time. “All these little ripples of holistic living will add up to a sea of health,” she says.
On the matter of holistic health, thought to be the most accessible and popular area of natural living, millions are spent each year on alternative, complementary and integrated therapies like acupuncture and reflexology, and total spending is expected to rise by over 50% in the next four years.
According to Damian ‘The Diet Detective’ Houston, a natural therapist and author of ‘Naked Nutrition’, people are no longer content with a ‘drug, cut or burn’ approach that usually just deals with the symptoms of disease. “We instinctively know that a preventative approach that supports our bodies’ natural ability to heal and maintain itself is preferable,” he says.
That said, many in the movement are asking if there should really be a battle between conventional and complementary medicine. Those of an ‘integrative’ approach, think not and seek the best of both worlds in a new era of medicine with a return to common sense, natural law and a respect for the human mind, body and spirit. A mission supported by Prince Charles’ Foundation for Integrated Health in the UK.
There is undoubtedly a ‘celebrity effect’ at work too in this planetary awakening, with figures like Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna exposing new ideas on personal fitness, health and even childbirth to a wider audience. Natural living gurus like Deepak Chopra, Anthony Robbins and Gillian McKeith have become personalities by virtue of their knowledge base; a further indication of public interest and appetite.
Natural living statistics have been hard to find, but in 2003 Virgin Money reported that ‘spiritual spending’ had reached an annual turnover of around £670m a year, with a new kind of consumerism based on yoga, meditation and massage plus other therapies and exercise regimes to help combat the stresses of modern life and assist the search for meaning.
Another explanation for growth could be the fact that there’s now more fun to be had in living an alternative and natural lifestyle. It’s not such hard work anymore and the die-hard, pathfinders of the movement – stereotypically sandal-wearing, beard-sporting hippies – have given way to a new breed of conscious consumer who wants to “feel good, look good and be good”.
They are harder to spot in the street because their values and outlook tend to transcend age, wealth or race. The teenage eco-warrior may have as much in common these days as the vegetarian grandmother or stockbroker who owns an electric car – they are all however united under the natural living banner. That said, in gender terms, females are certainly in the majority and tend to be leading the way.
Food, another key entry point for the uninitiated, is also a massive growth area. Steve Nugent, an American naturopath, claims that our food supply no longer contains enough nutritional content because of intensive farming and modern methods of food production. He also says that nutritional supplementation is a necessity, which has given local health food stores a new lease of life.
Whilst nutritionists vary greatly in their ideas, there are some common themes that most agree on which are part and parcel of most natural living agendas, including the value of drinking more water and less caffeine; eating more fruit and vegetables as well as reducing processed foods.
For those looking for easy ways to get involved, ‘going green’ can yield satisfying results very quickly and bring that glow of satisfaction. Sharing as we do, a planet whose finite and dwindling resources power our economy and lifestyle, most of us recognise that we need to change our ways for the sake of our own survival and that of future generations.
Just about every area of our life can be blessed with green treatment - reducing, recycling and re-using – and thereby lessening our impact on Mother Nature and the world of our children’s children.
Many natural living converts are united by their love of nature – ‘the roofless temple of all religions’, where we came from and where we are due to return if only in the sense of ‘ashes to ashes and dust to dust’. On the power of the outdoors, the British Medical Journal said: “Connecting with nature can improve your health and well being; the theory is known as eco-therapy, restoring health through contact with nature”, although you probably didn’t need a research project to tell you that.
On the matter of connectedness to something bigger than ourselves, in a spiritual or emotional sense, or indeed to all living things - this is another feature that unites those operating in the realms of natural living. Yet as well as the ethereal connections, the connections offered by the Internet seems to be accelerating the sharing of ideas and the pace of change.
Social networking sites – like holisticlocal - that give vent to ‘cultural creatives’, campaigners and activists as well as resources to those thirsty for information, will certainly aid the collaboration of like-minded people and the waft the flames of naturally oriented social change.
Looking to the future, there are mixed feelings for those living naturally. On the one hand, we have some of the most powerful personal and social development technology ever known; on the other, environmental and political challenges that are as great as humankind may have ever faced.
However, blessed as we are with a beautiful earth, these miraculous human bodies and a natural intelligence far greater than any human understanding all around us, everything – we could agree - is just fine. Perhaps the only challenge we really face is NOT living naturally.
This article was posted by Carl Munson
