In Defense of Living Naturally

I’ll give you a secret about me: despite my cosmopolitan way of being and my career there are several areas of my life where I do what I call, “living naturally.” I try to work with the natural rhythms of my body, mind, and soul to create an environment that, while artificial in many ways has natural elements that are familiar to my primal psyche. In years past, people have denigrated living “naturally.” From time to time you’ll see an article about someone who has some strange personal habit that seems crazy given our modern environment. For example, recently in the Guardian, a writer admitted to bathing only once or twice a week and that he found his health was better, he felt better, and was less sick than usual.

The fetish with leaving our “natural state” behind is something that is motivated by both our societies Victorian ideas of cleanliness as a way to reduce disease and epidemics and also a Christian idea that anything “natural” equals “sin” which is bad and should be avoided. Through civilization and “good, christian living” mankind can transcend his terrible natural state. This is an idea that is reinforced to us from childhood onward. We program people to be able to work within our society framework. From the way we sleep to the way we eat, it is often out of sync with what our bodies require or what is natural for our biological systems.

But let’s look at the result of non-natural living: how has it benefitted us? In some ways, non-natural living saves lives especially in sanitation and clean water. The ability to consume water that isn’t tainted and to have our waste separated from that supply is vital. But other sanitation habits, like daily showering, are more to help sell products than something we actually need to do. Living naturally also applies to such perennials problems as hair, body hair, and eating habits. The natural hair movement has empowered African-American and African-hispanic women to embrace their natural hair in ways that were un-thinkable before. Alternative diets and eating habits enable people to eat at the time when it is most convenient. Due to industrialization, our sleep patterns remain stuck in a rigid 8-9 hour pattern that has us getting and performing tasks at a time that simply not practical for many people. Even sleep science is coming around to the idea that many of us have known for awhile: there is no point in doing anything before 10 a.m.

I’m here to make a defense of living naturally. 

Breast feed your children, don’t shower every day (just clean your under arms and crotch areas), let your hair be natural, do what feels good for you. If you like eating 3 meals a day, do it. If you find it easier to eat little in the morning with more in the afternoon and evening then do so! If you can, sleep in phases through the night or wake up later in the day to get things moving. Trying to work against nature can be a losing battle and often we can find a tremendous amount of zen in our lives if we simply work in harmony with our natural rhythms and desires and not try to force ourselves to do the contrary. Now, I’m not here to say that we need to give into every desire that our hearts might conjure up. But if we work in harmony with positive body processes, easier and better living is right around the corner. No books, diets, or coaches required.

Your body knows what it needs, try to work with that!

The bio-electrical machine that we have is a very smart entity. Too often we don’t trust it. But if we throw off these old christian concepts about the body and our natural state and embrace it, we can have better living, be healthier, and live great and fulfilling lives. I know that sounds too good to be true. Working in harmony with yourself is one of the best things you can do. I recently joined a Facebook group that encourages men to “uncage” and encourages movement in a natural way that our bodies evolved to be ready to perform. What else in our lives needs to be uncaged and let loose? How much better could our relationships be if we decided to really inhabit our bodies and used them as the vehicle they were meant to be.

Try living in a more natural way. You just might like it!

What does living naturally mean to you? What do you think about these new concepts?