12 steps to living a natural lifestyle

You want to start living a natural lifestyle, but are unsure how? Follow these steps and download the 30-Day Natural Living Challenge to get started.

By using your curiosity to learn new skills and constantly educating yourself you will obtain natural harmony.

What is natural living?

So what does natural living mean? To live naturally means living in harmony with nature and the earth, and being more aware to make more sustainable, intentional, and conscious choices to live in balance with yourself, others, and nature. By using your curiosity to learn new skills and constantly educating yourself you will obtain natural harmony.

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Why does living naturally benefit your life?

The list of the benefits of natural living is endless, but here are some key points:

• You feel better when you are in harmony with yourself and with nature.
• Your health improves with nourishing non-toxic food and moving in nature.
• You feel less stressed about your life or the future of your children.
• You save money by being more intentional and conscious with your choices and purchases.
• You feel good learning and mastering new skills.
• You can be proud of yourself when you have fixed something at home that was broken and you used your elbow grease instead of money.

The important principle of natural living: Respect the nature

Respecting nature is crucial for the future of the earth. In the modern way of life with climate change and counting the carbon footprints, choosing to live naturally makes you return to the basics and helps you live everyday life making conscious choices for you and your family. Nowadays the way of life is to consume more than what the earth can sustain. It is your possibility, your chance to make the decisions that will benefit both you and your family and yes, the earth too.

How to start living a more natural life

Natural living is not something you can obtain overnight, and you shouldn’t even try to. It is a lifestyle that you shift into with small changes. When you start making conscious decisions you start to learn new skills and obtain the natural living mindset to begin your new journey. 

You are reading this one so you got the most important thing nailed: you care. You care about your well-being, your children’s well-being, and the health of our planet. 

I will give you practical advice with these actionable steps to help you start, or continue, your journey to a more natural way of life. Feel free to reach out to me and drop me a line if you feel overwhelmed and stuck. 

Start with these steps into a more natural lifestyle

1. Do it yourself

Enjoy the beauty of natural materials and the process of creation. Use the things you have and make your own decorations, pieces of furniture, or even clothes. Start with something simple like sewing a fabric bag for groceries. The joy of making things with your bare hands is something unbelievable.

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3. Cook from scratch using whole foods 

With simple ingredients, you can make easily from scratch your bread, spreads, dinners, and drinks without a problem. When you are in a grocery store look for foods without labels and packaging to find the most natural ingredients and minimize the waste. Increase slowly the homemade foods and decrease the processed foods. Think about what your family uses the most, for example, a salad dressing, and learn how to do it from scratch. Start making a few breakfasts that are less elaborated from scratch and then some snacks and dinners. If you think with an all-or-nothing mentality you will set yourself to fail so start slowly, be kind to yourself – I beg you – and you’ll see soon how you have a bunch of new, more natural, and healthy habits.

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4. Choose local 

When you can, choose local products. You decrease the food miles, the time and energy used for transporting the product to you, and more often you get more fresh and pure ingredients without toxic chemicals. Favoring organic products is one way to make sure to avoid harmful chemicals and support local organic farming. 

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5. Live with the seasons

Eating seasonally guarantees you have the ingredients that are naturally ripe and at their peak and not pumped with preservatives to increase the shelf life. When you choose local products you almost by accident start eating seasonally too! When you eat what is in season you get the most nutritious food and also often at the lowest price. Good for your health and your wallet. When shopping, start paying attention to the natural cycles of the abundance of certain products on the vegetable aisle. When they are plenty the growers have too much of them, which means often that is their season.

Living seasonally is deeper though than just eating according to the season. When you live with the seasons, you acknowledge that the different seasons have different peaks of energy, different moods, and different traditions. Living with the rhythms of the natural world makes a balance in your life and not a constant struggle to fight against the natural seasonal flow. 

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8. Learn new skills and stay curious

One of the less obvious principles of natural living is constant learning and an inquisitive mindset. Stay curious about new things and be aware of the world, possibilities, and reality. When you understand and feel that you can never know everything, and you frequently update, review, and remind yourself of your point of view, beliefs, and values – you know you have a solid ground. 

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9. Ease in a healthy lifestyle 

Move your body daily. Whether it is in the garden or on the running track, cleaning the house or doing hard work, or working out – move. Moving keeps you healthy, and active and gives you energy to focus on the good things. Doing chores of any kind is a natural way to move, adding some intentional workouts is always a plus. Implementing healthy habits, like enough sleep, and using natural remedies when sick, for example, herbal remedies for better health is the way that leads to a more natural lifestyle. Learning to make simple things like cough remedies or what is best for stomach aches is the key. Notice that I am not saying that never see a doctor, no, just that for the smaller issues you can learn to help yourself and your family.

Learn more from podcasts:

• Pioneering Today: Must Have Herbs for Your FIRST_AID KIT with Dr. Patrick Jones (episode 429)
• Be Well by Kelly Leveque: Empowering Parents with Natural Remedies for Sick Kids with Dr. Elana Roumell.

10. Reduce, reuse, recycle 

Find ways to create less waste at home. Especially in the kitchen, there is a lot of food waste that you can avoid if you just simply plan ahead and make intentional decisions at the grocery store (never go hungry and never go without a list!) eat leftovers, and store your food properly. Try to reduce plastic use, choose food that has no packaging, or at least choose the one that is in glass, carton, or paper packed instead of plastic. 

Plastic can be recycled to some extent, but it is downgraded with several uses and its recycle life is not sustainable. Glass for instance can be recycled countless times without any problems.

Recycle what you cannot reuse, and thrift the things that make sense.

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11. Grow your own food

Growing your own food is priceless. You know exactly where your food comes from and it is ah so fresh! If you do not have a farm or a yard to turn into a garden, get creative and plant some herbs and place them on a window sill, or make your balcony your potager garden. 

12. Make your own cleaning products and beauty products

Lastly, one more step towards a more natural lifestyle is to make your own personal care products and cleaning products. I have a How to make a quick home cleaning spray recipe in How to Save Money as a Homemaker post, look for a blue info box! Otherwise, you can find more tutorials and DIYs from Our Oily House Blog – Tutorials for homemade cleaning products and beauty products. Start with one easy one and meanwhile choose some natural products like Marseille soap or Castile soap to reduce waste while learning new skills.

Short summary to boost you to start living naturally

Start with small things like swapping a single-use coffee filter to a French press or a reusable filter. Figure out the things you use the most at home and focus on those first. Increase gradually. Things that don’t feel easy or reasonable will not last. Make things stick by creating them as a habit: visit the farmers market regularly, add a walk through the forest when returning from the grocery shop, make conscious decisions when purchasing new items such as clothes, furniture, or food, and invest in quality, choose things that will last, and maintain, and repair them regularly. Spend time in nature to get more strength and energy to live in balance and harmony with yourself, nature, and the earth.

Download your 30-day natural living challenge to get you started, one step at a time.

What are your small shifts into a more natural lifestyle?

Have you changed into a more natural lifestyle lately? What habits have stuck? What not, and why? Let me know in the comments below!

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