Natural living involves making choices that guide your living in a way that does not or has a very little negative effect on the environment.
It also involves caring about the origin of the products that you use, what the products leave behind, and the process they go through before they get to you.
For instance, when you go to the grocery store, you need to think about the things you are adding to your shopping cart. Are the products from your area, or have they been shipped from other areas? Is the meat you are buying from chicken that was rared sustainably?
It is not just about food, but also about other products such as body and skincare products that most people use every day. You need to make sure that these products do not affect the environment in any way to attain the goal of natural living.
Here are seven ways for you to engage in this lifestyle easily.
1. Use Natural Body and Skincare Products
One of the ways of engaging in natural living is through the use of natural skincare solutions. The main reason for this is their ability to support the environment compared to their synthetic counterparts, which use chemicals that can do a lot of harm to plants and animals.
In addition, the process involved in the manufacture of synthetic skincare solutions destroys the environment to a great extent. This is because some ingredients used in these products – such as lead and aluminum – require mining for them to be extracted.
Mining is known for the level of pollution it causes, something that affects the life of plants and animals. On the other hand, natural skincare solutions do not use any of these ingredients. They use natural ingredients, meaning that they do not harm the environment.
2. Make The Best Choices on Grocery Shopping
When you are grocery shopping, what do you look for? To engage in a natural living lifestyle, you should make sure that you are shopping, cooking, and eating fresh foods. This means that you should look for natural foods that have not been in the store for long.
Most natural foods are farmed in your local area and do not use any hormones or pesticides to aid their development. They are also grown from their parent plants or organic seeds. These are the kind of foods you need to be shopping for.
In addition, make sure that you get foods that are not processed in any way. However, if you have to, get those that are not overly processed. For instance, you can decide to choose dried spices and herbs instead of artificial powders with flavors.
3. Harvest Your Vegetables
Not every other person has the luxury of owning a garden in their home. However, if you are lucky to have one, do you know that you can engage in a natural living lifestyle by harvesting your vegetables?
Well, the truth is growing your vegetables and other crops mean that you will take ultimate care of them and ensure that they grow well without any interference. You will also be careful not to use any pesticides that might affect them or the environment around them.
You can choose to grow vegetables such as lettuce and carrots. Depending on what you choose to grow, you will be able to harvest your natural vegetables within a short time and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
4. Know Where Your Food is Coming From
If you are not able to grow your food products – of course, you might not be able to grow everything you are consuming; then you need to make sure that you know where every meal you consume is coming from.
The most important thing here is to ensure that you have not only kept it local but also in season. This means that you are consuming locally produced foods that are in season. If you keep the distance between you and the source of your food short, then you will be lowering the carbon footprint of the food.
It is important to note that container ships, planes, trucks, and couriers burn a lot of fuel when moving from one place to another. This would affect the environment even if the products they are transporting were organically grown.
5. Bedding and Furniture
When it comes to your beddings, you need to be very careful if at all you need to engage in a natural living lifestyle. This is because there are thousands of products you can choose from, and most of them are made from materials that do a lot of harm to the environment.
To start with, you need to choose beddings made from natural fibers such as hemp sheets and organic cotton. You can also use bamboo covers for your mattresses and feather duvets.
When it comes to your furniture, make sure that you buy the ones made from reclaimed or sustainable wood and recycled materials. Most people are tempted by buying everything that is in fashion, forgetting about how they were made and the effect they had or have on the environment.
6. Make Your Products
Did you know you can make your cleaning products and soaps using readily available materials in your house? Well, simple ingredients in your kitchen, such as baking soda and vinegar, can play a vital role in helping you make these products on your own.
This way, you will not only be saving money but also preventing chemicals that might harm your garden and home from getting their way to your house. You will also be playing a very important role in saving the environment.
7. Involve All Your Friends
Finally, you cannot save the environment alone even if you have engaged in natural living since the day you were born. You need to make sure that all your friends, as well as family members, are involved.
One way of doing this is by giving them tips for healthy living, for instance, by encouraging them to replace the use of plastic products with reusable products and cleaning products with natural alternatives.
This will go a long way in saving the environment and might even inspire them to start engaging in natural living.
A natural living lifestyle is not something difficult. As you can see above, most of us can do most, if not all, of the things discussed in this article.
This way, we will be engaging in a natural living lifestyle that saves not only our lives but also the environment.
