When I first heard the term living natural I had this horror movie moment that it meant living in a tent out in the woods without what I call creature comforts like my automated coffee maker and hot showers.
Don’t get me wrong, I greatly enjoy being outside including visiting the mountains. However, I am not a happy camper in the sense that I really am not comfortable sleeping in a flimsy fabric structure that any small or large creature could easily get into during the night. To go with that, sleeping bags are form of torture to me as I can never get comfortable in one as it restricts me from moving like I want to during the night. Let’s not even talk about when you need to get up in the night to find a place to go potty. I do my best to put on a good attitude for camping when the family wants to go but it’s really not fun for me when it’s time for sleep. So when someone mentioned to me living natural I think I had the same inward moan that I get when the word camping comes up.
I admit openly and honestly, I enjoy convenience. I like being able to open a fridge for food, push a button for coffee and twist of the dial for hot water. Living natural to me means those comforts and luxuries are included.
What Living Natural Actually Means
It was of great relief to me to learn I could actually “live natural” without trading my comfy bed for that of a sleeping bag. For me and my family what this had meant is a multi-focused approach that touches all the major areas of our life. This process has included proactive attention in
Reducing our toxic load
Reducing intentional exposure to chemicals
Increasing direct connections to organic and pure elements in our daily lives
Retaining and even enhance convenience and ease of use
Admittedly, it’s been easier than I thought to achieve progress in those targeted areas. I believe through my own experience that average families can live more naturally and simplistically while still being a “normal” family living in our modern at your fingertip convenience society.
My doTERRA oils for instance completely meet these goals because they are 100% pure and every bottle is tested for purity and quality.
Living natural is actually time and money sensitive as well! Granted there is time needed to make a DIY cleaner for instance but I have found the time spend doing that is actually pretty equivalent to getting into the car, going to the store, browsing the shelves and finding the product I needed and then stranding in line to pay for it. For us there has also been a cost savings by “going more natural” in our lifestyle as we are using less. Buying quality natural products has also meant we’ve seen things last longer, we use less and ultimately do spend less money to purchase refills.
What Living Natural Looks Like
In our house living natural looks like a regular household. We still go to the grocery store, have daily loads of laundry and order things online. Mostly it means what we use every day is chemical free from personal care to cleaners and medications. It also means we think differently in terms of things we need or want and if we can get it containing natural ingredients at a reasonable price.
For instance, instead of purchasing body wash and bar soap for the morning showers, we make our own soap now. We’ll make up several bars in a small batch using different scents from doTERRA essential oils depending on season or needs we have going on. For instance in the winter we made soap bars with ground up oatmeal and added in Peppermint essential oil for an energizing aroma that stimulates the skin in the mornings. It’s a nice wake up soap as well as providing some germ killing properties that we need in the winter.. In summer we tend to pick a citrus and lavender scents again for it’s energizing and healing properties to the skin. It’s easy to make your own and doing so allows you to control what goes into that soap. You can easily find natural ingredients that are non-toxic and actually safe while still being effective in cleaning.
In the end I estimate we spend about the same amount of time making our body soaps as we would going to the store but now we have a fun family project to do together. We also spend a lot less on the ingredients for our soap than we do buying bar soap from the store. When it comes to convenience being natural is entirely possible and actually I’ve found it has enhanced because of the time we can now spend doing something meaningful in our family. That’s a nice unexpected benefit!
Let’s see do I want to spend time going to and from a store, pushing a germ covered shopping cart, telling my child no to candy in the checkout lane and carry bags into the house for unloading or do I want to purchase a bottle of doTERRA essential oil that comes to my doorstep, mix it with water and start cleaning the house? Easy choice.
I feel more organized overall. What I mean by that is since we have transitioned our life to be more natural based, things have become simpler for how we figure out every day life. This includes how to meet our needs, paying for those needs and finding those special opportunities to be together as a family. As a working mom any time I can increase how organized I am, save time and money and enjoy time with the family it’s a nice balance of all that is important in life. Maybe this will one day give me the patience to learn to sleep comfortably in a tent and sleeping bag.
Interested in more?
Exploring natural living doesn’t have to mean going off the grid. It however can mean a little more money in your pocket and a few extra special moments you get to spend with your family doing something that creates memories while teaching your children to live well simply and naturally.
If you have questions or want to start your natural living journey, please reach out! I’m happy to help.
amyk@dragonspitapothecary.com
Your doTERRA account gets you discounted access to the world’s purest and highest quality essential oils available. It is the best kept secret to saving money and living well. Learn more by emailing me or visiting our website.
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