how do you be wild, free, close to nature?

How do you stay close to your true self, the way nature intended you to be? Some things that may fall under this...

Instinctive/natural parenting (i.e.-breastfeeding, co-sleeping, ect.)
barefooting when possible
natural body care
organic natural food
being outside as much as possible

So what other stuff can we think of? Be creative!

 

get the negatives away from you

im not telling you to go around naked

but anything that is not living like your clothes or maybe your watch that you are wearing

all these things are none living and is the nagative of you because your a living thing

 

Oddly...I take baths. I find bathing (as in, sitting down and scooping up water to rinse) to be wonderfully primitive. Much more so than showering (I do that too, but when I have time I like to take baths).

I also like to eat whole chicken. Not all at once, of course, but it's much more primitive to carve up the whole thing rather than get the processed strip meat. I'd love the chance to kill and prepare my own chicken from scratch one day, just to get in touch with my roots.

 

I love eating fruit whole, just using my hands. Do it several times a day and it always feels kind of special
We plan to breastfeed (hopefully!)and cosleep etc in future. Ive seen videos of those ladies who were lucky enough to have completely natural births at home and stuff and its awe-inspiring. Of course that will depend entirely on health issues and unfortunately I have a heart defect so it may be impossible
We grow our plants (indoors as in a flat atm unfrotunately) I love watering them
Im naked nearly all the time when indoors in summer. Ive only ever been to a naturist beach once in my life but loved it and plan to do a lot more of that
Making love is always an incredibly spiritual thing to do. Were doing a lot of that at the moment (hoping for future breastfeeding, cosleeping etc to be going on!)
We use natural cleaning/sanitary products
I agree with the baths thing-I get the same with showers too though
Sometimes I sit and just listen to the birdsong
I definitely need to spend a lot more time outdoors though-away from all the cars, noise and stress
Good thread

 

for me being around/amongst animals and insects helps alot.. feels like we can learn alot from them..or maybe they just help us remember
peace

 

The way I see it, if you want to be one with nature, then learn all you can about it. Go find a sit spot in the woods or on a beach, don't bring any ipods, or cell phones, just sit there and listen, watch everything, feel the breeze on your skin, watch the clouds go by... learn about wild plants and forage to make a salad, or eat berries and such. Do your homework and know each plant 100 percent before you eat it. but by taking the time to learn, the rewards that come with it are worth it.
I consider myself a naturalist and a survivor and eat the weeds all year long, hike in the forest almost every day, go camping once a month or more, and lead a nature group at a state park.
Nature is a part of everyone, but you must decide to be connected to her... I honor you for wanting and trying to find her again. I'm sure you're a busy person, so do a little at a time whenever you can.

Peace,
Spirit Wynd

 

Digging into your natural self and instincts while in a nature setting. Works the best possible way for me.

 

... Im with Brain Fr3eze on this one. I think being around animals and even more so for me is feeding them. Going to the park and feeding the ducks and geese by hand. I also have a squirrel the lives near my house that will eat peanut butter out of my hand... that took a year or so.

Going on hikes in the woods.. alone or walking around a big secluded lake and fishing all day (Catch and release of course). If it gets hot, go for a swim or you can wade in the water while fishing.

I eat mostly organic foods and for me thats more about eating things that I know are more pure (or should be), putting what I believe to be more natural food into my body for precieved or proven well-being.

 

Search for your innerself, find out who you really are, meditate. Try and open the spiritual side of your mind. Dont let your mind take over your soul. Dont let negativity flow through your body. Find the peace inside of you.

 

I sleep and walk around the house naked, I go barefoot at school, I am vegetarian, I make my own beauty product, and clothes, And I just traded in my microbus for a Bicycle.

 

Close to my true self?

I walk a lot of...cos it´s very relaxing and inspirating for me.
I travel a lot of with small budget, without food, accommodation, by hitchhike...cos it makes you free, open minded and sensible to the other world.
I vagabond not only in nature, but also in the cities...cos it helps you to see things in the streets, people and their city behavior and ideas without your personal interest. It help me to see clean and think about things or feel the impressions.
I´m a vegetarian...cos I don´t wanna eat some beings and it coordinate my appetence. I´m more spiritual and sensible also. I eat with hands when it´s possible, as well.
I don´t were make-up...cos it´s not so natural for me.
I´m optimist...cos I think that the mission of a man is learning and just to be happy.
I stopped thinking about what other thinks about me and I wear clothes which I want to wear, dance how I know, sing how I need and I´m still those small child :blush5:
I educate myself by books, other people, my observation, school, etc.
I learn a lot of about different cultures and worlds, no matter if it´s Africa or my neighbours mind, cos it´s helpful to understand also yourself.
I help when it´s possible, because I just want.
I aim to be individual and creative, cos it helps me in every moment in my life. And creativity is also great way of happiness or way of the spiritual adventures.
I don´t have a relationship to the money and material things...not sure, if it´s good all the time.

I also need a contact with water, cos it´s huge enriching element.

 

I think the first step is recognizing that we are living under conditions radically different from those under which we evolved, and under which we lived for most of our existence as a species. For the vast majority of our time on this planet, we lived in nomadic bands of hunter gatherers. It was only around 10,000 years ago that systems of agriculture began to develop. Then, as ever, it was "imposed by a minority upon a resisting majority", in the words of Freud. Bear in mind that we were physically exactly the same homo sapiens as we are today. We were no less intelligent, but that intelligence was directed differently.

Agriculture generated food surpluses that had never before been available. This created the political means for the first ruling class to rise up. Tasks were divided to increase efficiency, setting the stage for the drudgery we know well today. Certain tasks become very specialized, creating new positions of power, and making work even more dehumanizing for the lower castes.

Surplus food also has the effect of growing populations. As the population grows, small settlements grow into villages, towns, and eventually cities. More specialized tasks are created to run things smoothly, all the administrative tasks that go with running a city. Laws and police are created to deal with a growing population of people who are sick of working all the fucking time after all those years of living.... well, "wild, free and close to nature".

As settlements expand, they encounter other fledgling civilizations. War is now a necessity. I'm not saying that life before agriculture was a bloodless utopia; there was certainly some interpersonal violence. But this sort of large scale, organized, or systemic violence is unique to civilization. Genocide, certainly is unique to civilization. War is a social force. So, we now have our first arms industries, necessitating yet more division of labor, creating an ever more complex web of workers, administers, and technology. Contrast this with paleolithic times, when the means of survival were freely available to everyone: One needed only to bang some rocks together, or rub two sticks together. I don't mean to oversimplify primitive life, only to say that the principals of survival are so basic as to be innate to humanity, and are not dependent on power structures.

Technology is not neutral. It is not simply an array tools we can choose to use one way or another. It is best understood as a system. Systems embody certain values. They are self sustaining. They can almost be said to be akin to organisms, although I detest the comparison as the worst kind of anthropomorphic bullshit- civilization is not "alive". But it can almost be said to have goals and desires of it's own, separate from our own. Not conscious. More like certain tendencies or leanings. Like a feedback loop, technology creates conditions which require yet more technology. It builds and builds, becoming ever more complex, until we are entirely dependent on machines, and those specialists who administer them.

As we see. Fast forward to industrial revolution. I'm sure you can more or less fill in the blanks yourself. Here we have division of labor on an unprecedented level. Human beings are deprived of any creative outlet at all as they become reduced to workers filling stations on a production line. Mere cogs. Many interdependent technologies are now necessary just to make a living. Automobiles are not as important as they are today, but as they become more so, so increases the need to mine more steel (more shitty jobs, more degradation of the biosphere), well more oil (more shitty jobs, more degradation of the biosphere and the human spirit, and a bigger war industry to steal that oil) and on, and on.

Fast forward to today. Telecommunications have replaced face to face community almost completely. Our lives are more mediated by machines every day as things spin out of control. The oceans are being vacuumed. More than a hundred species go extinct every day. We are altering the climate of the entire planet. Suicide and mass murder are common place. Despite all this progress, we are more alienated than ever before. How can we still cling to the belief that technology is here to serve us?

Now, I know I still haven't answered the op's question yet, but it's a big question, and an important one. I don't take this shit lightly. Anyway, the common term for what your asking about is rewilding. You'll most likely start with baby steps. I think some people already mentioned, but just going outside and getting some physical activity is the most important thing. Find a good field guide or two and familiarize yourself with the local plant life- even if only what grows up through the cracks in the sidewalk. These will be your allies. As a matter of fact, with all the development going on, cracks in the sidewalk, or ditches, or alleys are often the most reliable places to find native plant species. Find a good place, and listen. Open yourself up. Try not to think of them as "alien", or "other", but simply as a member of the incredibly diverse community that is your bioregion, and the planet earth. You too are also part of this community. We have come to think of the food chain as being like a hierarchy of species, when in reality it is more like a web. When you take a plant or animal into your body, your doing more than just consuming it. You are entering into a relationship. This bond is sacred, this symbiosis of predator and prey. A healthy predator/prey relationship should be beneficial to both. Remember this at your next meal, and consider well where your food is coming from.

Of course, most of us have little choice but to do the systems bidding, simply to survive. One of the key features of civilization is it's hatred of wild things, and it's drive to systematically deprive us of any other option but to accept it's poisonous logic. It encompasses us and encloses us, dominating every aspect of our lives, leaving us at a loss even to imagine a life without it.

This is why I think resistance is a necessary part of rewilding. If we can accept ourselves as a part of this web of life, and learn to identify fully with this living planet, we may start to see ourselves as having a vital, dynamic role in it's healing and transformation. I have no doubt that this means attacking like the wild men and women we are at the core of our being. This resistance will take many forms, and it will require a great many people doing many different things. We are all unique beings with our own insights and abilities. I can't say what a person should do, except that they should take whatever means or opportunities that present themselves, and do whatever inspiration guides them to do. Maybe some of you are good writers. Maybe some are persuasive speakers. Some, great artists. Some are computer hackers. And maybe, just maybe there's someone out there who has access to a lot of fertilizer. <ahem> We really need you.
Kidding! I'm kidding. I would never advocate illegal activity. Entertainment purposes only, you understand.

 

Perhaps I'll pose a question. What role do you feel resistance to civilization has in the rewilding of humanity? Do you agree that civilization is innately oppressive?

 

Modern man and it's precious civilization has separated themselves from nature thus thinking they OWN the land... this has created chaos for the Earth and an unbalance in nature... they forget that we are a part of nature and we BELONG to the land. Only when we realize this, and re-connect with nature, and learn that nature has everything we need when we learn to work with it, by learning the skills needed to live, and nourish it, can we truly understand its wisdom, and ourselves.

 

Now I know many figure they'll never give up their video games and electronic gadgets... lol... I'm a pc gamer myself and play a wicked electric guitar, but I try to balance nature and technology as much as possible.
I study nature, I know plants and trees to eat or use as medicine, I can stalk animals and take pictures, and if needed, can hunt for food, I have primitive survival skills, am an avid hiker and go camping at least twice a month, but also, I give back by recycling, and helping the park plant tree's, or fix trails, I volunteer with the scouts and teach the kids about nature and to respect all things.
So too you must decide what works for you, to do your part to help nature, and don't see it as work, but fun and be proud of your achievements, meet new people and help each other, learn new things, even just picking up a piece of trash outside your home is a start.

 

This is a really cool thread. Let's see, what do I do. I hike a lot. I sit in the sand and listen to the ocean. I garden, flowers and food. I pick fruit and eat it off the tree. I sit out in the back barefooted and watch my dogs play, and listen to the birds. I plant flowers for hummingbirds and songbirds, and have attracted a wide variety of birds to my little acre in hills around suburbia. In the summer, I float in the ocean until the sun sets over the water. In the winter, I light fires in the fireplace instead of using the heater. I do what I can, but it's hard...I'm 42, mother of a 12 year old, career in full swing with "obligations" ...I do my best.

 

Oh, and I forgot to say the most important thing- praying to my Creator.

 

Great topic! We are such slaves to our sociaty and technology. Even as a kid a saw that contentment and happiness is in simplicity and the natural world. Lots of my peers envied big houses and sleek cars. I was envious of my friends with gardens, chickens, rabbits and goats who had a few acres w/mobile homes and a collection of old VW's and a creek running through. Woods and deer run everywhere.
The irony is in order to live a life of simplicity and naturalsim I've had to participate in modern society to get the means to be self sufficiant. Freedom takes money and time to work off land and school debts and buy the tools to be self sufficient.

 

I meditate and sit in my garden until it becomes dark outside. The feeling you get when you look up at the moon and stars is awe inspiring.
Staying in touch with the seasons. I've become familiar with the tiny changes and differences of each season and it makes me become much more aware of my surroundings.
I go barefoot as often as possible, and I swim naked in remote locations. Being naked in nature is a great way to connect to the land and your natural state.
I eat organic food as much as possible, and I only use earth-friendly household and body care products. Making your own soaps and shampoos out of natural ingredients is helpful.
I also study plant use and herbology. It's a fantastic and useful skill to be able to identify wild plants and use them in medicines and foods efficiently.
Most importantly, be friendly to the earth. Tread lightly and be kind and gentle to animals and plants. Treat everything with respect.

 

Barefeet, no car (i walk almost everywhere), relax more, live more simply. I do my best with what I have.