Natural living is a broad term encompassing many subjects such as; nutrition & health, alternative medicines, farming, eco-consciousness and many other subjects. It's a concept that looks a little different for everyone, based on personal circumstances, income, community you live in and many other factors.
There are many ways of looking at natural living depending on the degree of involvement, participation and even creativity.
Bottom line is true natural living has a low impact on people and the earth. It's also about living a life close to the natural world and engaging in activities that connect you with nature.
We live in over-industrialized & high-stress/high-paced societies that take a toll on us both physically and psychologically. We're forced to work 40+ hour weeks during arguably the best period of our lives, in order to perpetuate an economic model based on mass-consumerism & materialism.
Our financial and educational institutions don't teach us to be fiscally responsible or conservative. They instead encourage us to be perfect little "consumer cogs" in an economic system that is already over $17 trillion in debt.
We work our entire lives and still end up with massive debt, living outside our means pretending to be rich. As a society, we're encouraged to perpetuate a myth of affluence & over-indulgence as the only means to climb the social ladder. We're all guilty of it.
We give our energy and life force over to pyramidical power structures & institutions that have failed us time and time again.
The latest studies show that even though we are one of the richest nations, the USA is one of the sickest. Prescription drugs and medical complexes fuel a large part of our economy and have a vested interest in keeping us sick. There are numerous studies showing that the highest rates of depression are found in the richest most industrialized countries in the world.
That is not natural living.
Our global fractional reserve banking system based on debt rather than sound money principles is entirely unsustainable. Our current agricultural system is a model whereby thousands of acres of forests have been grazed to grow GMO soybeans that feed factory cattle, which are turned into processed meats. Furthermore, the mass application of chemical pesticides is destroying the viability of soils while polluting the world's farms, rivers, streams and oceans. At the same time, our civilization treats the oceans as giant planetary toilets into which all the toxic chemicals of modern civilization are flushed: Pharmaceuticals, pesticides, fertilizers, heavy metals, hormone-disrupting chemicals and a whole lot more. Massive fish die-offs are becoming increasingly common and fish populations are plummeting across several species.
There are countless other examples and it's honestly a lot to take in once you've seen the full picture.
Our ecological and economic resource utilization has become increasingly dysfunctional over the past 200 years. Ecologically, our American way of life is almost entirely dependent upon resources, the supplies of which will be wholly inadequate to support our population level and living standards into the future. Economically, a majority of our “current” consumption is enabled by fiscal imprudence: liquidating our economic asset reserves, incurring intergenerational debt, and deferring investments critical to our future wellbeing. As a result, we are currently more vulnerable to resource supply shortages and disruptions than we have ever been in our country’s history—a situation exacerbated by ever-increasing global demand for resources essential the maintenance of our lifestyle paradigm.
Through our incessant efforts to perpetuate this way of life at all costs, we have become obscenely overextended—living far beyond our means both ecologically and economically. This is physically unsustainable. We cannot possibly mitigate the catastrophic consequences associated with our unsustainable lifestyle paradigm in the absence of fundamental, nationwide behavioral change—our voluntary transition to a sustainable lifestyle paradigm—which will entail rapid and drastic reductions to some combination of our population level and material living standards.
To date, we have shown no willingness to acknowledge this reality.
But the truth is this:
True freedom & debt free, off the grid living - forever - is attainable and probably the most optimal and sustainable way of living for our species & planet earth.
Alter Experiences LLC is dedicated to raising awareness about the need for these changes through our tourism model. We want our destination to be a platform for change towards a more sustainable and conservation oriented future for our planet earth.