If you’ve been following me for some time, you know I’m obsessed with ReWilding (If you’re new here, hi!). But what exactly is ReWilding and how do you do it?
Before we dive in, let’s play a game called then vs. now: how we used to live compared to how we live today in our modern, urban, tech-centric world. I don’t want to go all post-apocalyptic, Handmaid’s Tale on you, but it’s important to understand the drastic changes in how humans lived just 300 years ago vs. how we live today.
How we used to live…
- We spent most of our days outside, going inside at night and in the winter
- We lived mostly in rural environments, with a small percentage living in larger cities and towns
- We traveled by walking, running, or riding horses
- We walked barefoot or in leather-soled shoes, allowing us to connect with the earth daily
- We were exposed to natural daylight all day and when the sun set, we used candles, fire, or the moon and stars for light
- We never looked at screens or blue light, other than naturally occurring from the sun during the day
- We ate seasonal and local food that was foraged, farmed or hunted from nearby
- We lived a low impact life, in harmony with the earth and the land
How we live today…
- We spend our days indoors (93% of the day, to be exact)
- We live mostly in large urban environments (55% of humans live in a city and that will increase to 68% by 2050)
- We travel FAST with planes, trains, cars, and even spaceships
- We wear rubber-soled shoes at all times, disconnecting us from the earth’s electrons
- We get minimal natural sunlight during the day and then light up our homes like a Christmas tree at night
- We stare at screens all day and night (the average adult stares at a screen for 10 hours and 39 minutes a day)
- We eat food that’s been flown around the world, processed, and no longer resembles “food”
- We are filling our planet and bodies with toxins and waste
Humans have become domesticated
All this is to say we’ve domesticated ourselves and our species. We no longer need to be self-sufficient and dependent on instincts and our five senses for survival. Everything and anything can be purchased at any time of day or night and delivered to our door the next day. We can go entire days without ever leaving our homes or couches. Our lives revolve around mechanical time of minutes, hours, years, deadlines, and time zones. The importance of biological time – the sun, the moon phases and the seasons – is optional and increasingly ignored in our tech-centric world thanks to electricity, the internet, and Amazon Prime.
While I’m incredibly grateful for the technological advances that make medical treatments, travel, education, and quality of life infinitely better, too much of a good thing can be detrimental. For the first time in 62 years, we’re dying younger than our parents. Life span was getting longer from 1959, until 2018. It’s now declined steadily for the past 3 years (including 2 years pre-Covid). This increase in deaths is linked to drug overdoses, suicides, alcohol-related diseases, and chronic diseases of lifestyle (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and more). Plainly put, mental and physical health is suffering due to the Standard American Diet and Lifestyle (processed food and too much sitting and screen time).
As a species, we’ve completely disconnected from nature – the nature outside our doors and our own internal nature – and it’s resulting in some serious mental, physical, and environmental health issues including Chronodisruption (modern jet lag), Nature Deficit Disorder, solitude deprivation, mental health disorders, diminished microbial diversity and weakened immune systems, decreased attention span and lost productivity, chronic diseases of lifestyle (diabetes, cancer, heart disease, kidney and liver disease), and irreversibly harming our planet.
Enough doom and gloom! So, what’s the solution? Continue down this path, or take the road less traveled…ReWilding.
What is ReWilding?
In short, ReWilding is returning the animals to the land and the land to the animals. It’s the opposite of domestication.
It was first introduced in 1998 as a form of environmental conservation and ecological restoration and has the potential to increase biodiversity, create self-sustaining ecosystems, and mitigate climate change. Sounds pretty great, right? But what can humans learn from ReWilding to improve our own health?
In case you’ve forgotten, humans ARE animals. And we evolved with nature and the land for hundreds of thousands of years. It’s only been a couple hundred years that we’ve become this separated from nature and I think we can all agree it’s not going so well lately.
Human ReWilding means a return to a more wild or natural state by living in sync with our human biology and reconnecting with nature to restore optimal health.
I’m not telling you to toss your iPhone, sell all your possessions, and move to a cabin in the woods without electricity. BUT, there are small changes we can make every day to help our bodies come home to their innate nature to improve mental, physical, and environmental health in the process.
Living more naturally even if we can’t go live IN nature.
How to Start ReWilding?
What does ReWilding look like for us in our modern, tech-centric world? It’s any activity that encourages you to put your phone/tablet/TV remote down and enjoy nature – outside your door or your own innate nature. It’s all about getting back to who we are as mammals before technology and society domesticated us.
Some general though-starters include:
- Spend more time outside and bring natural elements like plants and crystals inside
- Live in sync with your body’s natural rhythms – circadian, infradian, and the seasons
- Balance screen time with time spent outdoors
- Support and care for the earth by living more sustainably and non-toxically
- Eat seasonal fruits and vegetables and focus on more wholesome foods from the ground
- Integrate intuitive movement and minimize sitting throughout the day
- Rediscover your inner wild child – who you are underneath all of society’s “shoulds”
- Live aligned with your core values and soul purpose
Want a deeper dive into ReWilding your Life? Apply for ReWild Reset, my group program to realign your biology with the innate wisdom of nature and unleash your most wildly abundant health.
What does ReWilding have to do with health?
As a Functional Registered Dietitian and Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, my mission is to optimize the health and wellbeing of my clients. I’m constantly reading the research and educating myself on the latest and greatest in the intersection of science, nature, and woo woo. And that’s exactly what ReWilding is.
ReWilding is not only beneficial for the health of the planet, but can improve our own mental and physical health.
Returning to more natural ways of living encourages our body to heal and return to optimal health. Countless studies have shown that living in sync with our biological rhythms (chronotypes, circadian rhythm, monthly moon cycle, and seasons) maximizes health, improves immunity, increases energy, speeds up metabolism, improves mood, and encourages productivity.
(Re)Connecting with nature has similar health benefits ranging from a more activated and stronger immune system; improved quality and quantity of sleep; better stress management; increased attention span, memory, and creativity; and a more diverse microbiome.
Besides, the health and future of our species depends on the health and future of the planet. If you’re a health-conscious person, it’s time to start caring about the environment and your impact on it, and I hope ReWilding can be the accessible approach you’ve been looking for.