pri·mal
Adjective
Essential; fundamental.
Relating to an early stage in evolutionary development; primeval.
'Primal' to us might be totally different to what 'primal' means to you, so let's explain what living a primal lifestyle means to us...
When we think of primal we think 'living naturally'. In the early stages of evolutionary development the world was a cleaner and less-toxic place and people lived cleaner and less-toxic lives.
The food they ate and the water they drank wasn't ridden with man-made chemicals, the exercise they did wasn't performed in a gym, they weren't exposed to radiation from electronic devices, they weren't cooped up indoors or sitting at desks for long periods of time, the air they breathed wasn't polluted, and they had a lot less emotional stresses to deal with.
These days it's a little different. We eat food that's often grown using chemicals, our water supply comes from water treatment plants that add fluoride and other poisons, many of us exercise in gyms on machines and with made-man equipment, we are constantly surrounded by electronic devices and radiation, we spend much of our time sitting down and being indoors, the air we breathe is polluted and we have a heck of a lot of emotional stress in our lives.
Today we aren't thriving, we are just barely surviving. Wouldn't you agree?
We'd like to get back to living how nature intended and giving our bodies the best chance at being healthy! And it's possible to do! Okay, so we can't completely avoid all the chemicals, toxins, EMF's etc but we can certainly minimise our exposure to them and try to lead as natural an existence as possible.
So what do we do to live a more primal lifestyle? Here are just some of the ways we actively live more primal...
- Eat mostly grass-fed chemical-free meat
- Eat mostly organic or spray-free fruit and vegetables
- Minimise consumption of foods we haven't yet evolved to eat safely and that cause health problems such as grains, legumes, sugar etc
- Exercising safely and functionally for the body to minimise injury and inflammation by performing natural, primal movements
- Spending a lot of time outdoors and going barefoot on the earth to get the health benefits from being among nature
- Using mindfulness techniques and natural therapies to help us tap into our inner wisdom, to quiet our minds, to rejuvenate, relax and stress less
- Using chemical-free and environmentally-friendly products around the home and on our bodies
- Incorporating sustainable practices such as growing our own food, recycling, buying recycled products, composting, picking up rubbish in public, buying locally and buying less plastic
You might be thinking.. "So, you're Paleo then?" well yes and no. We do use some Paleo principles but we don't label ourselves as 'Paleo' or any other definition because we don't follow any one particular set of guidelines.
We're very proud of the positive steps we've made to live a more primal lifestyle, for our own personal benefit but also for the benefit of the environment and other people. We want to become healthier, happier people but we also want others to become healthier and happier. We feel it's everyone's right to have the best chance possible at achieving good health and wellness.
We want us and everyone out there to THRIVE, not just survive!
But, we're far from perfect. We sometimes eat things that aren't the healthiest for us, we sometimes drink tap water, we sometimes don't do a few of those things listed above. But for the most part we do live by them and that's another aspect we believe is part of primal living... balance. We aren't caveman and we have temptations and other obstacles all around us, so the key is to find a balance that makes us happy. We believe we live a 90% primal lifestyle and that's pretty good as far as we're concerned!
We haven't yet reached a point where we feel we lead a 'perfect' lifestyle; we aren't as healthy and happy as we'd like to be. But we're striving for it and we'll continue to learn and grow every day and make the most of our lives.
If you like the idea of living a more primal lifestyle.. you can totally do it! Start small, use baby steps, make little changes every day and you'll start to notice positive changes in your health and your happiness.
Our website and this blog are aimed at providing information and inspiration for you to add more primal aspects into your life, so please feel free to use any of the information at any time. And go ahead and share it around to benefit others!
Do you live a primal lifestyle? Feel free to tell us about it in a comment below!
Or shoot us any questions you might have!
Thanks
Clint & Aimee
We've decided it'd be a cool thing to do to end each blog post with 5 things we're grateful for, so here are today's 5...
1. Having this blog so we can express ourselves and help inspire others
2. All the sunny days we've had lately
3. Having a nice home and nice belongings
4. Camping trips
5. Knowledge about health and wellness that we're constantly gaining
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