My son recently starting calling things life hacks. At first I didn’t realize what he was talking about to be honest. What is a life hack anyway and why does it sound so severe? These little short cut though were his way of learning how to do something easier and faster, specifically his chores so he could play video games. As I watched him it became apparent what he was calling a life hack was just short cuts like sweeping the floors, putting the dishes away and taking care of our dog as quickly as he could. I found it interesting what he thought cool and trendy was actually just resulting in him having to redo something because it wasn’t quite finished right.
Regardless of what you call it there is a wisdom to some things in life that never changes. We can refine it but at the core it is still the same as it was thousands of years past. It is the foundation of knowledge we all learn and use that does make life a little easier. It also adds a bit of humbleness I think that reminds us of what is really important like taking pride in a job well done or appreciating the simplicity of doing something with our hands besides typing on screens. Nature is a big source of this wisdom and has been a steady constant through all our time as humans in building and refinding this wisdom.
I think the biggest wise foundation wisdom there is available is through natural living. By incorporating nature into our diets, how we manage our homes, how we take care of ourselves and stay well nature can be commonly found. For example, not many of us can simply not notice the bright sunny sky and wonderful warm breezes we feel on a beautiful spring day. We call it Spring Fever for a reason after all right? Nature is always around us and it gives us a lot of the things we can use to live a good life simply and with meaningful support that is wisely beneficial. You just can’t life hack an experience like that and have it feel the same.
Where I believe the struggle has come in is with major companies and those wanting to make a buck off these very things we need in our life. With more people turning to simple natural products it has become an easy playground for scammers to accomplish profit. We have been hurt, disappointed and scammed out of our money for things that don’t give results. It has made us skeptical and disbelieving that something like an essential oil or whole food based supplement is worth our attention or money. Yet nature remains the biggest and best true life hack we can incorporate into our life for improving health and supporting our well-being.
The wisdom of using nature in our life is that we remove the toxics and unveil our own strength in taking care of ourselves. We can become more self-sufficient and empowered which means we are less dependent on other things and that means someone is losing money somewhere. The more we do this the more tilted this scale becomes. Our wisdom though grows in what we learn is possible and ways we can align with nature to enrich our daily living. We begin to see the possible and appreciate the wisdom in it by creating life hacks to use it in place of these store bought pre-packaged solutions. We realize real simplicity is right in our hands and we don’t need to spend lots of money to have it.
As natural products have grown in popularity the last few years, this has unfortunately become a marketing scam where everyone is selling some version of it. The wise know though that it matters where it came from and the journey it took to get into our hands. The farmer who carefully planted and tended it, the harvester and processor who formed it into a usable product, the bottler and quality testers who ensured it’s safety and purity. Then the company who stood by their word to deliver high quality, honest products with integrity and fair pricing but who also give back more than fairly to the farmers and those in the supply chain. Not all companies work like as we all know. Most companies are about those life hacks that cut out expenses and get something to the shelf for sale.
In most cases I prefer solid wisdom to life hacks. When I heard my son calling something a life hack I realized there is such a phenomenal difference in it too. Sure we all want to save a little time, money and energy on things so we can do other things we care about but it is when we sacrifice the quality of what we’re doing that I think we miss out in the wisdom of why it’s important in the first place. When we do this with everything in our life from the food we eat to the medicine we take we start to check out from it all and expect there is something that will immediately resolve any need we have. Doing this so much in our life is what has created that need it now life hack thinking that has disconnected us from real wisdom of living well.
If you’re ready to reconnect to what it means to live naturally well and have real wisdom to do it on your terms, let’s connect. dragonspitapothecary.com