Category: Natural Living

The Five Stages of Stuff

March 15, 2023

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By Mark Lundegren

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Just a few words about The Five Stages of Stuff graphic I have included, which is simple and fairly self-explanatory, but also different and perhaps more immediately useful than other takes on this topic.

This may be especially so if you currently are, or could be, sorting through the various things in your life or work that are at the core or center, and at the edge or stuffy periphery, of your actions, aims, and sources of value.

As you likely know, this sorting, uncovering, and typically empowering process commonly is called the practice of minimalism, or sometimes essentialism. By any name, it aims at modern life and endeavor that is steadily less cluttered and encumbered, more focused and attentive, more efficient and vital, financially and ecologically less demanding, and as such often both happier and healthier overall.

Five Stages of Stuff

In my life and work, I have practiced prioritizing, health-minded, and reliably freeing minimalism for many years. Through this effort, I have removed or reduced many extraneous, inattentive, and burdening things – possessions, projects, habits, pastimes, even relationships – that did not aid, and often hampered or obscured, my primary goals, my main or most important actions, and thus my essential life and work. With this minimizing removal of extra stuff, and as with many others making this effort, my life and actions have become clearer, fresher or more uplifting, more direct and undistracted, simpler and easier, and in all more satisfying. At the same time, I have become more resourceful, creative, open, questioning, and unique as a person too.

Again, my graphic and its core ideas largely speak for themselves, so in the spirit and practice of minimalism and essentializing directness, I won’t belabor them here. But I would point out two key dynamics within this graphical model of modern life, attachment, and priority that may be less obvious, especially at first or if you are new to minimalism.

First is the crucial transition from seeing stuff of all kinds as desirable to approaching these things as necessary. When we are young perhaps, otherwise have little, or are early in our adult relationships and careers, we may desire and be pulled by a great many things. But we also typically see these things as external to us, if only because we don’t possess or know them firsthand. Later, however, and especially as we advance in our lives and work, we increasingly may possess these things, thereby internalize or normalize their presence, perhaps immerse or lose ourselves in them, and unaidingly take vast superficial attachments or commitments as necessary for, or inseparable from, our success and even identity.

Second is the opposing and equally important transition from viewing peripheral elements in our lives, or our many potential tangible and intangible forms of stuff, as unnecessary to recasting them as undesirable.  The first understanding approaches these things empoweringly, but also more passively, as superfluous or tangential to our core aims and actions. By contrast, the second view increasingly understands peripheral or less valuable things of all kinds as more actively impeding, distracting, or delaying us and our efforts – which often is both more accurate and liberating in practice. As you might know or image, this crucial change can motivate us to remove or reduce wasteful and encumbering things around us more quickly, deliberately, decisively, and enduringly.

Let me end this brief discussion by encouraging you to locate your life or work at present along this model of The Five Stages of Stuff, or five levels of essentializing core-mindedness. I then would urge to consider and probe your opportunities for distilling or minimizing movement along this continuum, and especially in ways that may benefit you, those you influence, and perhaps our not inexhaustible planet as well.

As always, I am happy to respond to your comments and questions.

Mark Lundegren is the founder of HumanaNatura.

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HumanaNatura Health Programs

September 1, 2022

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By Mark Lundegren

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As previously announced, I have been at work since late 2020 updating the HumanaNatura natural health programs and supporting materials, and importantly, converting them into book form. Right now, I am in the midst of final proofreading of the updated materials, and on track for the book’s publication in early 2023.

In preparation for the new book, the longstanding HumanaNatura natural health program website – formerly located at humananatura.org – has been closed down. Access to the website materials will continue via the book, which will be available in both electronic and paper formats. The HumanaNatura blog will continue unchanged, providing uninterrupted access to HumanaNatura’s many natural health articles, the graphical OurPlate dietary model (to be updated with the book’s publication), and the ever-popular HumanaNatura calisthenics poster.

HN Screenshot

If you are not familiar with the now-retired HumanaNatura website, its natural health programs, and its various supporting materials, the above graphic is a screenshot of its home page. For two decades, the site  offered personal guidance and assessment tools for exploring naturally healthy modern eating, exercise, lifestyles, and community.

Most of the content of HumanaNatura’s natural health programs has found its way into the new book, though this material will be revised significantly overall and its format will be somewhat different. Key changes include: 1) putting the project of both personal and collective health into a larger and I think more helpful and motivating context, 2) reformatting and expanding the outgoing personal health program’s four natural health techniques into seven natural health tools, 3) substantial revisions to the natural eating section of the personal health program, again including an updated OurPlate dietary model, and 4) extensive updates to both the community health program and community assessment worksheet.

In addition to these program changes, I want to highlight that the new book also will complete a long-planned three-book series on my part, and in particular form the first of the three books in the series, even as it is the last of the works to be published as a book. This natural health trilogy of mine is an overarching project that has guided my writing for several years now, and in total explores natural health successively at a personal, social, and philosophical level. The other two books in this series and progression are The Seven Keys of Natural Life and Nature’s One Commandment, each already published and likely to be updated modestly during 2022.

If you have used the HumanaNatura natural health programs, either over the years or more recently, I would enjoy hearing from you with ideas and suggestions as I finalize work on the program revisions and book conversion. You can reach me anytime at marklundegren.com+hn@gmail.com.

Health & best wishes,

Mark

Mark Lundegren is the founder of HumanaNatura.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

HumanaNatura Book Conversion

January 1, 2020

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By Mark Lundegren

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I am pleased to advise that preliminary work has begun on creating a book version of HumanaNatura’s natural health programs.

In the meantime, our comprehensive Personal Health Program and innovative Community Health Program remain accessible at HumanaNatura.

As you may know, I developed the HumanaNatura materials over a twenty-year period of learning, testing, community feedback, and periodic revision. Today, other than some pending changes to the nutritional information, I consider the programs complete, and my interest in converting the materials into a book format reflects this view.

In addition to refining the HumanaNatura programs, I have been writing about health-based life more broadly the last few years, including publication of my Seven Keys of Natural Life. This book of natural health practice is based on core ideas developed during the creation and refinement of HumanaNatura. It shows how key areas of modern life can be approached more naturally and beneficially, via a process I call the Natural Strategy method.

More recently, I have been at work on a companion book, this one almost entirely philosophical and centered on understanding why a health-centered approach to life is naturally superior. The new book, Nature’s One Commandment, is due to be published in 2020, and I am well into final proofreading now.

If you have used and benefited from the HumanaNatura programs, I would enjoy hearing from you with ideas and suggestions, as I plan and then begin work on the book conversion.

You can reach me anytime at marklundegren.com+hn@gmail.com.

Health & best wishes,

Mark

Mark Lundegren is the founder of HumanaNatura.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

Making Cross-Quarter Progress

August 7, 2019

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Greetings from HumanaNatura at the cross-quarter! In the natural year, we are now midway between the naturally more evocative period of the recent solstice and more balanced time of the coming equinox. Everywhere on earth, there is clear but unmistakable change – away from the height of summer or depth of winter and toward the relative moderation of fall or spring in each hemisphere. It’s an ongoing rhythm of life on earth that touches us all.

A Moment in the Everchanging Light and Rhythm of the Natural Year

In the HumanaNatura natural health system, and as explained in our Mastering The Natural Year graphic and post, we recommend extra progress on our Natural Life Plans around each cross-quarter. At the equinox-nearing cross-quarters, this is so we have adequate completed actions and learning at the equinox – in another six weeks or eighth of a year – when HumanaNatura encourages reflection and updating of our plans.

If you have not yet created a Natural Life Plan to guide your use and expression of the third HumanaNatura technique, Natural Living, our links will take you to our planning worksheets and seven-step planning process. Together, these resources will help you to begin more intentionally health-centered and naturally progressive life in the days and weeks ahead.

From all of us in HumanaNatura’s worldwide natural health community, we wish you new health and happiness, at this and every cross-quarter.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

Progressive Life At The Solstice

June 21, 2019

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Greetings from HumanaNatura at the solstice! Around the world, we are now at one of two crucial milestones in the natural year. Today is the longest day, start of summer, and midpoint of the natural year in the northern hemisphere. And it is the shortest day, natural beginning of a new year, and start of winter in the south.

New Day Waits For You

A Moment in the Everchanging Light of the Natural Year

In the HumanaNatura natural health system, and as explained in our Mastering The Natural Year graphic and post, we encourage spending this and every solstice with family, friends, and community. With the extreme light and heightened feelings that come with the solstices, it’s a natural opportunity to celebrate progress in our lives and Natural Life Plans, break from our routines and seek new perspective, and encourage greater health and progressivity in others.

If you have not yet created a Natural Life Plan to guide your use and expression of the third HumanaNatura technique, Natural Living, our links will take you to our planning worksheets and seven-step planning process. Together, these resources will help you to begin more intentionally health-centered and naturally progressive life in the days and weeks ahead.

From all of us in HumanaNatura’s worldwide natural health community, we wish you new health and happiness, at this and every solstice.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

Making Cross-Quarter Progress

May 5, 2019

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Greetings from HumanaNatura at the cross-quarter! In the natural year, we are now midway between the more balanced period of the recent equinox and the more evocative time of the coming solstice. Everywhere on earth, there is clear but unmistakable change – away from the relative balance of spring or fall and toward the height of summer or depth of winter in each hemisphere. It’s an ongoing rhythm of life on earth that touches us all.

A Moment in the Everchanging Light and Rhythm of the Natural Year

In the HumanaNatura natural health system, and as explained in our Mastering The Natural Year graphic and post, we recommend extra progress on our Natural Life Plans around each cross-quarter. At the solstice-nearing cross-quarter, this is so we have adequate completed actions and learning at the solstice – in another six weeks or eighth of a year – when HumanaNatura encourages celebration of our lives, communities, and successes.

If you have not yet created a Natural Life Plan to guide your use and expression of the third HumanaNatura technique, Natural Living, our links will take you to our planning worksheets and seven-step planning process. Together, these resources will help you to begin more intentionally health-centered and naturally progressive life in the days and weeks ahead.

From all of us in HumanaNatura’s worldwide natural health community, we wish you new health and happiness, at this and every cross-quarter.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

HN’s April Health Challenge!

April 1, 2019

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It’s April, and whether this means spring or fall where you are, it’s a great time of the year to begin new things and challenge yourself to be happier, healthier, and more fulfilled in the weeks and months ahead.

If you are ready for a challenge that will help you to achieve all these things, and maybe more, HumanaNatura’s April Health Challenge and HN-100 Natural Fitness Program may be just right for you. HN-100 is a free, step-by-step health program that gets results and introduces you to all four of our lifelong natural health techniques.

NL HN 100 Snapshot

Our challenge? It’s for you (and maybe a friend) to begin HN-100 this month and see the program through to the end. As the name suggests, HumanaNatura’s HN-100 Program is a 100-day fitness plan that familiarizes you with our overall natural health system in a structured and incremental way. You may find that HN-100 strikes a perfect balance of essential fitness guidance and gradual exploration of your unique long-term health potential.

If you take our April Health Challenge, by July you will understand the HumanaNatura approach firsthand and in practical terms, possibly be in the best health and fitness of your life, and be equipped to maintain and progressively increase your natural fitness and well-being across your life.

In the HN-100 Program, there are 15 weekly focus areas, spanning the 100 days of the program:

  • Week 1 – The Foundation: Natural Eating
  • Week 2 – Explore Natural Exercise & Begin Walking
  • Week 3 – More Natural Exercise: Adding Calisthenics
  • Week 4 – Explore Natural Living: The Ten Dimensions
  • Week 5 – Explore Natural Living: Natural Life Planning
  • Week 6 –  Explore Natural Living: First Self-Assessment
  • Week 7 – Halfway Point: Transitioning To Natural Living
  • Week 8 – Draft Your First Natural Life Plan
  • Week 9 – Advanced Exercise &  Life Plan Refinement
  • Week 10 – Implement Your Natural Life Plan
  • Week 11 – Advanced Exercise & Plan Implementation
  • Week 12 – 100% Natural Eating & Explore Community
  • Week 13 – Complete 30-Day Actions & Explore Community
  • Week 14 – Assess Your Initial Natural Living Actions
  • Week 15 – Learn & Prepare For Ongoing Progressive Life

If you are ready to take our challenge, or want to learn more about HN-100 and HumanaNatura, click-through to our HN-100 Overview Page for detailed instructions on using HumanaNatura’s HN-100 program. And feel free to contact us anytime with your questions – online coaching in the use of our natural health programs is an important part of the HumanaNatura system, and is always confidential and without cost.

Again, it’s April, and maybe you are ready for a new challenge. We hope so, and that our HN-100 natural fitness challenge will prove to be a breakthrough change for you – leading you to new health, fitness, and quality of life, now and throughout your life.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

Progressive Life At The Equinox

March 20, 2019

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Greetings from HumanaNatura at the equinox! In the natural year, we are now halfway between the extremes of darkness and light of the winter and summer solstices. Everywhere on earth, there is equal day and night, and a natural balance or centering that touches many aspects of life, and can aid and inform us all.

A Moment in the Everchanging Light and Rhythm of the Natural Year

In the HumanaNatura natural health system, and as explained in our Mastering The Natural Year graphic and post, we encourage review and renewal of our Natural Life Plans during the twice-yearly times of natural balance that are the equinoxes. This includes making changes to our existing plans as needed, and reconsidering what progressive natural life and health mean for us – as we look back, around, and ahead in our lives.

If you have not yet created a Natural Life Plan to guide your use and expression of the third HumanaNatura technique, Natural Living, our links will take you to our planning worksheets and seven-step planning process. Together, these resources will help you to begin more intentionally health-centered and naturally progressive life in the days and weeks ahead.

From all of us in HumanaNatura’s worldwide natural health community, we wish you new health and happiness, at this and every equinox.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

Making Cross-Quarter Progress

February 3, 2019

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Greetings from HumanaNatura at the cross-quarter! In the natural year, we are now midway between the naturally more evocative period of the recent solstice and the more balanced time of the coming equinox. Everywhere on earth, there is clear but unmistakable change – away from the depth of winter or height of summer and toward the relative balance of spring or fall in each hemisphere. It’s an ongoing rhythm of life on earth that touches us all.

A Moment in the Everchanging Light and Rhythm of the Natural Year

In the HumanaNatura natural health system, and as explained in our Mastering The Natural Year graphic and post, we recommend extra progress on our Natural Life Plans around each cross-quarter. At the equinox-nearing cross-quarters, this is so we have adequate completed actions and learning at the equinox – in another six weeks or eighth of a year – when HumanaNatura encourages reflection and updating of our plans.

If you have not yet created a Natural Life Plan to guide your use and expression of the third HumanaNatura technique, Natural Living, our links will take you to our planning worksheets and seven-step planning process. Together, these resources will help you to begin more intentionally health-centered and naturally progressive life in the days and weeks ahead.

From all of us in HumanaNatura’s worldwide natural health community, we wish you new health and happiness, at this and every cross-quarter.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!

Wishing You Healthy Holidays!

December 23, 2018

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In much of the world, winter and new year holidays are upon us, or soon will be – remembering it is the beginning of summer and middle of the natural year in the southern hemisphere.

This common cross-cultural occurrence suggests roots in ancient winter solstice celebrations, even in cultures that traditionally used a lunar calendar, and a common desire to mark the welcome turn from declining to increasing daylight.

Regardless of your culture and the timing of its seasonal holidays, another common theme this time of years is that our emphasis on happy holidays can make healthy holidays difficult. All too often, we are encouraged to engage in older, less health conscious customs, or new ones born of nostalgia for the past.

This can mean less healthy eating, less regular exercise, or less healthy and even patently health-indifferent social activities – all with the potential for significant inertia in our lives well beyond the holiday season.

With these ideas in mind, HumanaNatura would like to offer ten ideas to help make this or your next holiday a healthy one for you, your family, and your community, wherever you are and whenever your holidays occur:

#1: Eat before events – as an aid to avoiding unhealthy foods

#2: Offer to cook – greatly improving culinary control

#3: Bring a dish – ensuring at least one healthy option

#4: Morning walks – before becoming busy with events

#5: Group calisthenics – fun for kids of all ages

#6: Active activities – away from couches and chairs

#7: Share 2018 recaps – fostering learning & understanding

#8: Discuss 2019 plans – inspiring reflection & forward thinking

#9: Volunteer – to reach more people in the holiday spirit

#10: Renaturalize – by spending time in nature, quietly or adventurously

This list may encourage you to have other healthy holiday ideas, and we would enjoy hearing them in the comments section.

From all of us in the worldwide HumanaNatura natural health community, we wish you healthy holidays, whether now or next.

Tell others about HumanaNatura…give the gift of modern natural life!