The reWild Your Life Guide

The Wild designed us. We are designed for the Wild.

This is why we most humans are sick today—because we've removed ourselves from the Wild.

Instead, we spend our lives indoors, in clothes and shoes, under artificial lights, eating artificial foods, and swimming in a pool of artificial chemicals and toxins.

Our Wild Mission is to help you reWild your life so you can return to your human roots.

reWild (verb): to return to a more natural or wild state : to make or become natural or wild again

The ten reWild Principles of Human Health:

• 🍎 Food 
• 🛌 Sleep 
• 🏃 Movement 
• 🌲 Nature
• 🦶🏻 Barefoot 
• ☀️ Light
• 😩 Stress 
• ☢️ Toxins 
• ⛓️ Community 
• 🏢 Environment

Below is a summary of each principle with links to the expanded guide. Work through each and make small changes in your daily life. It's not a sprint but a marathon.

Find small, easy wins so you can build momentum. Then tackle the larger changes one at a time to increase the likelihood of making lasting changes.

Our ancestors did not eat mass-produced, industrialized foods. This is one of our greatest mismatches today and is directly responsible for the mass of Western Diseases plaguing those living in industrialized nations.

Manufactured foods are not found in nature, and man-processed ingredients are something our ancestors never ate.

Some examples:

Seed oils

Highly refined plant foods (corn, wheat, and soy)

Hormones and antibiotics 

Factory-farmed genetically engineered plant and animal foods

Fake ingredients

Processed, manufactured foods

Our ancestors ate whole, natural foods that they killed or foraged with their own hands.

Today's modern food system is the opposite of what we are designed to eat: whole Foods from the Wild.

This is why ancestrally appropriate diets give modern humans the best results.

Goal: Avoid fake food and cook all of your meals at home.

Modern humans have electricity. Our ancestors didn't.

With this amazing technology, we can control light and screens and by extension, our ability to stay up all night. 

Our ancestors didn't have that luxury, so they went to bed when the sun went down and rose at sunrise. 

That's why we have a circadian rhythm that tracks with the sun. 

Not getting enough sleep increases the risk of most modern degenerative diseases. 

There are simple sleep hacks you can add to your routine and environment that can go a long way. And then mastering this list will have you sleeping like a baby all night. 

Goal: Sleep when the sun is down and rise when it is up.

Check out our recommended Wild Products that can help you fall asleep faster, naturally, and stay that way.

Our ancestors used to walk around 15 miles a day.

Many modern humans living in the West walk barely a mile a day—to the car, office, fridge, and bed.

Then there's the issue of exercise. 

The sad reality is we move less than we used to, creating a huge mismatch with downstream health issues.

Goal: Move as much as possible throughout the day.

Our ancestors spent their entire lives outside.

Modern humans spend 90% or more of their time inside.

What a mismatch.

Numerous studies show the positive impacts of spending time in nature. The Japanese have a term known as "forest bathing," basically spending time in nature.

Can you imagine the hilarity: a recommended health modality for modern humans is to go outside and sit there. 

That's how far we are from our natural habitat.

Goal: Go outside and stay there as much as you can.

Imagine shoes on a lion. Or a dog.

Absurd.

Yet we shoe ourselves without a second thought.

Shoes ruin posture, create back pain, and hinder foot development.

Kids start wearing them everywhere. I've seen it with my sons... an aversion to going outside barefoot. 🙉

Goal: Walk barefoot as much as possible and switch to no rise "barefoot" style shoes.

Our ancestors bathed in natural light. There was no such thing as artificial light.

Today, most people are afraid to go outside for more than 10 minutes without spraying themselves with chemicals that will supposedly "protect them" from skin cancer. 🤦🏻‍♀️

We lack natural light while bathing in artificial light, which destroys our circadian rhythm, not to mention the other imbalances that come from lacking the proper light balance. 

The sun gives us the entire light spectrum, including red, near- and far-infrared, ultraviolet, and other wavelengths. While indoor light is primarily visible in the 380-700nm range, screens put off a lot of blue light. 

It's important to get natural light and avoid fake light. 

The percentages of different wavelengths from the sun vary. Still, visible light makes up about 43% of the sun's total energy output, with the remaining 57% comprising infrared, ultraviolet, and other wavelengths.

Goal: Get as much direct sunlight as possible, multiple times a day

Anthologists have studied modern-day hunter-gatherers extensively.

This research points to how happy and peaceful this way of life is, especially compared to modern humans, who are becoming progressively sick and depressed.

Studies have shown that hunter-gatherers have lower rates of mental illness, such as depression and anxiety, and are generally more satisfied with their lives. This is often attributed to their close-knit communities, connection with nature, and lack of materialistic values.

Hunter-gatherers are estimated to have only had to work for about 4 hours a day to acquire resources. Most of their time was spent socializing, resting, and engaging in leisure activities.

Blue Zones are areas worldwide where people live longer and healthier lives than the rest. Some features of these regions include strong community ties, lots of outdoor activity, and a whole-food diet. These areas also tend to have low stress levels and a sense of purpose in life.

Here are some top stress-relieving modalities:

• Meditation
• Yoga
• Sauna / ice 
• Exercise
• Deep breathing
• Spending time in nature
• Creative activities, such as painting or writing
• Journaling
• Listening to music
• Talking to a therapist or counselor
• Spending time with loved ones

Products we use daily, like our homes, cars, beds, and personal care items, are often unnatural. We encounter harmful substances daily when we bathe, breathe, and eat. Luckily, we can avoid many of these toxins. One way to do this is by replacing cheap, mass-produced items with products from natural brands.

The hubris that we understand the long-term effects of certain things after doing "research" (most of which is bought and paid for) is one of the great lies of our age.

Make these changes today, and you'll save yourself days, months, and years of bodily stress by removing these stressors from your environment. It's that simple and that powerful.

Short list of things to consider for eliminating or reducing toxins in your body and home:

• Shower/water filters
• Avoid plastics, heavy metals, perfumes, off-gas, mold
• Improve indoor air quality (VOCS)
• Natural fibers
• No sunscreen (or homemade)
• No hair/body care products or only animal-based
• Whole food diet
• Whole food supplements
• Glass, metal, wood food storage / prep
• Cast-iron / tri-ply for cooking
• Sauna
• Red light therapy
• Grounding
• Outdoor activities
• Natural cleaning supplies

As a country becomes richer, it becomes unhappier. Isn't that wild?

There are many reasons for this, but the primary one comes from the community. We isolate ourselves.

We ship grandparents to nursing homes. Kids get shipped off to dorms or an apt when they are 18.

As we further isolate ourselves, depression, anxiety, and unhappiness rise.

According to a 2018 survey by Cigna, nearly half of Americans report feeling lonely sometimes or always. This loneliness epidemic has been linked to various health issues, including an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and premature death.

One contributing factor to this trend is the decline of multigenerational households, which traditionally provided a strong sense of community and support. 

Today, more elderly Americans live alone, and younger generations are more likely to move away from their families in search of jobs or other opportunities. 

The nuclear family model has largely replaced the multigenerational household in the US.

Goal: Rebuild communities or we're doomed.

There are many more ways modernity is mismatched with our species.

Relationships, child rearing, healthcare, screens, and more all have considerations to understand that oscillate between "natural" and "normal."

And most of the time, the normal category is based on bad science, regulation, and other financial considerations and goals rather than what's optimal for human health.

Goal: Move away from "normal" and to "natural" as much as you can.

Patience is the key to reWilding your life.

It's not an upward linear process of growth. You're going to have ups and downs. Wins and loses. Setbacks. Plateaus.

If you develop the foundational understanding of the reWild framework, which is based on understanding your evolutionary past and that your ancestors were happier and healthier than you in every way. You will forever see the world differently. And that difference is how you will continually steer yourself in the right direction.

Start with as many easy wins on this list as possible, especially in the environment, sleep, and light categories. Most of these changes are inexpensive and easy to implement. 

The more significant categories, like food, stress, and community, will take time. So keep thinking about them. Start talking about them with others. Start researching them. Read books, listen to podcasts, and watch YouTube videos.

The more you know, the easier it gets!

We are here to help you anyway we can, so please reach out and dive into the many free articles, guides, and videos on our website.