Living by Nature Philosophy

How often do you wake up under a canopy of leaves, in a self made natural shelter? Or simply in the fresh air? Whether the sun is shining or it is raining, there is a small fire crackling boiling your water, the heart of your camp.

You can build, read, and understand this fire. Together with the other participants, you run the camp. Gathering wood, sawing, making arrangements. Who kneads the dough so there is bread later? And what do you eat with that bread? Fish, perhaps? How do you get those fish? Can you make a net to catch them? You work on your projects, guided by the weather, the seasons, and whatever is needed. This is Living by Nature.

More commonly, we wake up toa radio station or a custom melody on a smart phone. You turn off your alarm twice before starting your day. A hot shower, clean clothes from the closet. A few sandwiches or maybe a smoothie with some exotic fruit. And off to work by bike or car. Meetings, reports, clients, budgets. In the evening, you return home tired and satisfied, or disappointed by your boss or colleagues. Or perhaps you are caring for children, housework, or informal care. Who is not busy? Who never worries about money, home, family, or the future?

We are not so romantic as to suggest things were better in the past. Things were different. Very different!

Biologically, emotionally, and mentally, we are still the same people we were back then. Now however we have almost unlimited and immediate conveniences. This means we spend countless hours behind screens and using posture-degrading seating surfaces. We breathe air through climate control systems, and can eat any kind of fruit or vegetable year-round with zero limitation on seasonality.

As useful as our amenities and inventions are, they do not meet the primal need of the hunter-gatherer that remains within us. We also want to go outside! It is just that we, as modern humans, have somewhat forgotten how to do that—being outdoors.

There are now all sorts of possibilities; things you can do outdoors. Anyone who loves being outdoors and in nature is familiar with the terms survival, outdoor, and probably bushcraft as well. We introduce the term Living by Nature.

So, what is the difference?

Living by Nature encompasses a considered set of nature skills, primitive crafts, social skills, self-knowledge, and observation necessary to sustain an ongoing experience of nature, based on indigenous wisdom, natural materials and ancient techniques.

What we do

We teach you to get back outside!

Not just individual activities, but the whole of what we call Living by Nature. When we go for a walk, we will see where each plant grows. We will hear the alarm calls of birds. We will see a deer fleeing after hearing the bird. Or we will sense rain coming in the air.

We will check a fallen tree to see what kind it is. Can we still use it and take it with us? Perhaps the bark fibres can make rope? This offers a completely different experience than just walking for fresh air.

With a Living by Nature approach, you will experience, hear, and see more.
We teach you to see, feel, and understand environmental connections so you become part of the whole. We are nature! Whether we are confined within walls or not, we are part of a larger cycle.

The more you learn and experience this, the better you will feel, even when you "have to" do other things.

For whom?

Are you already Living by Nature? Everyone is part of nature, even if you live in an apartment building in the middle of the city.

However, not everyone is equally immersed in it or wants to explore it. We see potential Living by Nature in everyone, provided you're willing to explore the aspects involved. We're sometimes asked if we also live vegan or vegetarian. While we support these personal perspectives, they don't fit within a hunter-gatherer or Living by Nature philosophy.

Imagine all modern conveniences gone. No houses, no supermarket, no washing machine, no cars, not even roads. What you have instead is endless nature: trees, swamps, plains, mountains, sun, cold, wind, and rain. Imagine having to gather wood, make a fire, mend your clothes, weave baskets, build a new hut, a canoe, or a sled. You're busy all day long. Nettle soup with some ground elder and dandelion just isn't enough. Many things are seasonal, like fruit, nuts, and seeds. Of course, you can preserve some, but not everything. Our chickens lay eggs year-round! But that's not normal at all! How is a chick supposed to survive in the winter? Fish and meat are absolutely essential for food. Oh, and that's just food.

Clothing was made from hides (buckskin), super-soft leather. Without warm clothing, you wouldn't survive the cold months in most of Europe, and plant-based clothing simply couldn't cope with the sheer volume of use, the effort required to make it, the wear and tear, and the warmth it would keep you warm.

If you want to know about the way of life, then everything is part of it. If you want leather clothing, it's logical that you also know the process of skinning, cleaning, and preparing it. And since the animal has been killed for us, we use everything we can. Bones, tendons, a bladder, for example. You can make the most beautiful and useful objects with that.

Respect for nature, and specifically for animals and what we "take," is incredibly important. We actually notice this happens naturally with everyone who becomes Living by Nature. The more you become a part of nature, the more passionate people become, and the more carefully you treat everything there is. We don't do anything for no reason; everything has a purpose.

We focus on nature lovers who want to go beyond survival, bushcraft, or simply enjoying the outdoors. We expect you to want to learn, experience, and apply our Living by Nature knowledge yourself.

Our Passion (what we stand for)

We're passionate about how people lived thousands of years ago. All the knowledge and skills they possessed. And about how everything connects when you look at it from a natural perspective. We see how people learn, grow, and enjoy working in and with nature. That's what we do it for. We stand for purity, authenticity, sound theory, practical experience, and personal support. Because people didn't live alone in the past either, we place a great deal of emphasis on teamwork.

Our Motivation (What We Go For!)

We reconnect people with themselves, with their knowledge of nature, and with the possibility of living in harmony with it. All our activities are based on the life of a hunter-gatherer. We teach our students the skills necessary for extended stays in nature, going beyond what is usually understood as bushcraft. A key component of our offering is the annual training program. In this program, a group of people spends a year immersing themselves in all the techniques and crafts. We are the only Living by Nature school to offer this in the Netherlands. In our individual courses, we also work as closely as possible in a natural way.

Where it leads to

We train people in the basics of nature skills. But you learn so much more:

• Theoretical knowledge of all areas that suit Living by Nature and long-term stays in nature.

• Practical experience, all course material is applied in practice.

• Teamwork, collaboration and group dynamics.

• Knowledge about psychological aspects of Living by Nature

• Learning to see how everything in nature is connected.

• Knowledge of cause and effect, learning to read signals

• Functioning under stress. It's not always easy. Nature isn't a supermarket. You learn to work focused in different situations.

• Live more alertly, have greater powers of observation also in everyday society

• Self-knowledge, including your own signals, hunger, thirst, fatigue, which expands to include experience, behaviour and interaction.

• Knowing others is important; it's important to recognize the signs in others. If someone becomes hypothermic, recognize dehydration.

• Planning and thinking ahead: how long will a task take, how much energy will it take, and how will you plan for it? Do you build a fire first and then go hunting? Or vice versa, and why?

• Knowledge of the environment matters where you build your hut or where you light your fire.

• Living more consciously in modern society

• Feeling good about yourself

• After the annual training there is the possibility of further/instructor training.