Has anyone gone back to the land and found rewnewed health?

[laohaire]

Has anyone made a significant change - maybe working a desk job all day under flourescent lights, where you don't even know what the weather is outside. And then moving to a homestead and being outside and splitting wood and so on.

Did you find a new sense of physical energy and physical well-being that went along with that? Did you get stronger? Did you develop more stamina? Did you sleep better? Did you wake up more refreshed?

[laohaire]

Rewnewed health? Reminds me of the priest in The Princess Bride. Though I guess it should have been Wenewed health.

[Ruthiegirl]

I haven't gone back to land really, but I know that when I left my job to stay home with my kids I underwent a huge improvement in my health. Not that my life today is so perfect, but that my working life was so monstrously unhealthy.

I commuted 80 miles EACH way, worked long, long hours, worked with a tough group of men (I was the only woman on the East coast in my company), and was around chemicals and fumes all day in a warehouse.

Nowadays, my life is very, very different. I grow a huge garden, spend much of my day outside, eat lovely, simple food, sleep well and have a happy life with much less stress. This morning, I took a run, went for a swim with the kids, hung out the laundry (talk about an upper body workout!), ate lunch at home and am now kicking back with a cup of tea and some downtime.

It is not all roses, I hang laundry to save money, drive a beater van and get really tired of rice and beans, but I wouldn't be dragged back into my old life.

[1jooj]

When I succeed at limiting my conventional, paycheck-earning work, I do think I experience a sense of renewal and health. In the summertime, I get abundant Vit D, fresh air and lots of exercise. Food-wise, I eat the best stuff around.

But I have arthritis, and sometimes the seasonal workload aggravates my joint pain. I also have low back issues that can sneak up and strike, laying me low and wreaking havoc on my work. I've contracted infections that can only be got by handling manure, things that have been hard to get rid of.

Mentally, I feel much healthier doing this than doing almost anything else. The unfortunate thing is, in order to afford to do this, I have to do the work that causes me anxiety, nerve tunnel syndromes and lost sleep. Working toward the someday...

[Three~Little~Birds]

...just a city-dweller lurking, and wondering the same things...

[omamasmama]

YES!! My personal experience is yes to feeling tremendously healthier, more connected with nature, filling deep satisfaction at the end of the day and so on. I lived in the city all of my life. I worked in town, biked to work, ate vegetarian food and started to buy organic, studied yoga, but something was missing.

When I meet my now hubby, he was living in a barn (sounds crazy I know) on this lush piece of land he was care-taking. I was about to go to Thailand of all places for a yoga training and met him and decided to move to where he was. We lived in the barn, sometimes just slept outside in the woods. Our only 'job' was taking care of ourselves. We grew our food, chopped wood, etc, etc. That opportunity eventually shifted for us and we moved back to the city for a year, then moved again. That time we lived in a little shed that was totally off the grid. (the barn did have electricity and running water). Our new place had none of those. 

We loved it. It was hard and sometimes not as romantic as going back to the land sounds but I can't tell you how wonderful it was. Sleeping under the stars, moving with the natural cycles of the day, working my body, it is amazing. I felt stronger, healthier, had more stamina for sure, slept like a dog, and woke up ready to go. There is deep quite in my mind when I am living like this.

We have since come to a more middle ground. I got pregnant and we moved to be closer to our families. We now live in the woods in a really tiny cob house (mud, straw and sand). We do have electricity, water, no bathroom though. We grow as much of our food as we can and are outside, chopping wood for our only heat source the trusty wood stove, etc. I feels like an okay middle ground with a little one. 

We have dreams of owning our own place and homesteading off the grid again......ahh someday. 

[limette]

The only thing I've noticed is that my allergies and asthma have pretty much disappeared.  I'm still tired all the time but that might have something to do with a nursing baby.