Raw Natural Living

My name is Matthew Warner. I have been eating a raw plant based diet for 4 years.

When I am not teaching I am constantly learning. I spend my free time outdoors participating in the natural world. I enjoy hiking, running, biking, and swimming. I also enjoy working out and developing new creative exercises using only my own body and what I can find outdoors in nature. I am always looking for new ways to improve and evolve my diet and lifestyle in order to find even more joy in my life.
This was not always how I lived my life. I have had a strange journey of my own in which my intuition and connection with nature brought me profound realization and took me down a path from darkness and delusion to abundant health and boundless joy.

My Journey…

My life was shrouded in illness and addiction. I spent many years of my life emersed in depression and anxiety. I was totally lost.
I was always very intelligent but I lacked the motivation to apply my skills. Nothing interested me in school, and so I only ever did enough to get by. I knew enough to know that I was missing something, but I didn’t have any idea what it was. Like most people, I turned to filling the void in my life with addictions. It began very early on with my addiction to food. Whenever I was depressed or overwhelmed, I would just go into the refrigerator and devour whatever I could get my hands on. This led to very poor health and obesity which only depressed me further into a severely unstable mental state. Eventually I was going so far as to hide foods in my room, in my closet, and under my bed as I developed increasingly potent feelings of guilt.

As I grew older I predictably gravitated towards drugs and alcohol. By the time I was in my early teens I was drinking almost every day and getting into serious drug use. This pattern only progressed and before long I was doing anything and everything I could get my hands on. At various points I was offered help in the form of clinical treatment. I was told I was bipolar, manic depressive, and had a severe anxiety disorder. However the idea of treating my problems with drugs was almost laughable to me. I figured that if drugs were the solution then I might as well take the drugs that I liked the best. So I went on for years completely out of control. I was just going from drug to drug all the while stuffing myself with junk food at any chance I could get. The truth is that I never was really “addicted” to any one drug, I just refused to be sober. Sobriety didn’t interest me in the least, and in my eyes all those people who were telling me not to get high were living like drones. They were not happy. Why would I want to live like that. Sure I was slowly killing myself but at least I was feeling good most of the time.

So I went on and on, searching, seeking, getting high. Until eventually I knew I was burning out. I was burning quick and I was faced with a serious decision. I needed to figure out how to feel good without the drugs because now even the drugs weren’t doing it anymore.

Finally one day I faced what I had been avoiding. I looked deep inside of myself. I faced the pain and the lies, the fear and the inner betrayal. I looked deeper and deeper and just as I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, I saw it. I saw who I really was. I caught a glimpse of my true nature. The realization brought me to the floor. Tears of joy ran down my face. I now understood through personal experience that at our true nature we are perfect. That nature is perfect. That we are provided everything we will ever need. We are meant to feel as joyful as is possible to feel. That there is nothing to fear because all of nature is eternal and therefore our essence is never lost. That no knowledge can be hidden from us because all answers lie within our own nature. That there is nothing that can happen to us that is not meant to happen and we have the choice of how we want to experience it. The utter bliss of this realization coursed through me for a period of time which is now still incalculable to me. As much as it felt like an eternity, it is just as likely to have been a fleeting instant.

As this realization became more and more of a memory a new wave of depression swept over me. A depression the likes of which I could not begin to describe. I had been staring into the open arms of creation and now suddenly dropped back into the bitter darkness of delusion.

Although the realization faded, the perspective that it brought with it could not be lost. And although I resumed a life of the same out of control patterns of addiction, every moment I experienced was from the beautiful new perspective that I had gained.

The more I began to ponder this phenomena the more insight I was able to derive from it. Eventually, I was able to conclude that the reason I lost touch with the light that had been ignited was because I had been so far removed from my nature and the nature that surrounded me. I began to realize that if I wanted to live in that realization then I must return myself to nature.

In the years following I began to redefine my life and my impact. I first thought outwardly about the environment and made tremendous strides to reduce my impact on it. This outward obsession only led to a false sense of moral superiority and a brooding hatred towards those who were not aware of the damage they were inflicting. Of course this only led me further from my objective but it did bring me new perspectives. As I went on and on trying to find the path back to natural joy, I hit many dead ends but learned a great deal along every road.

When I finally brought myself to see the moral and environmental impact of eating animals I was able to become a vegetarian. The combination of desensitizing myself to the plight of fellow beings and the incidental increase in my own health was like giving my intuition an amplifier. Even though I had become a vegetarian for animal rights sake, the physical boost that I received showed me the missing piece to my puzzle. I needed to fix my own physical body in order to bring my self back to nature.

At the moment I had realized this fact it was like my intuition had screamed, “GO INSIDE”. I realized that I had to fix MY environment before I could be any help the THE environment. This was a wonderful realization. Not only was it showing me where to go, but it was showing me that I had full control.

So from then on I finally decided to turn myself around. I began working on every aspect of my life and figuring out how I could bring that aspect back to nature. As I went from aspect to aspect I began to see the interconnectedness of it all. There were no ideas that applied to only one certain piece of my self. Every law of nature could be applied to every aspect of my life. Once I realized that law in one aspect of my life I could then apply it to my whole being. The more I worked on myself the louder and more effective my intuition became.

Needless to say that as a redefined my diet I found a raw food diet to be the only natural way to go.

The further along I went the more curious I became. Being of a highly antiauthoritarian background, I am always hesitant to accept and follow the guidance and instructions of others. My solution has always been to allow my intuition to guide me through the research and teachings of others by studying as many raw food approaches as I could find, and also closely examining the chemistry of food in relation to our own physiology. As I explored this realm of nutrition I became ever vigilant of consistencies and inconsistencies. I sought the common ground of the widely varying approaches, and I weeded out any slanted or partial interpretations.

Next, I set out to prove or disprove any potential truths by seeking their place in the patterns of nature. Using this approach enabled me to come to a much deeper understanding of how this type of diet would reshape and transform my life. Upon coming to this deeper understanding I was able to fully embrace this new approach free of hesitation or inner conflict. This new diet just became the only way for me. The only thing left to do was put the best conceivable diet to the test.

As I set out on my journey, my diet would undergo many changes. The most important part, however, was that since I was always listening to my body I was always eating what was best for me at that stage in my journey. Any step I took, although perhaps not ideal, was absolutely essential in bringing me to where I am today. As my body continues to change and evolve, my diet evolves with it. All I have to do is listen to my body with an open mind and use my intuition to guide me to further understanding of my journey.

As I progress, using this method of self education, I learn more and more how powerful, and empowering, it can be for everyone. With that in mind, and in heart, I strive to help others unlock the same power within themselves to open up their horizons to limitless possibilities. I will forever be working to improve myself and enhance my experience of my life. Every new step I take teaches me something new to pass along.