Hi everyone,
After what felt like a very rough patch in my life, I have come to see that living an alternative lifestyle is the best way forward for me - alternative even from the viewpoint of many intentional communities. I want to come together with people who share a similar vision. I am just at a loss and don’t know where to start given who and where I am.
I’m in my early thirties. I don’t have relationship ties, children, a career, or a home that I own. So I am both free and vulnerable. It seems like it’s time to build from scratch. I will likely have money coming in from inheritance so I am hoping that investing in a piece of land will become a reality for me in the future.
I have been volunteering and living a nomadic lifestyle for the past couple of years and realised it may be time to build a solid and reliable structure I could call home. I want to channel any resources I have now to building a future in the wild, with others surrounding me. It scares me because I need lots of solitude and independent endeavours for well-being. I wonder how I can combine working with other people on a large project like this as an autonomous, creative hard-core introvert with mild autistic traits…
I have stayed in a few eco-villages and found that they are in many ways similar to the conventional way of life that I find in “normal society” i.e. people have jobs, prefer to do grocery shopping, watch TV, drink socially, have their children attend local schools etc. And whilst I respect people choosing such practices, I want to build a more unique way of life.
To keep this post to the point, here are my core questions and challenges I want to transcend:
- Are there other international platforms where I can reach out to more people – platforms that are more visited than this wonderful but fairly new IC Forum?
- Is there information about unconventional communities, for example that embrace a more primitive lifestyle closer to the wilder part of nature, and embrace diversity of personalities, barely participate in monetary aspects of everyday life through investing in self-sufficiency etc.
- Are there resources that are applicable internationally when starting a project like this?
- What are important beginner questions I haven’t yet asked?
- What are some of the best ways to begin for those with experience?
I want to get the conversation going here or/and elsewhere. I recognise within myself the uncertainty and uncomfortable emotions involved with this, but also excitement, inspiration, and a new life to look forward to creating and living.