Hello and Welcome!

I’m Selene.

I was raised in American suburbia, eating fast food, watching TV and (barely) conforming at public school. For almost 20 years I went through the motions, never questioning a thing about myself or my upbringing, until one summer when I was home from college and my Dad put on a food documentary for us to watch. Netflix (you know, the physical DVDs!) was picking up steam at the time and we had been watching one documentary a week as a family. I had no idea that this casual movie night would serve as the catalyst for my entire awakening.

This particular documentary shined a light on the ethical consequences of modern food production and I came away from it feeling smacked by the realization that governments and corporations might not have our best interests in mind and most importantly, that my actions mattered. I realized that the food on my plate impacted my health and the health of our world and, though it sounds silly, this was something that had honestly never occurred to me before.

It stirred something within me.

Piece by piece, I began to tear apart my entire worldview. I began to question everything: education, politics, history, health, culture, consumerism, relationship. I didn’t have the terminology for it at the time, but my great deconditioning process had begun.

Then in 2014, at the age of 24, I found out that I was — very unexpectedly —  pregnant with my first child. My sweet boy was conceived the week my boyfriend (now husband) and I had moved into our first apartment and needless to say, neither of us felt “ready”. It was a total and complete shock! I loved my son immediately, though, and growing him in my womb filled me with a sense of purpose that I had never felt in my life. Suddenly every decision of mine mattered ten times more!

Thankfully I had already developed a healthy dose of skepticism towards all things “normal”, so I was prepared to approach motherhood with the same curiosity and intention.

This is when my next great unraveling began.

I questioned everything I had been taught, either consciously or subconsciously, about raising children and I quickly began to see how backwards our Western culture was and how much we had strayed from nature.

I birthed my first son in August of 2015, fully committed to giving him the natural childhood he deserved. Since then we’ve welcomed two more children (born 2017 and 2020) and we’ve learned a lot through sheer trial and error, observing our children and experimenting with new ways of being.

Somewhere along the way, deconditioning became fun for me! Whether it comes to raising our children or navigating our own developmental journey as parents, I approach it all with child-like curiosity and playfulness.

On my website, you’ll find me sharing about motherhood, simple living and natural health, among other things. I live a very “unconventional” life by most modern standards, but oddly enough my journey of thirteen years has been all about returning to what is natural and simple. It has been — and continues to be — a long, fascinating process of letting go.

You can also find me on Instagram @being.selene