What is a safe and natural way to encourage normal elimination of the bowels?!

Take a quality probiotic supplement containing at least 15 billion live cells per serving daily for about a month. Chronic constipation is a common result of taking antibiotics at some time in your life (we all have because they're grossly overprescribed). They kill off your good gut flora that facilitate the breakdown and elimination of waste. You might also consider taking digestive enzymes.
Yogurt contains only trace amounts of probiotics.
Other "silent" sources of antibiotics include our drinking water, non-organic meat and poultry... filtration can't remove antibiotic residues and feed animals are routinely given antibiotics to prevent infections. When you eat meat you're also getting trace amounts of what the animals were given. Nice huh? They're also given growth hormones. The traces of this are what's causing early puberty in girls and sterility in boys along with increasing cases of gynecomastia.

Have you been to your doc? This sounds like more than just a little constipated. Have a chat with them and get them to reassure you that there's nothing underlying that is causing this like a bowl problem.
Herbal Senakot is natural and might work for you but its difficult to do it by only eating the right foods and a help from a natural herbal medicins.

i've been taking miralax for years, but drugs have side effects so i decided to stop a few months ago. i started drinking honey water (1 cup of water to 2 teaspoons of honey) twice or thrice a day- once at breakfast and two later in the day. works way better than regular water.

blackberries and raspberries have TONS of fiber!

and if nothing else works, then get vitafusion fiber gummies and take 2 daily at breakfast.

I am not a doctor but I take Miralax/or generic Miralax on a regular basis. It does not make you cramp and sick like Metamucil or other fiber can. It is safe (according to my GI dr.) to take on a daily basis. I love it and it works without sudden urges to go, gas or bloating. You can find it near Metamucil in any pharmacy in the US. I hope this helps. Take care.

Even natural herbal laxatives can cause dependency and should be avoided. An acupuncturist could help you sort this our. Often, unexplainable constipation is sometimes part of Blood Deficiency and dryness in Chinese medicine, so sorting it out can be more complicated than expected.

Eat lots of foods which are high in fiber content and lots of water - that will do it! You can get an assist occasionally with a stool softener which is over the counter.

eat more fiber.