The DIY Approach to Life

I’ve been thinking a lot about the DIY approach to life and why I am so drawn to it. I follow quite a few homesteaders, herbalists, gardeners, small scale farmers and people who spend their days figuring out how they can solve their own challenges. That could be finding an organic way to beat the tomato hornworm or refinishing a beat-up piece of furniture to give it new life.  

One of the biggest things that draws me to a person is if they are curious and courageous enough to try something on their own, without fear of failure. Deciding on the final product/result you want, determining the learning path to get you there, doing the learning work, applying that knowledge, failing and improving until you get it right in my opinion, is the formula.  

In my own life, this formula has led me to figure out many things that have made my life better, along with those in my family and friend circle. I’m inspired by those around me and those I follow online because they continue to push themselves to try new things and share (honestly) the journey they went through. 

When I started on this herbalism journey, I had very little knowledge outside of a few benefits of essential oils and knowing that coconut oil pulling was a thing I should try, once I got over the grossness of it.  

In 2020, I took my passion for clean living and put it into a driving force in my life. I sought out replacements for things that were becoming a challenge to purchase because we can all remember the toilet paper crisis, right? I swore I wouldn’t be caught relying on a broken supply chain again.  

With that determination came discovering how I could make my own cleaning products, personal care products, grow my own food, make my own bread, work with local farmers and producers to shorten my personal supply chain and then, into herbalism. 

My failures were too many to count, but the more I pushed myself to try again, the more FUN I was having. I realized that the thing I was attracted to in others was a trait within myself that gave me confidence and joy. This is especially true with using this process to learn about herbs, plant medicine, essential oils and tools like borax, baking soda, vinegar, Epsom salts, magnesium, coconut oil, and bentonite clay.  

I wanted to learn how to replace the things in my life like face lotion, eye cream, dishwashing soap, laundry soap, counter cleaning spray, aspirin, boo boo ointment...so many things. However, I took them one at a time. Messing around with new ways of making the things that make our lives comfortable made me more comfortable with my own abilities. As I figured one thing out and it worked, that motivated me to move on to the next thing. 

My pantry is now filled with more items that have a handmade label and raw ingredients to make things than a final store-bought product. I’m proud of many things in my life, but that is one I’m most especially proud of. I learned. I tried. I failed and I tried again before finding the formula that worked for me.  

The medical system, big pharma, large consumer product companies in this country want us sick, dependent and ignorant. When we wake up to the fact that they make no money on a healthy, independent and wise person, it becomes clear that it is up to each of us to take matters into our own hands. 

DIY for me is a way of life and I hope that this inspires you to dive in and figure out how you can make a cleaner and healthier version of what you use in your life. I’ve seen people post recipes of how to replace fruit roll-ups with homemade ones. How to replace store bought chemical laden bagels with homemade sourdough ones. How to make your own cleaning solution using orange peels. SO MUCH STUFF, ya’ll. 

It’s just up to us to take this knowledge, try it out and get it right. Being dependent on a system that just sees us as a dollar sign and does not have our best interest at heart is a recipe for disaster. It will make us sicker. 

 
Finally, the most important thing we can do then is to share our knowledge with others. Let’s take some time in our lives to talk with another person about what we learned, put into practice and then mastered. Show them how to do it and boom...we have a society of people who are healthier and happier. 

Sweet dreams, ya’ll.