My Journey to Natural (The Backstory)

There are 3 journeys that I've undertaken. My Hair, Natural Alternatives, and Spiritual! My blog is based off all three! Natural for me is a lifestyle. It's a Mindset! I love how God intertwined the three. The discovery of the first led me to an organic evolution of the others. Hair ---> Remedies---> God. God is amazing and his creations astound me everyday. Like how many things you can do with an almond or coconut Oil or Vinegar! The best thing about living a natural lifestyle is that you can clean with it, eat it, apply it to your skin and hair, and there are virtually no side effects! A What? Only God can create something like that!

Spiritual

A few months after graduating college, I fell into a dark place. I was significantly depressed because I could not find a job.  I had worked so hard to place myself in a position to succeed. For example, I kept up with the local news stations, began applying for jobs a year in advance, committed to major networking, participated in multiple internships, etc. Here I was, a star student, hard worker, forward thinker, progressive, ambitious etc. I couldn’t land a job to save my life. I had never known what it was like to fail. Of course I had fallen short a few times but never at anything I put my heart and soul into. It's safe to say...I was upset.

Work work work work work

I knew what to do. I fasted, prayed, started going to bible study, in addition to Sunday services, joined the church choir, reframed from frivolous activity, lead a life of purity, and all while actively chasing work. After about 8 months of this, I had reached a breaking point. I just could not understand why things were not working out in my favor. I was frustrated. I was angry with God.  I remember thinking to myself, “why am I even doing this? Nothing’s working for me. This lifestyle is outdated. Does God even care if I strayed? Do I even care anymore? I’m doing all that I can!"

The realization

    I had never completely given my life to the Lord. I focused my life on completing many works that God would have found appealing, but I didn’t really know him. I didn’t really love him to the extent that I thought I did. My very thoughts and actions were selfish. My relationship was predicated on what God did for me and how I felt at the time. In short, I was happy as a Christian as long as I got what I wanted out of the equation. (I am so happy that God showed me where I was. Whew! That is a very dark place to be, & in my opinion, is even worse than not knowing the Father at all.)

      I reasoned with myself. I could not give up my beliefs and lifestyle completely without fully committing in the first place. It's only fair to give God "all I got" and see if that makes the difference. Now I knew what I had to do. (really this time lol)  I had to release my life to God completely--meaning give God full control over everything and accept his perfect will for my life. Scary yes, but I chose to release the hold of fear off my life. I was tired of half stepping.  I had decided if I was gonna do this thing. I'm gonna to do it wholeheartedly. I can no longer half commit and expect a full reward. I had decided in my heart that this time was going to be different! I went into my room and prayed earnestly for God to change my heart and make me more like him. I was so determined that I remember telling God, "I am not leaving this spot, until I hear from you." God showed up and I wept with joy. I was refreshed and felt a yearning to be better and learn more about God. 

 Natural Remedies and Alternatives

The thought began with a conversation with my mother. We were speaking about natural cures. I am not the biggest fan of modern medicine. *enter disclaimer here* I myself was originally a Pre-med student before switching to Journalism. My best friend is currently applying to Med school with dreams of being a doctor. I understand the complexity as well as the beauty of modern medicine, but I can also admit the corruption and poppy cock a lot of it can be. With that being said, I started thinking along the line of “what would my ancestors do?” I’m sure my great great great grandmother did not take Dayquil when she had a cold. What did she use? I began to looking into different natural alternatives and began testing their validity on myself and my puppy child Tyson  (a toy Shih-Tzu , who was my little world wrapped up in a bundle of fur and wet kisses). My biggest break through was a natural cure for his ear infection. I had taken over my pet’s doctor bills and it had become increasingly irritating and expensive to take him to the vet for a reoccurring ear infection. So I googled natural cures. I found that I can possibly cure his ear infection with white vinegar and olive oil! (I’ll write a post about it and attach the article later)  To my amazement it worked! Within minutes, my baby ran upstairs and crawled into my lap and overwhelmed me with love. This was a pleasant change from his sad downtrodden achy heart dropping whimpers. He would remain in one spot for hours and often refuse food and water. Then I had a horrible cold. I looked up natural cures once again and found that I could relieve my sinus symptoms with coconut oil. Coconut oil? But hey I was ready to try anything. A little faith couldn’t hurt. A few drops down my nostrils and moments later the soreness of my throat and swelling of my nostrils were relieved. I repeated the drops every few hours. What a relief! And completely natural! No side effects! To my amazement, coconut oil is a remedy for many things. ( I’ll post about that later too). The concept of natural cures compliments my theory about our natural being.

Hair

I chose to “go natural” about 8 years ago. I was a junior in high school and really wanted something different. I had come across my aunt a couple of months prior, who was Afrocentric at the time, and I saw how beautiful her hair was. Naturally, I thought “hey, my hair can do that too! it’s in the family!”  I had always figured that my hair was naturally curly. I would play with my roots and feel the kinks as I examined my new growth each month. However, when I spoke to my mother she laughed in my face and said, “Girl please, you don’t have good hair like that!”  My mom was not on board with the natural thing. She loved her perms and did not want me to miss the school bus everyday trying to fix my hair. In her defense, I was an extremely untimely person and nearly missed the bus everyday. The sad part was the bus stop was literally in the driveway next door. I devised a plan that would allow me to “go natural” without my mother noticing. (hey, it actually worked!) My mother had been encouraging me to color or cut my hair for years. In her eyes, I finally accepted hahaha yea I accepted all right. I cut my hair in a cute short asymmetrical Rhianna bob after growing it out for about 3 months (no perm added). I cut off about six inches and had about 4 inches of perm left. Once the beautician washed my hair, the coils were evident. My mother was shocked. “I did have good hair like that!” From that moment on I pridefully accepted the natural journey and never looked back!