Natural health is about empowerment, not fear. 10 Skills for the Maintenance + Repair of You.

For me, anyway.

If you've spent more than 5 seconds in the natural health blogosphere, you have probably come across a bit of fear mongering. Everything causes cancer, doctors are evil, and autism is all part of Their Plan. I understand those views completely but they are unhelpful. Let me talk about why I care about natural health anyway.

When you take a look at humanity over the ages, you'll see we are living in a very “specialized” culture. People have their own set of skills that they provide to others in exchange for money, which is spent on buying other people's skills (or the goods they create with those skills.) It's a great system in a lot of ways, and it's how this huge empire that we live in was built.

I think it's foolish, however, to apply this concept to our bodies. Which is what we have done – care of the body itself is often delegated to doctors (who may or may not specialize in a certain “function” of the body), the government food pyramid, diet “experts”, pharmaceutical companies, etc. When it comes to life-threatening injuries and emergency situations, this system has been a huge blessing overall. The same can not be said for preventative or wellness.

People need to know how to maintain wellness. People need to know how to respond to minor injuries and illnesses on their own. We can't always rely on systems, you know? It just won't stay the same forever. Look at history. That's not fear-mongering or being pessimistic or anything. It's simply an unbiased look at HISTORY.

Your body is the only thing you are guaranteed to carry with your throughout your entire life. You may even use it to give life to children, who will have their own bodies to take care of. It is absolutely worth an investment of your time to learn how to maintain and repair yours – and then pass on those skills.

That's what I'm trying to do here. Okay? I don't want you to feel scared or – like some of you have said – guilty for ever choosing to do things the “mainstream” way. That's not the point. Do what you have to do – but learn this stuff and pass it on, because I guarantee it's knowledge you'll use someday.