Written by Alison Mak, Co-founder of Mohenjo
When I was a little girl, I dreamed of becoming a “self-sufficient” woman when I grew up. At the time, that meant being able to take care of myself financially and never have to rely on a husband for my income. Where this idea stemmed from, I’m not sure (perhaps social and cultural conditioning through the television etc).
Now that I am an adult, the concept of self sufficiency has grown to mean so much more to me than being just about money. Being self-sufficient means having valuable life skills, knowing how to do, make, and grow things myself, and not relying on a corporation or outside entity to provide all the answers or solve my problems. Together, my husband and I have embarked on a homesteading lifestyle and are learning how to provide for our family in so many ways.
Homemade salsa from garden organically-grown veggies
On my personal path, herbalism is actually where my self-sufficiency journey began. When my husband was experiencing a very intense and painful vaccine injury in the form of a 6 month long, severe eczema bout, I was guided to put my knowledge of non-toxic living and herbalism to the test. We knew we needed to help his body to detox and decrease our toxic load as much as we possibly could. In addition to making sure we ate clean, organic foods, we began replacing all of our bodycare and household products with the most natural alternatives we possibly could. Usually, this meant figuring out how to make them ourselves.
I began with infusing jojoba oil with organic calendula, which was a great success. Next, I added some extras to Nelson’s epsom salt bath - magnesium flakes for detox, finely ground organic oats from our pantry to calm his extreme itchiness, and the dried organic calendula flowers to help decrease his redness and irritation and help heal his wounded skin. It was after experimenting with this soothing bath of Nelson’s that we realized we could turn our bath tea into a beautiful, healing product we could share with others. And thus, Mohenjo was born!
Preparing my own sitz herb tea & postpartum sitz pads
My ability to “do it myself” has grown so much since those days a couple of years ago. My husband and I have found that if we want to make sure something in our life is as non-toxic, pure, and trustworthy as possible, we had better figure out how to make it ourselves!
Finishing untreated reclaimed wood shelves with Tried & True (beeswax & linseed oil)At Mohenjo, we aim to provide you with products that you can trust using with your own family as well, as we have prioritized crafting the highest quality solutions to your bath & bodycare needs. Above all else, we believe that nature provides everything we need to thrive, and that the closer to nature we are, the higher the benefit to all on Earth.
We hope to inspire you to explore your own self-sufficiency with our Non-Tox Life blog series! Keep an eye out for our next blog in the series.
