Episode #2 – We Are All The Unskilled Cavewoman

We weren’t raised with our ancestors’ skill sets, but we can still re-connect to our primal instincts with intention and through community.

“Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate. It’s more effective to build the world you want than to destroy the one you don’t.” – Jordan Bach

We all have primal instincts within us, begging to be nurtured re-awakened. In our modern society, how do we realize true human goals and desires? How do we support one another in the midst of chronic illness due to broken food and medical systems?

In this episode I talk about the simple ways in which I’ve begun to reconnect to my ancestral humanity and how it’s brought me acceptance happiness.

Listen for free with the audio player below.

Please scroll down for the show notes.

Show Notes:

This podcast is brought to you by AIP Sheet Pan Recipes. 40 recipes all compliant for the Paleo AIP.

All of the recipes can be made on a sheet pan! Re-think the way you cook for the AIP with easy steps and quick clean-up.

Referenced blog post: Everyone is The Unskilled Cavewoman

Referenced video: Mom builds home for her and her daughter from a shipping container.

I didn’t know that what I was doing was killing me.

But when I did find out, it angered me for along time that I was “tricked” into believing, living and breathing this lifestyle that was commercialized as optimal/a goal.

Monsanto, the FDA, political ties….the processing of CAFO animals, our backwards food pyramid,  ingredients in vaccines, the commercialization of medications, the toxins in our daily care products, how corn is in virtually everything…it all really pissed me off. I wanted to change the world but felt very very small and unable to do so, and I allowed that frustration to change who I was for a long time. I went full goth for like a year. I shaved my head into a mohawk. I blocked people out by playing the heaviest of metals in my earbuds anytime I had to go to the store or in public because I just wanted everyone that was still buying into the bullshit to keep away from me. I even joined a March Against Monsanto protest once dressed up like a post apocalyptic psycho because that’s how fed up I was. Made for some cool pictures that made it on the local online news, ha! But then I realized that anger wasn’t changing anything but myself. I was very unhappy with how my unhappiness was changing the way I lived my daily life.

Once the initial shock was over it was time to move forward and make positive changes. When I read a post from my cousin that said, “Instead of being angry at the things you hate, how about being joyful over the things you love and are passionate about.” or something like that. And it really hit home. I knew at that point that I was allowing my joy to be stolen by holding onto this resentment.

After accepting the truth of that quote, I bought my first pastel piece of clothing in a long time. Sounds corny, but my mood was lighter and I wanted my appearance and attitude towards life to change. And it did.

Around that same time I started looking at different ways to live. I came across a video of a woman who built a home for her and her daughter out of a shipping container. And I was like, “They look so happy and free. They look like humans…living as they were meant to be.” and that inspired me to dig really deep. Because I mean, SHE BUILT HER OWN HOME. How can I do that? Who are we really as humans in our animalistic nature… in modernization of all the things? What have we lost track of? What else we were not taught that were once just our natural instincts? How can we learn to be a primal being?

This was the driver behind my blog name, The Unskilled Cavewoman. Because I truly believe we have those instincts inside of us, begging to be nurtured and re-awakened. They have just been pushed aside by everything we have been trained to do since we were born, and that’s because of what our parents were taught to be true, and their parents and so forth. Our legacy as primal beings hasn’t been taught to us. We are Neanderthals at heart but most of us don’t know how to connect with that. We don’t have the skills.

Hunni and I plan to one day own an run an off-grid sustainable homestead. But we need to learn how to do so in the years to come before that dream is a possibility. Yeah we COULD buy the land, seeds, equipment, farm animals, solar panels and building materials right now…but what would we do with it? We don’t have the skills to survive in that manner right now.

I don’t know how to garden. My thumb is super black…and to get a green thumb I need to learn. I don’t know how to build my home myself. Or hunt. I don’t know what berries to eat if I got lost in the woods. With my luck I’d wipe my ass with poison ivy and eat deathberries and have a really itchy demise under a tree where gargantuan jungle ants nested. (OK dark gruesome humor, sorry….that’s where my mind goes. Still always gonna be weirdo for life, yo!)

But all kidding aside its important to ask questions. Where does our food come from. What do they put on it or in it and how does that affect my body? What can I change about the way I consume? How can I make my life more sustainable but still live within my means. Anxiety over finances and guilt are unhealthy as well. If you literally cannot afford to buy organic and pastured provisions then its not within your means. Don’t punish yourself for doing the best you can for you and your loved ones with what is within your budget. Commercially raised chicken thighs and conventional kale is better than fast food or cheesy corn puffs for breakfast any day!

Un-learning for ourselves is a responsibility for the future of humankind. We don’t need three fancy cars, eight tv’s, 20 bedrooms and 18 designer handbags to be happy. OK, so I may own too many shoes, but I bargain that with the fact that I got most of the from the thrift store. A balance, a compromise. Shoes make me happy. Especially when they cost $4 per pair and I can say, “hey, I saved those 2″ nude pumps from the trash heap.”

My child is growing up differently than I because of the changes I’ve made to my own lifestyle. She wasn’t born into “Paleo” or sustainable living, but she has been taught those things as I come across them. She accepts these as facts now rather than having to be shocked by it later in life as I was, and that is  beautiful thing to witness. Her mind already open to a more natural way of life.

Now, I have to push away guilt about my diet and medications during pregnancy, her diet from a wee bairne and into her pre-school years. I know that had I lived the way I do now back then that she would probably not have psoriasis and  a weakened immune system. BUT I DID NOT KNOW BETTER. I did the best I did back then and I do the best I can now. I cant go back and change the past. But I can move forward with love and intention.

We live in a combined family where her nutrition is different from my step-children’s, and she also has a different set up nutritionally in her father’s home. So I do my best to not stress her out with food choices as her diet is not always within her control, and there are always temptations for her to eat junky stuff at both households and at school, but I always remind her that as she gets older it will be easier to make her own choices. I tell her she is always allowed to say, “No thank you. I don’t want to put that in my body.” She knows she has a choice. I want her to feel empowered.

Advocating for ourselves in the world of modern medicine is also an Unskilled Cavewoman feat. And getting rid of victim mentality also goes hand in hand medically.

When you take control and responsibility for your health, it can be both overwhelming and freeing at the same time. Overwhelming because it really is up to you to find the best plan of action for your body and soul. Freeing because you have control over what goes into and what happens to your body. Yes you can give the reigns a bit to doctors and your own research, but ultimately it is your responsibility to say yes to this or no to that. You are your own advocate and in that you have an intensely MASSIVE strength and power.

Do your own research and check different sources. I like to read a variety of literature varying from allopathic to homeopathic and go back and forth with fact checking. I don’t just read one article, I need to compare. Like when I want to make a new recipe, I like to read at least 3 or 4 different recipes before giving one a try, or making up my own recipe. Variety can get you more information!

Change doctors if at all possible if you do not like the, if they do not listen to you, or if they treat you poorly. You know what your body feels like to live in 24/7.

Community is so important:

1. Comradery and support: we can hold each other’s hands and give virtual hugs. Vent. Find release and inspiration in each other’s stories. Grieve together over losses and setbacks. Celebrate each other’s victories.
2. Patient experiences get me through. I want to hear what others are going through because the proof is in the pudding! Am I going to immediately jump on the next supplement/therapy/surgery train because it worked for Jenny or Darius, nope…but I am going to look into it and see if it may be right for all of my collective conditions. We have similarities but in the end our treatments are very patient-specific and should be planned out carefully and strategically.
3. Condition-specific support groups. Avoid negative Nancies (I like to turn off notifications about new posts in FB groups as it can become very overwhelming very quickly seeing so much suffering in your feed every time you check your Facebook. I will go into the group and search their history for specific questions before posting. Block anyone that is negative or driving you crazy with too many questions.)

We can change the way the food and medical systems respond to us just by doing what we are doing now. We expect more from them and in turn we seek better food, better care, a better place to live our lives.

Your voice is powerful and strong. Sometimes it may feel like you are small, but the biggest empires were built starting with one pebble. Begin to lay those bricks for yourself and your loved ones.