Life and Work with Becca Durlin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Becca Durlin.

Becca, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit as long as it had a way of helping people in a creative way. I dabbled in photography, babysitting/nannying over the years but never felt like I wanted to go to college and have a “career”… I wanted to be a mom with some sort of side gig that would better my families life.

My motherhood didn’t start out easy, we lost our first two babies to early on miscarriage and after losing my nanny gig I was newly married in a new area (we had just moved immediately after getting married) and I craved connection. So, I decided to start up a new blog and share my heart, my life and seek out connection with other angel mamas. Quickly after our second loss, I got pregnant with my now oldest son. Over his pregnancy, I continued to blog, Instagram and connect with my people and shared my hope after loss.

Hunter was born and my “tangible hope” was finally in my arms, but my birth was horrendous. I endured birth trauma and well… that’s a story for another day but when H was six weeks old we moved our lives from Iowa back to Colorado. I was a wreck, we moved into my in-laws’ basement and before we knew it, I was in the deep dark belly of postpartum depression. I don’t remember much from those months but around the time Hunter turned nine months, we were finally on our feet enough to move into our own apartment again. I was feeling like myself again and before long we began wanting to give Hunter a sibling. I was excited and relieved to get off of birth control as I felt it was making me crazy from weird periods, awful libido and ultra-paranoid that everyone was upset with me all the time!

Much to our surprise, we got pregnant as soon as I came off of birth control but again, we lost another baby, heartbroken again. But again, soon after, we were pregnant with my middle son, Wyatt. His pregnancy was really stressful, hard on my body and we were over our limit in our apartment the minute he was born so we needed to move from our one-bed apartment to a two-bed but our only time we could get to move was the day before his due date… yeah, not kidding.

Well, God had everything worked out in a roundabout way because not quite a month from his due date/our move date. I was diagnosed with Preeclampsia. And what was a no big deal appointment turned into being on high-level watch for symptoms to keep me and my baby safe. Over the course of a weekend, my symptoms escalated and before we knew it our Wyatt was born healthy!

After having Wyatt, I needed to go on birth control but not long after my body was an absolute wreck. Again with the symptoms like the previous time but so much worst (this time, I bled for eight months straight while having pregnancy symptoms and feeling absolutely crazy).

When we got pregnant with Eli, we were so excited to learn that he was in there! Our golden baby (a baby after a rainbow baby which is a baby after a loss) until our 7-week ultrasound when we discovered what was another sac & baby blip but it had begun to dissolve & under further investigation I learned about vanishing twin syndrome. Loss while still experiencing life is such a strange and bittersweet feeling.

Midway through my pregnancy with Eli, our rent was about to go up significantly so my husband & dad worked together to finish my parents’ basement so that we could live with them save up money and work towards buying a house someday. Eli was born in November of 2018 and seemingly everything was fine? I felt incredible my recovery was a breeze but in the 4th trimester, things started getting really hard. I was irritated at the simplest things. I would be okay then all of a sudden in an outright rage… I came across an article on postpartum anxiety & rage and felt like someone wrote it about me. I knew I needed to figure out a way to handle it but everything in my gut told me medication was not my path (if that’s yours that’s okay! This is just me). I had seen a friend posting about how her essential oils could help things like stress, sleep, overall health and after dodging and avoiding “those hippie oils” I truly felt as if I had nothing else to lose so I bought my starter kit as a birthday gift to myself. I told myself 25 would be my year… & slowly, without knowing much of anything, I started using the oils, trying the products, doing little changes to our routine and before we knew it, my boys (4, 2 & 9 months) are sleeping through the night willingly, my skin has cleared up, my hormones are more balanced than ever before, my libido is back, and that’s just the beginning. The goodness & joy has spilled over and I’m loving helping other people especially women be/bring the change in their lives and families. It literally gives me so much life to help others find their freedom & empowerment when it comes to the products we use, the ways we handle stress, sleep, hormones, etc.

I’ve never felt more alive, more balanced, less stressed, now, I’m not saying every day is perfect or easy but I finally feel like I have the tools to take on my days no matter what happens in any aspect of my life and I live for helping others gain that sense of empowerment for themselves!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Most definitely NOT. So many twists turn, pivots, doubts, tons of personal development and meaning on God to show me the way.

First personal development sounds lame but it’s so CRUCIAL. Second, find your people. If you have them, love on them HARD. If you haven’t prayed for them, & keep looking until your heart feels at home. Find the people who are lifting you up, keeping you accountable and sharing your passion. They celebrate your wins and you celebrate theirs. When you see them as an ally not as competition, there’s nothing quite like that & it does a heart some really good I promise. It took me till 25 to really feel it in my soul but it’s so obvious it was always them.

Third, find your motivation outside of yourself & money. That paycheck is a byproduct of so much goodness & success is too. Success comes from meeting people where they are at and loving them well.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with The Happy Oily Hive – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
As an Enneagram 2, it’s hard for me to recognize my strengths but I feel like I really lean into loving people.

Again this was not something that has always been the case, trusting others after being tortured, ostracized and sexually assaulted by a guy who I thought was my friend and then no one believing me really puts a damper on trusting people…

BUT, as I have been saying personal 👏🏻 development has shown me that people ARE worth trusting. & loving them unconditionally does nothing but good for you and them.

I’m known for my generosity, relatability & really encouraging others with my words but also my Instagram vibe. It’s happy, bright and there are lots of rainbows. 🌈

I’m really proud of how real I am, I don’t sugarcoat much, and I feel like there’s a purpose to my story and sharing the hard stuff as well as the good stuff especially if it helps just one person is worth it.

Were there people and/or experiences you had in your childhood that you feel laid the foundation for your success?
Well,at 15, I became a sexual assault survivor and that took a lot to overcome.

My mom has been chronically ill since I was 13 and so I raised my brothers and that was no easy feat.

In my five years of motherhood, I’ve lost four babies, miscarriage is not easy to process let alone experience.

BUT every single hardship has given me a platform to not only share my experiences to help others feel they are not alone but helped me be able to counsel, have deeper connections and empathize with women I’d have never been able to without them.

Pricing:

• The starter kit for your own oils journey is $165

Contact Info:

• Email: hellohappyoilyhive@gmail.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/happyoilyhive & instagram.com/beccalynneco

Image Credit:
Becca & Jake Durlin

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