7 Secrets My Skin Has Taught Me
Like unblocking the 7 chakras in our body to keep illness away, I have learned 7 very wise lessons from my skin. Having the auto-immune skin disease, psoriasis, for over 20 years was painful, frustrating, and devastating but in the end, it has changed my life for the better! I never would have thought I would say this, but it’s true! The disease has taught me about health, nutrition and self-love. In my opinion, these are the most important things to be aware of and to implement in order to live a happy life. My struggle helped me find my purpose which is working as a health coach, writer and teacher, specializing in helping people with skin disease. My journey has been a long one, so I’m hoping with these tips, I will save you years of agony and your healing can begin immediately.If curing any skin disease (and other illnesses too) meant adhering to these 7 easy simple steps that helped my skin heal from the inside out, wouldn’t you want to start your healing journey today?
Juicing
Juicing fruits and vegetables bathes our cells in micronutrients, minerals, vitamins and enzymes; the ’good things’ our bodies need every day to heal. The experts recommend consuming 6-8 servings of vegetables a day. If eating that many veggies is daunting, juicing them makes this a lot easier to do. On top of giving you awesome energy it helps with digestion, prevents disease and removes toxins from our bodies. I’ve seen profound healing effects on my skin from juicing. It’s amazing! If you are willing to clean the juicer afterwards, it is easy and cheap to do this at home. However, with so many new health food places popping up it is becoming easier to get freshly juiced fruits and veggies. I am not talking the kind with preservatives and added sugary concentrates that come in a plastic bottle, but the real ones that a person behind the counter juices that minute! Juicing is the healthiest and quickest way to get your body regenerating and moving towards healing not illness.
Eat Clean
Having psoriasis, I’ve learned the following – toxins are getting into my blood stream through my intestinal walls! Eek! They have to come out somewhere, right? What better place than the largest organ of the body, the skin. The toxins I’m referring to are from chemicals in processed foods and inflammatory foods like sugar, dairy, red meat, alcohol, and coffee. To prevent this you must eat clean. By clean, I mean eat whole foods from the earth such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, raw nuts and seeds. If you eat animal protein make sure it’s organic and lived a wonderful life or eat wild caught fish in the ocean, not farmed raised. If you want a little sugar get it from a plant or a tree, such as raw honey, stevia, agave, maple syrup or coconuts. Skin disease sufferers also need to avoid the nightshade vegetables. Acidic foods with harmful enzymes like tomatoes, white potatoes, eggplant, peppers, and paprika are known to wreak havoc on people with auto immune skin issues. The sooner you remove these from your menu, the quicker you will visually see your skin clearing up! Now how good will that feel?
Take Probiotics
Hippocrates said, “All disease begins in the gut.” Probiotics are good bacteria that line your digestive tract and gut, while crowding out the bad bacteria. They help your body absorb nutrients, fight infection and most importantly, make people feel better! They help with everything from skin conditions to depression to obesity, not to mention the tons of chronic diseases out there. They are so beneficial for overall health and digestion, we need to make them a priority and take good quality probiotics every day. Some things that we consume on a daily basis that kill our good bacteria are antibiotics, medications, sugar, processed foods and stress. Feel free to read more information on probiotics on www.draxe.com which is one of my favorite resources. Show your skin some love and start taking them today!
Cook
My biggest piece of advice - find the time to cook! I am aware how busy life can be, trust me! But the truth is, you don’t want to be reliant on getting your food from the outside most of the time. You might think you are eating clean, but you most likely are not. You have no idea how your food is prepared, cooked and what is really in it. If you force yourself to find the time to cook your own food you will absolutely without a doubt know what it is and have zero worries. It really doesn’t take up too much time, just throw some brown rice in a pot to boil and some veggies in a pan to sauté and voila, you have a nice healthy lunch or dinner! You can even make a few things on Sunday and eat them throughout the week. Just keep it simple if you are too busy or hate to cook – simple is key!
Avoid Using Chemicals On Your Skin
I've tried just about everything on my skin and I've experienced the most relief and healing using organic extra virgin coconut oil. It is such a powerful moisturizer for dry skin and this protects it. There is Vitamin E among other anti-fungal properties in it that helps heal and soothe psoriasis as well as other skin conditions. Other wonderful oils I’ve used are castor oil, hemp seed oil, almond oil, aloe vera and neem oil. They all have such healing properties. I would suggest using these rather than any over-the-counter lotion made with chemicals and perfumes that may irritate sensitive skin. The same way you want to know what’s going in your mouth, you want to know what’s going on your skin!
Help Others
When you are feeling like not enough or down about yourself, do something for others. Serving others will always make you feel good because the attention is off of you and on them. I don't think anyone can ever help another and not feel good. It warms our hearts doesn't it? When I am feeling helpless and bad about a random spot of psoriasis that may develop from stress (or eating poorly) I focus on those who are feeling the same way and make it a point to pick up the phone or draft a long encouraging email. I give them support, advice and love. Talking is medicine and it always makes me feel better to help someone. I never go back to focusing on that damn spot. Instead I'm in this feeling good place and I forget all about that spot. So next time you are feeling down or frustrated or helpless pick up the phone and call a friend who you know is going through a hard time, ask how they are doing and just listen. Trust me, it'll make you feel so good!
Love Myself Every Day
If you think about it for a second - you can't do anything good for yourself without it coming from a place of love. You can't eat healthy, exercise, find your spiritual practice, whatever that may be for you, find hobbies that bring you joy, be in a loving, healthy relationship, or practice self-care if you are too busy arguing with your inner critic. We beat ourselves up a lot of the time and walk around with this weight on our shoulders of feeling shame, guilt, or simply feeling like not enough. When you go out of your way to practice loving yourself your whole world can change. That inner critic who tells you that you are not enough is still there whispering away in your ear, but it doesn’t have as much of an influence on you. You don't find yourself depressed or in fear of what others are saying. Instead you will challenge that voice and consciously replace those negative thoughts with positive ones. You will remind yourself not to give up on your dreams. You will have your back in hard times and not abandon yourself. We all need love and when you get it from yourself then you are in full control of creating the beautiful, joyful life you've always wanted.
These are some of the ways I practice self-love every day –
I make myself a nice mug of hot water with freshly squeezed lemon. I sip it while I get dressed. It's a healthy thing to do for my body, and a way of detoxifying upon waking.
I say I love you in the mirror. This feels strange at first, but we all need the reminder.
I eat veggies every single day. Whether I put them in my smoothie or salad or sauté them with dinner. They nourish us!
While applying coconut oil on my skin I say loving things like "thank you for working so hard for me" or "I am healing."
I give my husband a tight hug every day. I actually do this several times a day, but I believe everyone needs a hug every day. My teacher, Joshua Rosenthal, at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition says if you have someone to hug when you get home from a long hard day at work do you think you'll want that pint of ice cream? Hug or ice cream, which would you choose?
I have always believed that the symptoms of our illness is our body’s way of communicating with us. My skin taught me the secret as to why it was irritated and hurting all the time and it forced me to learn to be kind to it and to myself. I want you to love yourself enough, know that you are enough, so that you too can make friends with your psoriasis. It’s time to make these easy 7 changes and get healed.