I'll let you in on a secret when I was a flight attendant way back in the day, I became good at listening to a passenger's dialect, and without really knowing where they were from, based on how they spoke, I soon had a pretty solid idea. I became so good at it that I could quickly tell within a single state which county. It became a fun challenge, like memorizing all of the state capitals. I became a bit rusty, not having much purpose to any of that outside the fun. Later, after years of practicing skincare, In much the same way, I've become pretty good at just looking at a person's skin and gaining some idea of a potentially larger health picture.
Good health is not just skin deep. We all know that our skin is our body's largest organ, giving off many clues that may be an indicator of the larger health picture. Clues such as color, texture, lesions, acne, lack of healing, inflammation, sensitivity, and more, are all tell-tale signs that I've come to associate with systemic possibilities. Not enough oxygen, too much celebrating, potential struggle with the gut and digestion, acne, immune system challenges, slow healing, high blood pressure, diabetes, and even cancer. I am not a doctor, and I would never diagnose, but gaining a broader sense of someone's skin health can give me clues as to how I might better serve my client.
I remember being as young as five, playing beauty salon, and always interested in cosmetology. As I decided where my education would take me next after ten years of flying, I still had that interest in cosmetology. I moved more toward esthetics as I became more curious about the science behind healthy skin. As I started my skincare practice, I quickly became aware of healthy skin's holistic, more significant sum of all parts and the impact of lifestyle on our largest organ. I was never a fan of pushing the high-end products and anti-aging procedures to mask or cover the bigger picture. Don't get me wrong; I love effective products and beautiful packaging like the next person. Still, in my industry, beauty sells, and it's often questionable how much beauty can genuinely be delivered in those pretty packages. One of the reasons I was inspired to do my own thing is that there can be lots of push to upsell products. That wasn't my plan. My goal was to serve you first and only provide products that would support skin wellness.
Seeing aging as automatic and having no control over how we age is misunderstood. Some see aging as a symptom rather than an inevitable (see LIFESPAN by David A Sinclair, Ph.D.) "why we age and why we don't have to" In his decades of work, he explains that "Aging is a disease ."On a cellular level, the aging process leads to our top challenging conditions such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, sugar levels, heart disease, and cancers leading to the inevitable. Science is making leaps and bounds in slowing down the genetics and how they are expressed (epigenetics) behind aging and potentially slowing down the associated markers for extending the years and the quality of life. We know that eating better, sleeping well, and exercising all make good health sense, but we don't often think much about how we manage stress, relate to others, love and talk to ourselves, and aspire to live in a way that feels inspired. We often live in the past and the future, perpetuating a stream of stress-induced anxiety. Chronic stress is a giant accelerator of aging and contributor to adult acne, two of the most extensive product markets in the world of skincare. Our habits, beliefs, and choices highly impact our health by talking directly to the body. When our body becomes our mind, we allow our habits, thoughts, beliefs, and choices to dictate the body's neurochemistry. Doing so over time generates neural patterns and pathways that repeatedly talk to the body in a specific language. Much like computer software, you direct the physiological aspects of your biology 90% of the time through your autonomic nervous system directed by the brain and its primarily subconscious programming drawn from past experiences and learned behavior and rerunning the same programs over and over again. Most of us live in a perpetual "fight or flight" state of being and don't even realize it. The long-term effects of talking to the body in chronic stress mode and its download of stress hormones and lack of oxygen directly impact the body and the skin. Through epigenetics, aging genes are expressed (turned on) influenced by the mind and body lifestyle, and the skin's ability to reproduce at an appropriate rate is slowed. This news wouldn't all be so bad if we were only concerned about slowing down the aging process, but our largest organ, the skin, and its protective function give us the signs that further disruption lays underneath the cover, and it is tired.
There is good news however epigenetic changes ( influence on the genes) can be reversed. With good attention to mind-body self-care, we can learn to talk differently to the body's trillions of cells. Supporting healthy habits that give structure to the neural pathways (directors of information) brain to the body in a way that assists the machine (your bod) in operating a more health efficient way generating a better quality of life.
According to SkinStore.com, a recent survey estimates that women between the ages of 16-75 will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars over their lifetime, on average, $8. daily of cosmetics and skin care products, translating to $250. monthly enough to buy a house calculated over the average lifespan. The average woman will spend in her lifetime $200,000. - $300,000. on just face products alone telling us that beauty and anti-aging is a lucrative market. We all love to feel good and look our best, and we should honor ourselves that way, not to mention it's a lot of fun to cruise Sephora! Not everyone has a budget that supports the average product usage, but we don't have to, and more importantly, let's consider our beauty health as an inside job. Supporting our skin health from the inside out can be free and done every day! Now that's what I am talking about!
Self-care, caring for ourselves as a whole, is giving attention to how we eat, sleep, move, think, and choose throughout our lives and loving ourselves enough to care. Meaningful self-care includes making mindful changes in patterns of thoughts and behaviors that don't contribute to our wellbeing. Self-care isn't a one-and-done; it's an ongoing practice of building resiliency and self-regulation. Self-care isn't selfish; it is just the opposite; taking care of ourselves gives us the rest and energy we need to be our best and the best for those we share the world with.
S STOP, Notice, Choose - Self-regulating out of fight or flight.
K KINDNESS, To ourselves and others, perpetuate feel-good hormones.
I INHALE, breathe deeply, telling the autonomic system to rest & digest.
N NOW, Be here now, not the past and past future! HUMAN BEING
Care for yourself in a way that brings attention to your intention of being healthier overall, and your skin will reflect that. We will age, but we are empowered to age gracefully with mindful self-care. Healthier skin is an inside job first. All the products and procedures in the world only serve to enhance what you are reflecting on the inside.
Be you and be beautiful,
XO Donna
