Health Skin Care Beauty

Writing out your thoughts can be extremely cathartic. Getting your thoughts out is essential to the process of cleansing your mind. When you harbor old hurts and past regrets, you are only doing yourself harm. You are weighing down your mind, your heart, and your soul — and that ultimately has an affect on your body.

If someone in your life has hurt you deeply or if some event has wounded you, write a letter expressing your feelings. You do not have to send it, ever — that is entirely up to you. But you will definitely find that getting your feelings out will bring you a release. For that matter, keeping a journal can help you get all your thoughts down, positive and negative, so that you will have an outlet. You will never again have to keep the weight of hurt and regret on your shoulders or on your heart.

The best way to cleanse your body is to get rid of all the toxins in it.  It is surprisingly easy to detoxify your body.  For instance, drinking plenty of water is a great start.  Not only that, but it will keep your skin hydrated, your hair and nails healthy, and it is a wonderful start to keeping yourself healthy in general.

Various teas are also great detoxifying agents.  Ginger tea is considered a cold weather cleanser.  Adding in some lemon juice makes it a great remedy for cleansing.  Green tea is one of the most popular remedies.  It is also an excellent substitute for coffee – not to mention much healthier.  For that matter, any kind of natural coffee substitute is not only good for you, but can detoxify you as well.  Stay away from those Red Bulls though!

Lastly, alkaline broth is also a terrific detoxifying agent.  Because it contains essential vegetables, vitamins, and minerals, it can also give you more energy, and again, it will serve to improve your health all the way around.

A lot of you will be very happy to know that cleansing your mind, body, and spirit can involve a little pampering as well.  For instance, you can go a long way towards emotional and spiritual health by setting up a spa right in your own home.  If you choose to turn to alternative or holistic medicine, you can begin each day with a gentle tongue scrape.  Of course, you only have to go that route if you are comfortable with it.

You can also take contrast showers.  These act as a preventative measure against colds, but they also improve your circulation.  All you have to do is take a shower just like you usually do, and then alternate, or “contrast” warm water with cold water – three minutes of warm water with less than one of cold, repeated at least twice, and try to end with cold water.

And never underestimate the value of a nice, long candle lit bath – using soy candles is particularly cleansing.

It is a point of fact: you cannot cleanse your body without freeing your mind and you cannot cleanse your mind without freeing your body. So give them both a break – away from technology. Even if you can only do so for an afternoon or an evening, stay away from the computer. Leave your television off, let your calls go to voicemail and don’t check them until later. Then, get active – if you have a dog, take him for a walk in your favorite park; go there by yourself and meditate for a little while. Go roller skating down the block, or even jump rope in your driveway! Just be active – exercise your body and free up your mind, especially if you work in an office setting all day. If you are a nurse and care giver, then give yourself some care and stay off your feet for a while – relax in a quiet setting, take a bath, listen to music, read a book; just be kind to your body, give it a rest.

The key word in the phrase “health and beauty” is health. The key word in “health and skin care” is also health. Being healthy is paramount; it will improve every aspect of your life. The best way to start attaining that is by cleansing both your body and your mind. To cleanse your body, eating healthful, nutritious foods is essential.

Eating fresh, healthy foods does not mean that your meals have to be boring. Start the morning off with fresh fruit, or even fruit smoothies. Banana strawberry smoothies are especially delicious, and incredibly easy to make. All you need is:

one frozen banana;
six frozen strawberries;
1 1/4 cup of water;
1 tablespoon of powdered skim milk;
optionally, 1 large tablespoon of protein powder;
optionally, 1 tablespoon of flax oil.

Once the ingredients are assembled, just pop them into the blender, mix them thoroughly, serve, and enjoy!

For lunch, try healthy soups, like spinach soup made without cream and Gazpacho. For dinner, try foods that are high in protein but not fat, like fish and skinless, boneless chicken.

Staying active is beneficial to every aspect of our lives: it makes us healthier; it improves our circulation, which in turn promotes health, beauty, and skin care; it gives us time to relax and reflect while rejuvenating; and it just generally allows for an overall healthier lifestyle.  Granted, it is a busy, bustling world out there, and finding any time to take for ourselves can be difficult, not to mention the fact that a lot of us cannot afford expensive gym memberships or equipment.

Don’t worry, though, because you do not need any of those things.  All you need is yourself, a good pair of walking or running shoes, and a natural, peaceful landscape — beach, forest path, park, street; whatever strikes your fancy.  Take a walk, even if you can only manage 20 or 30 minutes a few times a week.  Bring along an MP3 player or a Discman if you like, so you can have some music playing while you take your stroll.

Don’t be hurried, just take your time; take in your surroundings; relax as much as you possibly can; and remember how important it is to take a moment and simply breathe.

In this last installment of skin care fundamentals, we are going to focus on the benefits of dry brush exfoliation, which describes a process that involves using a soft, dry brush to slowly, gently brush and rub your skin. It can remove dead skin cells and debris, as well as give you better circulation in your blood and lymph nodes, and detoxify your skin.

You can do a dry brush exfoliation right at home. All you need is a soft, dry skin brush; using one with natural bristles is best because you do not want anything that is too hard or harsh. To begin the process of exfoliation, get in the shower but do not turn on the water. Beginning with your feet, you need to start brushing your skin in a small, circular motion, working gradually up towards your heart. Stay away from any broken skin, rashes, or areas on your body where the skin is thin and delicate. Once you have done this with both legs, you can start with your arms, beginning at your fingertips and once again working towards your heart from either side. After you have finished with your arms, you can start on your back, working towards your stomach. Once you have finished exfoliating your stomach, you can take a warm, soothing shower to wash off all the dead skin and debris.

We have discussed oily skin and we have discussed homemade face masks which help out with acne. Now it is time to deal with another skin care problem that is common in the summer – and the fall, spring, and winter, for that matter. Oily skin is practically preferable to dry skin, which can make your face feel irritated, look a mess, and even makes it difficult to put on make up to cover up the current state of your skin in the first place. Honey is an ideal ingredient in homemade facials meant to help dried skin, as are avocados. By pairing the two of them together, you have a terrific, almost full proof remedy. To create a honey and avocado face mask for dry skin, you will need:

one half of an avocado;

one fourth of a cup of honey.

Naturally, take the skin off and the seed out of the avocado, then mash it in a bowl – medium sized will do. After it is smooth, add the honey, stirring smoothly as you do so. After that, simply apply it to your face and let it sit for about 10 minutes, then rinse it off with a wash cloth that has been doused in cool or lukewarm water.

As aforementioned in earlier posts, acne can be seriously exacerbated by the heat and humidity of the summer months. There are, however, some natural, homemade facial masks specially designed to help with acne outbreaks. First up, we are going to take a look at the simple but popular and very effective Baking Soda Mask.

You only need baking soda and water to create this mask, and you can do it in just a few minutes. All you have to do is mix a little bit of the baking soda and water together – this is best done after you have washed your face with an acne cleanser, such as the Acne Complex cleanser – and then coat your face with the mixture. Let it set – you can do whatever you like while it does and you can basically leave it on for as long as you like, though it should be dry first!

You will be amazed at how smooth and soft your skin feels after you have rinsed the mask off of your face. If you like the results, feel free to add this to your skin care regime; you can do it a few times a week with no problem.

Summer is a good time – or bad time, depending how you look at it – for sensitive skin. Some of us have to use a lot of cleansers and scrubs to make sure that our pores stay open and clear of dirt, debris, sweat, and ground in makeup in all of this humid heat. All of that can make our skin extremely sensitive and easily irritated. Sunburns are quite common this time of the year as well, and there is nothing worse than have burned skin when it’s so stifling and hot. This yogurt face mask in designed for skin that is either sensitive or sunburned – or both! It is a soothing remedy for chapped or reddened skin.

All you need is one cup of natural yogurt, straight out of the fridge so it’s nice and cold, and half a cup of basic oatmeal – don’t use the Maple and Brown Sugar! Mix them together and then apply it to your face – neck, shoulders, et cetera, if they are burned as well; leave it on for 10 or 15 minutes. It is best – and very soothing – to warm a wash cloth in the microwave, and then wipe the mask off. People with oily skin can use this face mask simply by adding a few drops of either lemon juice or lime use. People with dry skin only need to add a few tablespoons of honey.

You can also mix an egg white with the oatmeal. You let this mask dry before taking it off, then splash some warm water onto your face and follow up with the wash cloth bit.