Skin: Keeping it flawless with Naturopathy
Light up the Room with your Natural Glow
Achieving perfect skin is possible even without expensive scrubs and beauty treatments. However, beautiful skin requires commitment, it’s rarely a miracle. Naturopathy advocates a way of living in harmony with the nature that can help you achieve flawless, glowing skin.
Causes of Bad Skin / Skin Issues
Once you have left puberty behind and your hormones have stopped raging, the main contributors to bad skin are stress, pollution, lack of sleep and improper nutrition. The effects of these demons show up on your face in the form of acne, blackheads, dark circles and itchy, dry skin. Sounds like the story of your life? There is no reason to panic. You can treat these conditions and prevent them from recurring with some natural treatments and lifestyle changes.
- Get enough sleep: Never deprive your body of sleep, no matter how crazy your work schedule is. Late nights automatically lead to puffy eyes and dark circles. The body, including your skin, needs at least 7 hours of sleep to recover and repair itself. Without enough sleep, no matter what you try, there will always be something lacking in your appearance.
- Stay hydrated: That means drink at least 2 liters of water daily. Just as water sustains life, it cleanses the body. Your body is constantly losing water, so you have to continually replenish its water supply to keep your digestive system functioning properly. Drink either plain water or green/herbal tea. Make a cup of warm tea with ginger, lemon, and honey and sip it slowly to keep yourself hydrated.
- Avoid other drinks: You may rely on multiple cups of coffee to keep you revved up through the day. However, the caffeine is not really helping your skin. The same applies to aerated drinks and alcohol. They clog your blood vessels and put unnecessary load on your kidneys, effectively dehydrating the skin instead of hydrating it. For these reasons, its best to stay clear of such drinks.
- Go Green: Eat as many vegetables and fruits as you can. Uncooked veggies like carrots, cucumber, and lettuce purify the skin. It’s the easiest thing in the world to chop them up and eat them as a salad with or without dressing. Other veggies like spinach are rich in antioxidants that are vital for healthy skin. Fruits and berries contain vitamins which enrich your skin and leave it glowing.
- Relax: Happy girls are the prettiest. Learn how to unwind after a stressful day at work. Cultivate a hobby or spend time with loved ones. When you enter your home, leave the strains of office life outside the door. Take vacations to rejuvenate your body, mind, and soul. The mind and body work in a symbiotic relationship; each can help the other either flourish or languish.
Do this simple exercise. Calculate the amount you spend on your skin every month and invest that in a hobby of yours that gives you joy. Nothing can compare that inner glow that comes from a joyous mind.
- Say NO to sugar: More and more studies are proving how sugar harms the body. There are so many sugary and processed foods on supermarket shelves, so the battle begins when you go grocery shopping. Stay clear of cakes, biscuits, candies and pies. Reducing your sugar intake may seem like the hardest thing in the world in the beginning, but eventually, your body will thank you for your self-control. The difference in your skin quality will be your reward. Firm, glowing skin is compensation enough for chocolate deprivation.
- Exercise regularly: Do you remember the last time you worked out and how your face glowed after that? Well, it wasn’t only because of sweat; it was an external sign of a healthy body that was well taken care of. So, get your body moving and your blood pumping. Do whatever suits you – yoga, walking, Zumba, swimming, cycling, jogging or hit the gym. Exercise slows down the aging process and leaves you with taut, glowing skin.
- Clean your face every night: It doesn’t show up as dirt every time, but, over the course of the day, your face accumulates particulate matter from the air around. Dirt, dust, and pollution – all need to be washed off at the end of the day to keep your skin clean.
- Incorporate nuts and seeds in your diet: Nuts like walnuts and almonds have essential minerals and vitamins in addition to Omega-3 fatty acids and other healthy fats which are good for your skin. Sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and chia seeds contain oils that nourish your skin. Consume them mixed with cereal or use them as healthy substitutes for evening snacks.
- Concentrate on your breathing: Meditation and breathing techniques like pranayama are very effective stress-busters. They help the body cleanse itself by getting rid of toxins. If you don’t know how to go about these, just do simple deep breathing. Feel the breath slowly entering your body, traveling to your lungs and then getting exhaled out gradually. Try these techniques any time you have a few free minutes in your day.
- Use DIY face masks: There is no need to buy expensive chemical face packs and masks off the shelves. Just turn to your kitchen cabinet for help as the freshest and best masks are made at home. You could make face packs from fresh ingredients like chickpea flour, papaya fruit, avocado, banana, orange peel or cucumber mixed with honey or milk. They don’t take much time to make, and they leave your skin feeling fresh and rejuvenated.
- Stop smoking: Nicotine not only promotes cancer, but it also accelerates aging. Try and picture all the chain smokers you know, doesn’t their skin have a grayish tinge along with fine wrinkles peppering their face? It’s all thanks to cigarettes. If you are serious about having good skin, you have to nip the cigarette butt.
To conclude
“The best foundation you can wear is glowing, healthy skin.”
With so many solutions available in naturopathy, you don’t need to look at sales at leading cosmetic brands or glossy magazine cover and get lured by their antics.
Glowing skin is always in! So let your skin shine through by saying yes to a lifestyle in harmony with nature.
