Fabulously Cheeky

In one of the skin care blogs that I keep an eye on, they described a test that they had done about aging. They put a whole bunch of pictures of women of different ages in front of a group of people and asked them who were the prettiest. And, to everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t necessarily the youngest ones. They also found that some of the people with wrinkles were considered pretty, inspite of their lines. So, what was it that made them look pretty, regardless of age and wrinkles? They found that it actually had to do with skin texture.

Basically, people with nice skin texture were considered prettier than people with breakouts and dull skin texture or color, and it seemed that skin texture was way more important than wrinkles around the eyes.

Well, this is actually good news. Wrinkles happen over time, and there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it, unless you have a money tree growing in your back yard. But skin texture is something we actually can do something to improve.

The easiest way to improve skin texture is to exfoliate with a gentle type of natural face scrub. Here, I have to add, that anything containing ground up apricot seeds, is NOT gentle! The apricot seeds will actually scrape up the surface of your healthy skin cells, and the result is redness and inflammation, which is not flattering in any way. What you need is more of a polish, and less of a scrub.

Just think of your furniture – you wouldn’t use sand paper to polish the wood, would you? Sand paper, unless it was very very fine, would scratch the wood instead of making it shine. Same thing with exfoliants; they have to be gentle, or the skin will rebel.

Makeup artist Carmindy swears by finely ground white sugar. In India, where they don’t believe in heavy scrubbing, they like using oatmeal and different types of milk. Herbalists believe in rose petals and orange peel. So, I took all these pieces of information and created my own oatmeal scrub. It contains oatmeal, goatsmilk, yogurt, rose petals, orange peel, sugar and lemongrass, and it is gentle enough to use daily to improve skin texture.

The fact is, that the more mature your skin is, the slower your cell turnover becomes. This makes the surface of the skin look dull, and eventually, the skin becomes thin and translucent. By exfoliating with the right kinds of products, the dullness is removed, but there is also another added benefit – exfoliation actually makes the skin thicker. Why? Because by removing some of the dead skin cells on the surface, the skin is stimulated to produce more new skin cells. So by exfoliating you are doing yourself a huge favor, not only by improving your skin texture and color, but also by helping your body increase its cell turnover, which basically means that it starts producing younger skin.

What about acid peels? They are hugely popular these days. Well, those are far from gentle. A phenolic acid peel done at a dermatologist’s office can actually make your heart stop if it is poured on too fast, since it has a tendency to enter your blood stream. And it can make you blind, too, if it accidentally enters your eyes. But, I’m sure they don’t tell you this… And, on top of the risk, you have to live like a vampire (away from the sun) for 6 months afterwards while you are growing a new face. And, yes, your skin will be less wrinkled, but at what price???

For people who are less obsessed with being eternally young, gentle exfoliation on a daily basis is a perfectly good alternative. And, besides, the oatmeal scrub (polish) that I created for Green Beauty Cosmetics contains sugar, which is a natural source of glycolic acid, and yogurt, which contains lactic acid, so it actually does have some natural acids in it, too. It may not work as fast as phenolic acid, but it does work, and over time you’ll see a difference.

To make this statement completely true, I should say ALMOST nothing lasts forever. The body is definitely just a temporary place to live while we are here, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take good care of it!

Having a healthy body to live in means a lot when it comes to quality of life. This is why it is important to eat healthy food, exercise and avoid chemical polution as much as possible. But, it isn’t just about being healthy – being comfortable in the body and feeling good about oneself is just as important. And, this is where makeup, skincare and fashion comes into the picture.

Makeup and fashion is all about enhancing your best features, because by enhancing your best features, your less than perfect features can be carefully disguised. Almost nobody has a perfect figure, and even the ones that do, will no longer be perfect after a few babies, or after the aging process takes its toll. The fact is, physical beauty is bound to fade over time. This is just part of the natural cycles of life. However, we can still enhance our best features, no matter what age we are.

The first two places that show signs of aging are the hands and the face. The skin on our hands and face are always exposed to extremes of temperature, UV exposure, wind and water. These extremes suck the moisture out of the skin, leaving it extra vulnerable to sun damage, age spots and wrinkle formation. I guess we have all seen what happens to the skin of a peach if it sits on the counter too long. After a couple of weeks, the peach skin wrinkles all over. It is the same with the skin. If it doesn’t receive any moisture on the surface, it dries up, just like the peach did.

However, this process can be reversed to a certain extent, simply by adding moisture back onto the skin. The moisture plumps the skin back up and reduces the appearance of wrinkles, as well as slowing down or preventing the formation of new wrinkles.

How can you tell if you have a good moisturizer? First of all, it has to contain moisturizing agents, and not just fats and oils. Fats and oils are emollients, which means that it makes the skin soft, but it doesn’t moisturize the skin because it doesn’t contain moisture.

Moisture is basically water, or something that can hold water on the surface of the skin, like hyaluronic acid, or something that can draw water to the skin, like glycerin, honey or lecithin. These moisturizing agents should be suspended in a lite creamy base containing some oils and fats, but not too much. A serum is better than a thick cream because the serum can penetrate the deeper layers of the skin, while a thick cream just sits on top of the skin. The oils and fats in the moisturizer will soften the skin and create a thin barrier to protect from the elements, but the main purpose of a moisturizer is just to moisturize the skin. A thick, oily barrier can then be added on top of the moisturizer if extra protection is needed.

Another good thing to look for in a good moisturizer is some kind of anti-oxidant that will protect against sun damage from free radicals. Sun damage causes not just wrinkles and unstable skin cells, but it can even cause skin cancer. Examples of anti-oxidants that protects the skin are green tea, acai berries and vitamin E.

Tags: hyaluronic acid

When babies are born, their chakras are wide open and people who can see the colors of the chakras say that they are clear and bright. As we get older, and start collecting emotional sludge, the colors of the chakras get more and more muddy and murky looking. And, when we are dying, the chakras are more or less non-functioning.

Not only do the colors of the chakras change, but the energy flow is affected, too. If we look at the wording we use in relationships, we say things like: “I got my feelings hurt, so I shut down.” What exactly did we shut down? We actually shut down our chakras in the area affected, and if you check them with a pendulum, you’ll see that they are either spinning in odd ways, or not spinning at all.

If the chakras don’t spin properly, (clockwise in a 4″ circle), it means that we are no longer receiving the energy needed to keep that part of the body functioning properly.

Different parts of the body respond to different types of emotional issues. For example:
1st chakra: survival issues, affects bowels, lower spine
2nd chakra: money, power, relationships, betrayals, rape, etc., affects hips, lumbar, sex organs
3rd chakra: freedom and responsibility issues, ego, why am I here, emotional discomfort, affects stomach, digestion, panchreas, liver.
4th chakra: hurt feelings, emotional pain, affects heart and lungs
5th chakra: will, surrender, communication issues, decision making, affects thyroid, mouth, ears, nose
6th chakra: going beyond duality, affects eyes
7th chakra: connection to source

So, what happens when our chakras shut down? It creates stagnancy and imbalance. For example, if your second chakra shuts down, the stagnancy creates fibroids, cycsts, yeast infections, etc. If it happens at the third chakra, you can get a stomach ulcer, diabetes or hepatitis. At the fourth chakra, it will give you a heart attack, or pneumonia, and so on.

So, how do we clean them? Very easy. Put all your fingertips together and hold them over one chakra at a time. I usually start with the lowest chakra. Move the fingertips counterclockwise a few times, then wait a minute or two for the emotional sludge to drain away. After a minute or two, spin the chakra in a clockwise direction (don’t forget this bit, it is very important). Do this with every chakra at least once a week. This is the simplest way to prevent sickness, since sickness is always caused by clogged chakras. And if you are already sick, cleaning the chakras are the best way to get your healing energy to flow again.

So, if life and death are natural cycles, and if God is simply divine energy expressing itself through our bodies, then God is actually in each one of us. That is why, when we look within through meditation, we can find our connection to God, or Source, as some call it.

Because God is pure energy, there has to be an energetic connection between the body and Source, and there is. In India they have long known about these energetic connections to source. The energy is connected to our physical bodies through energy centers called chakras.

The seven biggest chakras are centered along our spines. The root chakra is at the bottom of the spine, the second chakra is above the pubic bone, the third chakra is just below the ribs, the fourth is at the chest level, the fifth is at the throat, the sixth is on the forehead between the two eyes and the seventh is at the top of the head.

The chakras spin in a clockwise fashion when they work properly. This creates an energetic spiral that brings energy into the body. If we want to stay healthy, we must clean the chakras and make sure they spin and stay open. More about this in the next post.

Since I’m reflecting on life and death, I might as well get myself into real trouble and take it one step further – GOD! What or who is God?
Christians has the least mature idea of God – they believe that God is a person in the sky who created the world in 7 days…

First of all, that would make him a very very old person by now. And if he was such a creative being, why did he create the world in 7 days, and then stop creating? Any creative person knows that that isn’t how creativity works. If you are creative, it means that everything inspires you into thinking in new ways and your creativity keeps flowing.

The American Indians have a much more mature idea of God – to them, God is referred to as “the great spirit.” Now, that makes more sense. A great spirit that is free from body (form), can easily live forever because the spirit never dies. Only form dies.

The Hindus also have a mature view of God – they have 100 names for the different aspects of the divine, such as love, beauty, truth, creativity etc. These names are describing different qualities of God, not as a person, but more as energy.

Personally, I see God as life energy. When life energy embodies form, the form becomes alive. Form without life energy is simply dead form, and it will deteriorate over time. This life energy, also called chi or prana, expresses itself through the body. Therefore, we must allow this expression of life energy.

Every person is born with unique talents. Somebody may be good at singing, another good at cooking, drawing, dancing and so on. So, it is important to find out what we are good at, and what comes to us easily, and to allow this expression. Therefore, we should spend some time contemplating over this issue. How does the energy of God want to express itself through your hands, or through your heart or mind? It is in this expression that your individuality lies, so be playful…

Life and death are just natural cycles. In our dimension, life expresses itself through form, but because form is temporary (it eventually breaks down and becomes uninhabitable), the form has to change from time to time.
To the mind, life and death looks like two sides of duality, even though they both complement each other, and both are needed. Because we are here to transcend duality, it is important not to choose only one side. Anytime we choose one side of duality, we become imbalanced and dysfunctional. Therefore, we must accept that both are needed. We must realize that life goes on, beyond the form, we must be grateful for the time we get to spend in the form and all the experiences we get to have before we move on, and we must never ask for more time than what we are given.
If we can do this, change will no longer destroy us, even if the change may be undesirable. Acceptance and surrender to what is, is the key to resilience, and gratefulness heals all the scars that we pick up on the way.

Tags: gratefulness, Life