My week in review...
I feel like I’ve had a total reset over the last week. Over the last decade-plus, I have faced a lot of the same issues that I feel like I was able to overcome three major ones last week alone. First, there is such a lack of support and resources out in the esthetician world, especially for those of us who are seeking to break the mold and provide more integrated care. All of the new education that I’ve been getting certified in has just reignited my creativity and confidence in supporting my client’s health journeys. Second, I’ve gained my confidence again for events and public speaking. And lastly, I put myself first when my health took an unexpected plunge. Here’s my week in review.
Understanding the importance of neck care
This past weekend I was so honored to take a class taught the brilliant Cecily Braden and Angela Peck. If you don’t know who these ladies are, they are some of the most esteemed leaders in the holistic esthetician education world. They host supportive, expanding workshops on everything from Gua Sha, lessons in traditional Chinese medicine, lymphatic drainage technique, Thai herbal poultice face massage, and everything in between. The class was so elevating and I was honored to surround myself with so many holistic estheticians who were looking to bring more intuitive modalities to their practices. Along with deepening my education on Gua Sha, there was a resounding theme that I felt I needed to share in this week’s blog. Most people think that skin care is just based on what our faces need. What about our neck? A lot of our neck health can be an indicator or the root of skin imbalance manifestation. Today I want to talk about the importance of neck care and how it will benefit your skin.
Is skin journaling right for you?
To preface, it’s important to acknowledge the transition of our skin throughout the course of our day. Your skin will not be the same from when you wake up, workout, eat, go to work, socialize, drive in your car to when you get home and wash your face at the end of the day. Your skin is working really hard to function with you throughout those transitions so that your fighting off free radicals, regulating your temperature, protecting you from UV rays (both sun and your daily screens), as well as how the rest of your body is responding to those same transitions. At the end of the day, our skin has exhausted itself from all of the work it happily does for us. So when we engage in negative self-talk throughout the course of its endless work for us, each cell hears your resistance and starts to respond accordingly. Call it woo-woo, but the more you shut down and think your skin isn’t working for you - the more it will start to dim your inner radiance. Believing in that inner radiance and showing gratitude for your skin is easier said than done, and that’s how skin journaling can help you get to that next step.
Expanding your full health consciousness
I really thought that by the time I was going to be writing this post today that I would have some great personal news to excitedly share. And yet another month goes by where I’m convinced that I’ve done everything possible to become pregnant and sure enough I discover that I’m not. This month felt so different though. I decided to make some major shifts in my self-care, gave up having a glass or two of wine, honored each phase of my cycle more consciously than before, eliminated excess herbs and replaced them with prenatal formulas. I felt pregnant, I looked up potential due dates, and started crafting my summer plans accordingly. This might feel a bit preemptive, but I felt that different that I took every little sign as seriously as I could. As you can imagine, it’s a bit heartbreaking to get reminded once again that your body’s signaling was off. Or maybe I was just so convinced that I was doing everything right that I created a fun narrative in my mind that when you follow a specific formula, you can get the expected end result. That’s when it hit me. I have spent my entire career educating clients that it’s not that simple, yet I still couldn’t really comprehend it for my own ability to conceive. The parallel inspired me to share my story so it can hopefully inspire you when it seems like you’ve done everything for your skin but the result is still not what you expected.
Masculine and Feminine Energies
My themes of equilibrium continue this week as I discuss the ultra-complicated topic of the masculine and feminine. There are so many dualities in our lives that often times we tend to only acknowledge their complexities when we slip too far into one part of ourselves. On my Instagram live yesterday, I spoke about some of the common themes that kept recurring over the weekend - one of which was the balance of both masculine and feminine energy. Within the last week, I have come to recognize that I haven’t been tapping into my divine Virgo feminine energy as much as I probably need to in order to feel a balance in my whole self. Ever since I left my previous business partnership and have done a lot of work with Free + Native’s unblock workshops, I have noticed that my masculine energy has been at the forefront of my consciousness. My decisions, daily actions, movements, and overall appeal reflect my masculine Sagittarius energy so much that I felt so worn out throughout the month of April. A lot of my inner conflict with the balance of the two seem to explain why I have felt so inadequate when the ebb and flow of running a business came to an exhaustingly, slow month. I want to shed a little light on a proper explanation of these two energies and how they represent themselves on the skin. Using this guide can help you not only improve a potentially exhausted complexion but help you get to the root of a potential energetic imbalance.
Intuitive Self-Care
Last week I was so honored to host an event with Michelle of Holisticism and Nicole Webb, who’s a reiki practitioner who uses muscle testing as a modality for intuitive healing. We were able to partner to discuss the innate wisdom that our body holds. I found myself speaking to a group of incredible women who were all prioritizing themselves by making the time to attend an event that would focus on their self-care. Sometimes I feel like a kettle boiling over and the burnout is real. I know all of you can get the same feeling when our work and personal lives get congested with the non-stop to do lists. This is where self-care comes into play, but only up until the last few years did I really start to determine the difference between self-care and escapism.
Inside the TSC online skin series
Whenever I find myself in a predicament there are a few things that happen. I get upset, I feel helpless, and then I get to work. Today, I'm going to go through the roadblock that motivated me to create the TSC program. I'm also going to walk you through exactly the who, what, when, where, and why of this program so you can feel supported while you achieve your best skin and your best self. This program helps turn your skincare into your self-care plus so much more.
The secret to eye care
As usual, I get inspired to write about each subject on the blog from my experiences with clients. Over the weekend there were a few common themes, one of which I spoke about in an instagram live and the other I’m writing about today. Many of you may have noticed that I’m not big on recommending eye products. It’s not because I don’t believe in them because some eye products are fantastic. It’s more so that the work goes a little deeper than just an expensive skincare product. The eye area can correlate to so many different aspects of your health. Whether it stems from a reproductive, detoxification, endocrine, or simply genetic issue, the care can be tricky to uncover if you're not tapped in. With so many great products out there formulated for just the eye area, it's important to understand that it takes just as much of the inner work to obtain the benefits of the product. Let me break down common eye area issues and what to do to help support them.
Chronically tired skin
I’ve not shied away from sharing my health history with all of you on this platform so it’s no surprise that at some point I would write about adrenal fatigue. I first discovered this epidemic when I met a functional medicine doctor at The Detox Market when I worked there. She offered to evaluate my health patterns so we started with a cortisol test. I genuinely never thought about how being chronically tired wasn’t something that everyone dealt with in their life. I just assumed that all of us need a nap at 12, and 3, and 5, and then can’t stay out past 10 pm. When she called me to go over my results of this test, I was shocked at how uneducated I was towards this vital part of our health.
Skincare SOS
Have you ever woken up to a face flared in hives, a scaly rash, white head infections bursting everywhere, or heated in a flush that feels hot to the touch? The majority of you will answer with a reluctant yes. The reasons why our skin transitions from a normal, seemingly forgettable part of our daily existence to a skincare SOS can’t be simply explained. Try as I might, there are just some things I can’t predict or over-communicate in a session to help people prepare for such a skincare predicament. The last thing I want to see in my inbox after caring for someone endlessly for 90 minutes session accompanied with an email follow up that can take up to 2 hours to research and write up, is a subject line that screams: SKINCARE SOS!
Bonding with your breakouts
First, whenever I personally experience any type of skin imbalance I do have the mindfulness that it’s not the end of the world. I’ve spent years hating myself, my body, and every other circumstantial thing that may have caused my skin to flare. What I didn’t do was realize that of course, I’m going to break out if I neglect my health in any way. Now I can determine some of the markers that will lead to a breakout before it happens so I have the means to support myself or redirect my focus so that my skin stays calm.
Finding your voice
This Monday I did my first Instagram live and was surprised by how I felt afterward. Or perhaps more so what I didn’t do afterward. I didn’t immediately criticize myself for how I spoke, how I looked, and I also didn’t think that I wasted other people’s time. Those three things have plagued me since I was a young girl and the majority of my career as an esthetician. After entering the new year with full autonomy I felt the creativity to explore new forms of content, education, and self-expression. It dawned on me that I have the capability of getting an audience’s attention but if I don’t find my own voice and believe in what I’m saying wholeheartedly than I won’t acquire the growth I so desperately longed for.
Let's talk about the Oscars
There is nothing more important to write about today that none other than my favorite night of the year, THE OSCARS!!!! As you can tell by some of my previous posts, I’m a bit of a movie fan. Movies have been such a wonderful part of my life since I was a kid. I grew up connected to the stories portrayed on film so much that as a young French Canadian girl, I attribute my development of understanding the English language mostly to not having every VHS available in French translation growing up. I watched movies for much more than their scripts. It wasn’t until this past Sunday’s Oscars that I heard the perfect quote about why movies have had such an incredible impact on me. This quote, by Roger Ebert, goes a little something like this;
Subconscious Skin Sabotage
When I think about the problems that come up with skin conditions, the worst one I think of has nothing to do with the skin itself. Our emotional wellness is oftentimes compromised when we are dealing with a physical manifestation of an internal imbalance on our skin. This could lead us to eventually believing in the worst about ourselves which is we may not be deserving the skin we want. There is an epidemic of people who experience the psychological effects of having a problematic skin condition that they often have a hard time seeing past imbalance even when it’s resolved. Regardless of when you have had a skin issue, it can come back not only physically but also the emotional effects can too throughout different times in your life. So what do we do when we happen to be one of those people? How can we shift into believing we deserve great skin and actually achieve it? It all starts with the right mindset and the proper tools to help you heal from the experience of having an imbalanced skin condition. Today I want to talk about how to balance this so you are not left subconsciously sabotaging your skin.