We’ve all heard the saying; you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. So, with Valentine’s Day approaching, I’ve been thinking about this…in my life, I have learned about the importance of self-care. Many things fall under the ‘self-care’ umbrella. I believe self-care is cumulative. Everything we do to care for ourselves and our well-being builds upon itself. In my job, I see how facials and skincare play an important role in self-care. My clients tell me how the time they spend with me and the time they spend doing their skincare routine at home results in positive effects that go beyond the health of their skin. You can try it for yourself and see what happens. I read this the other day; I thought it was beautiful. I wanted to share it with you.
It’s from Nina Jablonski’s book, Skin: A Natural History; she writes in part this: “Our skin mediates the most important transactions of our lives. Skin is key to our biology, our sensory experiences, our information gathering, and our relationships with others. Although the many roles it plays are rarely appreciated, it is one of the most remarkable and highly versatile parts of the human body. Simply put, skin is the flexible, continuous covering of the body that safeguards our internal organs from the external environment. It protects us from attack by physical, chemical, and microbial agents and shields us from most of the harmful rays of the sun, while it works hard to regulate our body temperature. Far from being an impervious barrier, however, the skin is a selectively permeable sheath. It is constantly at work as a watchful sentinel, letting some things in and others out. The skin is also home to hundreds of millions of microorganisms, which feed on its scales and secretions. But our skin is more than a defensive shield, a gatekeeper, and a personal zoo. The pores and nerve endings of our skin unite us with our surroundings. Skin is the interface through which we touch one another and sense much of our environment. Through our skin, we feel the smooth cold of melting ice, the warm and gentle breeze of a summer evening, the annoying pinch of an insect bite, the humbling pain of a scraped knee, the soft and calming feel of a mother’s hand, and the thrill of a lover’s touch.”
Comments