Live your life

Life happens every second of every day.

It’s not a dress rehearsal. You’re on the stage, the curtains are pulled, the lighting crew has put the spotlight on you. It’s your time to shine. Let the show begin.

Laugh

Enjoy the humourous (and not so humourous) in life. It is said that life is a tragedy in the short term and a comedy in the long term, so pay the present just the amount of seriousness that it needs, then let the good times roll.

Sometimes you have to laugh through your battles to help you keep your mind.

Love

You spend so much time catering to others. Love your family, cherish your kids and travel light.

Make peace with your parents, for they may not be around much longer. They cannot undo the mistakes they’ve made and neither can you. If you are judging them so harshly, hopefully you are/will be a better parent for it.

Make mental peace with those who you believe have wronged you. Feelings of happiness and resentment cannot reside in the same emotional space. 

Most of all love yourself actively. To love others you must first understand how to love yourself.

Live

Be present in your life. Make the best choices that you can everyday in terms of your career, what you eat, who are your friends, and what you want for your family, how you live. Be an active part of what you are receiving in this life.

Your past is your past.

You need not keep reminding yourself of it, because you’ve lived it. Don’t worry, you wouldn’t forget it. It walks around with you everyday, so yes it’s there. It just doesn’t have to do all the talking for you.

Instead, flood your senses with who you are now and what you are going to become. Give thanks for that which you have and are about to receive. 

Live proactively, not reactively. Find something that excites you.

And most of all filter. Not everything in this life is for you, as not everyone around you has something to say that you need to hear.

Charge forward from this day onward, with a renewed sense of being. 

Unwind

Put aside some time to unwind. It doesn’t have to be as grand as one day a week, it could be as little as 15 minutes everyday.

Drink a glass of wine with your dinner. Take 15 minutes before you go to sleep to read a few pages from a chapter of a novel, or some pages of your favourite food/lifestyle/ fashion/ fitness mag. Take up knitting. Learn something new on the history/ discovery channel. Read more about whatever you are interested in. 

Create rituals for yourself. For example, put aside time every week to soak your feet or yourself in a bath of dead sea salts. Let the goodies stimulate your skin and get rid of those pesky dead skin cells. When you are finished, not only would you be well relaxed, but you will have fresh glowing skin too!

No-one’s judging you. Take the time to do whatever makes you happy.

Dance

Music is a universal language. It can lift your spirits as well as lower them. When you feel the stresses of life creeping on, crank up the music that gets you moving and let the feel good vibes flow.  

Break out your best 80s moves, however well coordinated they may be. Like singing karaoke, it’s much more fun when the professionals stay out of it.

Plus, dancing the fool doubles as a good workout.

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Viva la dolce vita!

Photo: Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Wash mindfully

The conditioning agents present in hair conditioners can clog skin pores when they are deposited on your skin through rinsing. If you have an issue with pimples, acne or general build up occuring on your back, try cleansing your skin after you have rinsed the conditioner out of your hair, and not before. Doing so will wash away any potential pore clogging residue from your back.

If you tend to have excess oil buildup on your face or have acneic skin, also consider cleansing your face with your routine cleanser after you’ve rinsed the conditioner from your hair.

Alternatively, you can choose to apply a leave-in conditioner, in a cream or spray formula depending on the texture and condition of your hair. Apply the leave-in conditioner from the middle of the hair strands to the ends, avoiding the forehead and other areas of your face. This is because the conditioning agents present in the leave-in conditioners can leave the same build up/ residue on the skin, which can clog pores on the face and give rise to acne in the same way.

Cream leave-in conditioners work well for drier hair and/or thicker hair strands as they provide extensive moisturization and help to better tame fizziness. However these formulas will weigh down fine hair.

Choose the one that works best for you.

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Skin Types| Normal Skin

“Normal skin” is considered to be one of four categories of  skin types. This type of skin secretes a moderate amount of sebum (oils secreted by the skin) so there is no lack neither  is there excess. Skin feels neither dry nor oily.

Most skins can be classified as either normal to dry or normal to oily. It is very rare that a skin type would considered to be normal, that is it is not affected by any underlying skin conditions. For example this skin type is not dehydrated, does not have areas with darkened or lightened spots, is not acneic, or does not show signs of aging etc.

Not even all babies today are born with a normal skin type. Some babies are born with birthmarks on their skin, some have rough scaly patches, and some are even born with breakout activity on their faces for example.

Normal skin is perfect to the naked eye. Because it has the right balance of oils, normal skin:

- Is plump
- Is smooth and soft
- Has even pores and colour tone
- Has no excess oil or dryness.

Normal skin can use either water (aqueous) or oil (lipid) based products. This type of skin easily maintains it’s balance and it’s protective barrier. 

As this skin type is very rare, it is a good idea to re-evaluate this skin type with the change of the season or lifestyle.

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Skin’s secretions

The amount of oil secreted by your skin determines your skin type, i.e. whether your skin is considered to be dry, oily, or normal. This oil that is secreted by skin helps the skin to form its lipid barrier, which is a combination of oil, sweat and dead skin cells that form a layer over the skin and protect it against bacteria.

Unlike your laundry, your skin should not feel ‘squeaky’ clean. It should not feel so clean that after cleansing and drying your face, rubbing your finger along your skin almost produces a noise similar to the one produced when you drag your bare feet against a newly polished floor. *squeak*

Using cleansers that are too harsh for your skin can remove this barrier completely and give your skin that squeaky clean feeling. When this lipid barrier has been removed, the skin then goes into emergency mode and attempts to restore this barrier by producing, and sometimes over producing, oil.

This lipid barrier decreases with age, which is why you would find that your skin gets less oily and more dry with age.

Huh.

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Music quote of the day: Savage Garden

“Come stand a little bit closer, breathe in and get a bit higher 
You’ll never know what hit you when I get to you”

- I want you, Savage Garden

Happy Wednesday y’alls!