by Day Spa at Home | Mar 5, 2016 | Articles, Detox, Health & Wellness, Relaxation, Uncategorized |
Much ink has been spilled about the importance of a physical detox. While purging all of the harmful toxins that have collected within the body is crucial to long term health, it is not nearly as pivotal as purging the mental toxins. In order to get the absolute most out of any wellness program, you must first clear out all of your mental clutter. Removing the clutter from your mind starts with removing the clutter from your living space. The more clutter and junk that you allow yourself to accumulate, the harder it can become to let it go at the appropriate time. By finally taking the time to get rid of your physical clutter, you are further equipped to tackle the task of handling your mental clutter.
Switch off the TV or any other source from which you are hearing bad news. Constantly hearing bad news puts you into a negative state with negative thinking patterns. Instead, read inspirational and motivational articles, books and biographies. Subscribe to daily positive and motivational emails. Monitor your thoughts. When you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts say “STOP” and think of something wonderful instead. Controlling your thoughts this way is so powerful and can encourage very positive changes in your mood, your relationships, your work and your life.
Focus on what you are grateful for. Start a gratitude journal and write down the 5 things you are grateful for every morning or night. Take notice of your self-talk. Do you speak to yourself with kindness, compassion and love or do you beat yourself up with put-downs and criticism? Write down some constructive and loving affirmations and recite these to yourself as you look yourself in the eye in the mirror. Speak to yourself with love and kindness. Tell yourself you love you. Begin a ritual of doing this every day for at least 5 minutes in the morning. It may seem silly at first, maybe even fake. But continue to do this until it seems less and less fake and until you actually believe it.
Meditation is one of the best forms of mental detox. Meditation does not require the purchase of any fancy equipment or a membership to a club. It can be done in the space that you already have and can slot easily into your busy schedule. There are many guided meditations available free on the internet and YouTube. Even if you only have fifteen minutes to spare each day, meditation can still deliver the desired results. See our Meditation page for more information. Your mind is a powerful tool, it simply needs to be taken care of in the correct manner. Meditation gives us the chance to work through underlying emotions and traumas and a long stretch of silence can often be just what the doctor ordered. Thoughts that were once dormant inside of your mind and merely taking up space can now be accessed, processed and removed, increasing your mental space and your mental state.
Another way to remove unwanted thoughts from your head space is to participate in a regular exercise program. We are all aware of the fact that exercise provides us with a tremendous boost to our overall energy level. But what the majority of people do not realize is that exercise is also a great aid to our thinking processes. A person who exercises on a consistent basis will experience heightened levels of serotonin within the brain. Serotonin is a natural chemical, one that is released inside of the brain when a person’s fitness level increases. Those who are in search of increased mental clarity would do well to exercise and provide themselves with a much needed serotonin boost. See our Fitness or Yoga pages for more information.
By removing mental and physical clutter and placing yourself on a regular meditation/exercise regimen, you greatly increase the effectiveness of any Wellness program. Not only is your physical wellbeing immensely important, but so is your state of mind. Don’t neglect your cluttered mind and be sure to take the right steps towards eliminating negative thought processes.
by Day Spa at Home | Feb 12, 2016 | Anti-aging, Articles, Beauty, Health & Wellness, Nutrition, Skin care, Uncategorized |
People often ask me what my number one anti-aging secret is. The answer quite often surprises them. My number one anti-aging secret is to avoid sugar. By sugar I don’t mean just the sugar you put into your tea or coffee or the sugar that’s in sweets or cakes. I mean the sugar that’s in the food that most people eat these days. The sugar that’s in pasta, breads, packaged foods and drinks that flood the bloodstream with glucose which then has a negative effect on the beauty of your skin.
Well, it really isn’t a secret any more but its my number one tip. Many of you will have already heard this. Sugar launches multiple attacks on anyone who wants to keep their skin looking young and beautiful as they advance in their years. Of course some people are blessed with great genes and appear to advance into later years with an enviable youthful appearance. But no matter what your genetic inheritance is, you can increase you chances of maintaining youthful looking skin into your later years by cutting out sugar from your diet.
Skin doesn’t just age by accident or simply because the years pass by. There is a process to the aging of skin. Many things contribute to this process. But nothing is more damaging so apparently to the beauty of your skin than the constant high levels of blood sugar and insulin, which many of those eating a typically Western diet are subjecting their bodies to.
Sugar has been demonstrated, in scientific research, as being responsible for the the speeding up of the ageing process. Sugar molecules, in particular fructose, can be seen as the most aging substance as it can cause a lot of permanent damage to the body and detrimentally affect your health. The main way in which sugars display such damaging effects is through their production of
Advanced Glycation End products (AGE’s). These products are proteins or fats which have been oxidised by sugars. Proteins are found all throughout the body and so it is not a surprise that anything which affects proteins would have a large impact on your health as well as your physical appearance. The most vulnerable proteins to damage are collagen and elastin which are important in keeping the skin looking youthful and preserving its elasticity. AGE’s damage these proteins and causing your skin to look wrinkly, reducing its firmness and making it sag.
Glycation is the process where sugars and proteins uncontrollably react with each other and in turn, produces an inflammatory response in the body, causing the immune system to activate. Once the immune system is activated, it works to seek out these AGE’s to get rid of them. The downside to this process however is that although the immune system is removing these toxic end products, it causes a lot of damage to the body in the process. Plaque formation is one of these effects and these can be deposited on arteries and blood vessels, causing blockages and putting stress on the heart. Not only does sugar cause AGE’s but also creates free radicals which have the ability to bind to healthy cells and damage them.
Another way that sugar causes premature aging is through the spikes of insulin and leptin levels within the blood after eating sugar. This can produce damaging effects to the heart and lead to heart disease if these levels remain high for too long. Not only do AGE’s have these direct effects, but they also have indirect effects including making the body more susceptible and vulnerable to other harmful processes such as the damaging effects of excess UV light and cigarette smoke. And this shows up on your face and body as skin which thins, sags, wrinkles and looks older than it should. Blotches and spots appear if you genetically prone to them. You start to look tired and old and eventually you will feel as bad as you look.
I know this from experience as well. I grew up eating a very healthy diet and my skin looked fabulous into my 30s and early 40s. I looked so much younger than my years. But I then succumbed to eating fast food as I was so busy with the fast paced life I was living. At first I wondered if all that I had previously believed about a healthy diet was true as the effects were not immediately obvious. But the effects eventually came and when they did they were pretty rapid. It’s was almost as if I woke up one morning and saw a different face in the mirror. The person staring back at me looked old, tired, overweight. She had lost her spark and her radiance. I was shocked.
I quickly resolved to change the way I had been living. I am happy to state that I managed to reverse the negative effects that my busy lifestyle and poor eating habits had on my appearance. I am now slim and look younger than my years. My skin is glowing with health and radiance and I want to share what I have learnt with you. After seeing all the damaging effects that sugar can cause, it is needless to say that sugar is the most aging substance around.
We at Day Spa at Home want you to have beautiful skin. We have the best information on how you can quit sugar for good, replace this aging substance with healthier food to promote and retain younger looking skin. Join our mailing list now to receive our tips and information on how to keep your skin looking beautiful and younger for longer.
by Day Spa at Home | Mar 19, 2015 | Articles, Beauty, Health & Wellness, Relaxation |
Most health and beauty experts realize the powerful effects sand can have on our skin. It exfoliates dead cells from the top layer of our dermis and allows new fresh, and beautiful skin to emerge from underneath. The friction of walking on sand is enough to create the exfoliation process and is the single best way to leave skin feeling renewed.
Natural beach sand is also loaded with minerals that our skin desperately craves. This is particularly true if you decide to walk on an actual ocean or seaside beach where seawater will lap over your feet as you exfoliate your skin during your exercise. Our feet support our entire body, which is a heavy burden to bare. They deserve our affection and attention. A bit of salty, mineral rich beach sand can help relax the muscles and nerve fibers in our feet and restore both our mental and physical balance.
