part four of a four-part blog series
Some of the greatest lessons I've learned in overcoming eczema are the very things I’ve shared with you here, here and here. Today's post though is probably my favourite of this series. What to avoid when you have eczema. If there were only four things I could’ve removed from my own experience, it'd be these four.
4 Things To Avoid When You Have Eczema
- Place all your hope in a jar. Oh gosh, did I do this. I’m sure you have too. It’s your skin after all. You just want the problem to go away. Quickly! But here's the thing, focusing solely on creams and ointments as an answer to long term relief isn’t going to help. You may get temporary relief, but you’ll always need to have said cream on standby. The root problem with eczema often lies in your gut. By ignoring #2 and #3 below and placing all your hope in a jar, eczema will keep showing up for you.
- Compare yourself to others. One of the greatest ways to manage eczema is to keep stress to a minimum. Partly because stress plays a big part in how well our digestive system functions. When we’re stressed, our digestion shuts down and our food is left undigested. This increases inflammation, creating the perfect environment for gut health problems that cause eczema. I remember comparing my skin to other's all the time. 'How come everyone else has great skin except ME?’ I’d wonder. Often out loud.
Not only did this add to my stress but it caused me to believe there was nothing I could do about my situation. It made me feel like a victim. Powerless. Then I focused on what wasn’t right instead of what I had to be grateful for.
Our thoughts have a profound effect on how our digestive system works. A positive and determined mindset will help you immensely. This leads me to my next point...
- Ignore your thoughts. If your thoughts aren't healthy the rest of you won’t be either. Our mind and gut are in constant communication. What we choose to think about impacts the health of our gut. Chronic stress, worry and focusing on the negative, makes it incredibly difficult to have a healthy gut. So you need to manage those thoughts. Without being mindful of what you're focusing on, before you know it, your mind is back in 1992 or last Saturday night. It’s a total energy + mood suck right?!
It can be as simple as reminding yourself of a few positive thoughts every day, or making small changes to your environment so life feels more glass half full than glass half empty.
- Sit on the sidelines. No one knows your body better than you. The person most invested in the health of your skin has to be you. It took me awhile before I figured out that no one was more invested in me than me. And when I did, I stopped sitting on the sidelines hoping for my situation to be different and took a lead role in managing the health of my skin.
I collected a team of health professionals to help me get the results I wanted. It took a few trial + errors before I found the team I’d rely on to help me. I asked a lot of questions with those I worked with. I asked myself if what they were saying made sense to me. If it didn’t I kept asking questions until it did. You should do the same. If those you reach out to get annoyed by your Qs, they’re probably not the best people to have on your team. Or they may not understand the issue well themselves. The quote "if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough" really rings true here.
This is more than wanting to have gorgeous skin. For sure it may start out this way. For me, though it definitely started out as my main motivator, the health of my skin became so much more.
Learning about your health and your body (from all those Qs you’ll be asking) ;) is empowering. You start to get this sense of accountability towards how you choose to take care of you. Once you start seeing positive results, you’re more motivated to continue.
So there you have it. Covered in four posts, my best tips when it comes to overcoming eczema and getting back to gorgeous skin.
Now I’d love to hear from you. Share with me one thing you’ve noticed helped your skin once you stopped doing it.
To gorgeous skin,
