A Face of a Thousand Stories

Yes You have a Face of a Thousand Stories

Along with the influence of your character, behavior and beliefs - your diet and your environment can determine your physical appearance. This is not contradictory to Ayurveda. With the help of Ayurveda I rebalanced my body to benefit from the fluctuations of the weather.

Spencer Wells, author of The Human Journey: A Genetic Odyssey and an anthropologist and geneticist, explains with scientific data how your features reflect the journey taken by your ancestors.

You will discover that a stocky build or a short neck is not an unfortunate distribution of attractive features. And that having “excessive” body hair give question to your femininity. Along with other “unique” features, they are nature’s way in helping your ancestors thrive in their environment.

But contrary to common thought, our genetics is not linear or clear cut as in the differences between siblings. I personally have suffered the feeling of injustice as my sister who inherited the features of the accepted beauty with chiseled features, slim build and large feminine eyes and well endowed figure.

While I, somehow I seemed to have gotten all the less feminine, chunkier features from larger frame, short stocky legs and chubby face but with a flat chest.

I did not feel less attractive on my own. Most people and society supported this truth in words and action.

But as I learned Ayurveda and began to understand the message in my physical attributes I started to love each feature as I loved the character that help form it . And I of course shared this with my staff and clients. But even with the knowledge of Ayurveda and evolutionary science - it’s a hard sell to some – so if you are not convinced you are not alone.

When I started to read about the evolution of human kind, I started to see the beauty in how my stockier frame and shorter legs contributed to the survival of my ancient ancestor in the ice age.

While I may have envied my sister in the past, I am now at peace with physical appearance. My personal experience has given me an empathy with those clients that are coming into their middle years and have not yet accepted their physical appearance. They punished themselves by trying to imitate the beauty of others, sometimes with drastic measures.

I believe that but using both Ayurveda and the history of our human journey I along with my clients come to love our selves and others in a genuine way.

We can invest more into our appearance without trying to imitate but to protect and highlight our uniqueness.

“Unique Beauty”, eh…, hmmm?

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“Unique Beauty”, Part 1

What is does unique beauty really mean? - to you.

When I was young and felt short changed on the distribution of beautiful features - I interpreted "You have an unique beauty” to mean "I am diplomatically saying you are not beautiful”.

But now wiser, I define “unique beauty” as the infinite faces of diversity. This change of perspective cannot be attributed to increased self confidence. Actually the real changer is also the cause of this increased self love. It is came from an interesting merger of Ayurveda and a growing understanding of my place in the external world.

We all can easily appreciate the diverse beauty of Nichole Kidman’s fragile Vata beauty along side the strong Kapha beauty of Beyonce Knowles. But we do we feel “unique beautiful” when comparing our physical features to that of camera friendly faces of celebrities.

According to Ayurveda, our “unique beauty” refers to the physical manifestations of our mental and emotional energies. But I found that the uniqueness of our features from colour to shape to size also tell a story of our human journey.

When we understand the importance of our character and our thoughts in shaping our external beauty and the foundation our genetic history in our overall health and beauty, we are less prone to embrace a self defeating definitions of beauty. And we are also less likely to believe or feel that as we grow older we grow less attractive,

A Vata Beauty is fine and delicate. He or she is small boned with small, chiseled features. Due to Vata’s spiritual strength, the physical features tends to be weaker with light pale definition. Vata’s slenderness can be attributed to speed – fast metabolism, fast thinking, quick change and fleeting emotions. Her delicate ethereal beauty evolved from light, cold and dry energy.

Pitta Beauty is in the sharpness of his/her focus. Piercing eyes are hallmark on this logical competitive person’s features. The strength in the mental realm with strong charisma are the characteristics of born leaders. The passion for order and perfection can create imbalance leading to skin sensitivities, rosacea and acne. Her intelligence leads her to strive to become President (of a business, government or organization) and that would trump any desire to be a Miss Universe.

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Kapha Beauty is sensuous and voluptuous. Because Kapha’s strength is in the physical; they are strong, beautiful and large. They have large curvaceous features from large eyes fringed with abundant lashes to full lips and thick hair. They have large bone structure and usually have a stocky appearance. She/he is not your average “super model”, but his/her longevity and sensuousness will keep her alluring into old age.

When Kapha understands his/her uniqueness, she/he stops feeling “fat” and start feeling voluptuous and strong.

And Pitta feels beautiful and fulfilled when he/she pursues life work without needing to be a “beauty queen” as well.

Vatas are fortunate to be born with the socially defined characteristics of slim poetic beauty but are even luckier if they start early to develop spiritual or creative talents.

From the foundation of self appreciation and understanding we can see the beauty radiating from our own spirit and to that of others as well.

Next week –how to love our “unique beauty” by discovering our ancestral journey

Sun Drenched Beauty

Summer can be a boost to our feeling of attractiveness.

When I was a teenage, a suntan covered up blemishes and as I grew older and less plagued with acne, the tan evened out my skin’s blotchiness.

Now I am noticing women my aging using a tan to camouflage signs of skin aging from brown spots, redness and even wrinkles. Yes, this is just one of the examples of how irrational our pursuit of beauty can become.

So what are better ways of looking our best with positive long term results? Most anti aging technologies like Intense Pulsed Light and exfoliation like Microdermabrasion and Chemical Skin Peels make our skin more photo sensitive so are not advisable for most of us in the summer. Only the most meticulous of us will avoid more sun damage with proper sunscreen application.

While the consequences like sun burn, hyper pigmentation or dehydration are not irreversible when tended to right away, it is still wiser to accommodate our behaviors along with our aspirations.

If there is a need for improving your skin’s appearance from a special occasion to lifting self esteem, there is a safe and effect anti-aging treatment. Micronized Current can take years off your face by reducing the appearance of brown spots, chronic redness and wrinkles. It does it by stimulating the production of collagen and elastin while toning up facial muscles.

Our experience with Micronized Current for anti aging has not been all up hill. Our first machine required operator skill along with operator knowledge of the clients muscle placement to attain good results.

Our new machine has eliminated the disappointment of both the esthetician and the client by allowing the current to be dispersed over a larger area. It has the added benefits of red LED to support better collagen production and another current type to help dehydrated skin cells to absorb moisture. We have developed a special lifting gel that doubles as a mask to plump skin cells with skin protein, seaweed and aloe vera .

If some one my age has a special wedding coming up – our children’s or our own – to get our faces camera ready in a pinch – we need only to do three of these treatments a week before the date.

For those of us looking for long term rejuvenation, weekly treatment for two to three months (really depends on your expectations and the condition of your skin) with monthly treatments after can do the trick.

There are smaller ways to look more youthful in these summer months. A gentle exfoliation with jojoba beads at night can give you a fresher look without making skin more vulnerable to sun damage.

Of course using sunscreen, a natural one, with a suitable moisturizer daily will do much to help you avoid the “crêpey” look now and slow down the visible signs of aging long term..

When I wake up disappointed with what I see in the mirror I usually pile on the collagen serum to quickly plump up skin cells and rejuvenate my face. This also helps get circulation in my face going so puffiness in the face or eyes are gone before I walk out the door.

If you have stayed in the sun too long and are worried about the long term consequences, apply a collagen gel mask to hydrate up and repair on skin cells immediately then book a hydrating facial for major repair.

My person favourite is to constantly have your face photographed so that you grow to love the changing beauty that wisdom and life experiences have shaped. I believe some of us want to look eighteen because our emotional needs have not matured. After all we only need to look eighteen if we want to attract an eighteen year old J

When aging is just out of control

When aging is just out of control -- your control

As boomers, we have a choice of chasing youth by merely looking younger with magical serums and plastic surgery or by staying healthy and relevant by understanding the importance of the relationship between ourselves, mind and body, with our environment.

Recently I have begun a series of Micronized Current (Micro Current) facial treatments. I had been too busy through the winter to do my annual Intense Pulse Light (IPL) treatments to buy myself enough time to accept the “old lady” in the photographs.

While Micro Current is less invasive than the medical procedures, I recognize that it still is merely a means to looking younger.

As I age and learn to respect the limits of my body, I am more observant of the physical changes created by the external environment, the nourishment I devour and the fluctuations of my relationships and interactions with others.

I started my Micro Current treatments in March. The treatments’ success in lifting my sagging skin is evident in the disappearance of the deep wrinkle in my nasal labia fold (those aging brackets on each side of our mouth) and the wider look of my eyes. Compare my photo of a year ago with the one here.

While I have more dramatic “before” photos due to weight loss and the addition of one more year, the change is still noticeable. More anti-aging advice—don’t lose weigh after forty as skin is not so resilient. But no worries – you just need to work harder.

This weekend, I have suffered dehydration due to hotel living and a lack of sleep due to the strange bed. I have also been eating all my meals in restaurants or the Whole Foods buffet table. Therefore I ended up with edema which was my already weak kidneys’ way of saying the food was way too salty and fatty.

When the edema was gone I was left with a tired look, making me feel depressed and that my efforts to find time to get in for my Micro Current Facials and my extra moisturizing skincare were futile.

On Sunday morning I am awaken by a fluttering of the drapery in my hotel room. It was the turbulence caused by the tail end of a tornado in the American Midwest.

Did I tell you that I was also in the middle of a stressful personal life as I had grown impatient with a life partner that doesn’t know the existence of planning and “ was in the middle of helping” him see the light?

And I was commuting to one of our locations due to unexpected staff absentism to cover client appointments. I who always lived near work because I find commuting stressful.

While all this was happening, a client’s photographer husband asks to photograph me as he thought I would make an interesting subject. He proudly shows the photographs he coached me to pose in. But alas!--I only saw a middle-aged woman.

The Micro Current has helped me looked better, and yes even younger. And that definitely made me feel better to know that I could have some control over the speed of aging in my appearance. But the photograph told me that it was not the whole answer!

Therefore the anti aging choices we make ---whether they are safe and natural like Micro Current or more invasive like injecting Bovine toxins into our foreheads or a snipping skin around our eyes or faces – need to expand to include our lifestyle and environment.

To successfully perform and look younger, we need to balance the drying effects of a windy or cold environment, a stressful event and hard to digest dehydrating foods. If we have weak organs like kidneys or flawed circulatory system we need to follow habits that strengthen them.

But again no short cut to a fix -- medication by the way like recreational drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and coffee will negatively affect your day to day appearance along with your long-term health.

So start you anti aging by designing some healthy routine for yourself with the help of the appropriate health professionals.