Stress Relief

Stress is a huge factor of acne, especially adult acne. I've literally watched a pimple grow on my chin (stress/hormonal zone) when I had a stress attack happen and realized how stress can seriously effect our bodies. We hear it all the time, read about it in the magazines, watch it on tv...stress is the center of all evil. It breaks us out, ages us, makes us fat, ruins our relationships, I can go on and on, but you know what I mean. It is so common for clients to come to me completely broken out, completely stressed out, and stuck in a rut because the break outs just stress them out even more. So I tell them to stop stressing so much...easier said than done! How do you stop stressing? Is it even possible? Am I a walking contradiction because I tell people to stop stressing when I obviously stress myself?

Well, I've come to realize that stress isn't the center of all evil. It actually is healthy to have a little stress in our lives, just as long as it is not what takes over our life. I've decided to stop telling people to stop stressing, but rather, ask what they enjoy doing. When we are doing what we enjoy our minds take a vaca from all the clutter. Stress relief can come in all forms and can be done any where, for some it might be taking three deep breathes, yoga, meditation, taking a nap, writing in a journal, going to the spa, taking and actual vaca, chatting with a close friend, hitting the gym, grabbing a drink, or having a bite of your fav ice cream (hopefully without over indulging, of course), whatever it is...you have to figure it out. All of my clients know that my philosophy in great skincare is being intuitive to your own body, it is an amazing thing that is truly unique from everybody else. I wanted to share with you a very unique form of stress relief that I recently experienced, floating.

To give you a little bit of info on what it is, here is a little description from Float Matrix's website (I don't usually like to use actual names of products or places because I am not advertising for them, but due to the technical description of this experience I had to take it directly from their website rather than to butcher it myself):
The pleasures and benefits of floatation are based on a revolutionary scientific approach to deep relaxation called R.E.S.T. (Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique). This is the deepest state of relaxation researched on earth and is created through the use of a sound and light proof floatation pod in which you float effortlessly on the surface of 10 in. of water that is saturated with 800lbs of medical grade Epsom salt and 100 million year old Himalayan salt. In this environment, you get to experience the wonderment of drifting in space with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Quite different than the barrage of stimulus provided in our culture.

Here is a description of my personal experience: Upon arrival I was instructed to shower, scrub, and wash hair without using conditioner to get rid of oils on my body. Then I was shown the pod, as warned, it was very scary looking...and boy was it! To give you a better idea, imagine a pod that is probably slightly bigger than the size of a coffin and instead of the door opening from the top, it is a small hole that you have to crawl in from the front. They made sure to show me that there is no way of locking the door from the outside. A chill went through my body when they opened the door and I looked into the pod, it was pitch black with one blue light so that I could see where I was going when getting in and they advised to turn the light off when I was fully in. Ear plugs were worn and a towel is set on top of the pod in case water gets into your eyes, cause it will burn with all that salt. Since I'm known to get motion sickness easily, I asked about feeling nauseous. Apparently it is rare, but a couple of people have vomited on their first float so they have a head rest that I can use to stabilize my neck. So I got into the pod, the water is slightly warm and I go right into floating with the neck pillow. Due to the amount of salt, I float effortlessly. I decided to pull the neck pillow out to relax my head and felt fine. I was warned that on my first float I will probably only get half an hour of full relaxation, I had a one hour session, because the first half is an attempt to calm the mind and continuous questioning of what's going to happen and if there's a chance of drowning. I quickly realized there's no chance of drowning or flipping over no matter how you move, so I felt ok. The hard part came when I laid there in complete silence...for those of you who like to meditate, this would be perfect. But for me, who can probably notice the drop of a needle, it was painful to lay there in such silence. So I had to calm my mind and started to focus on my breath. This was the first time I've ever experienced not being able to relax because of the pounding of my own heartbeat, that was how quiet it was, but after just tuning into the thumping of it, I finally fell into a deep sleep. I was also warned that it is very common for the body to twitch when it first experiences the deep relaxation, so considering that I am a twitcher (not sure if that's a word) I had many episodes of being woken up from my own twitches. During the hour, the pod does get a bit stuffy (I should've taken the advice of leaving the door slightly cracked for air) so the stuffiness is what woke me up. I also started feeling a bit stiff from not moving, so I was ready to get out near the last 10 mins of my hour session and luckily I heard the tapping to notifiy me that my time was up. Then another shower to finish the session. Overall, it was an experience...would I choose this over a massage? No, but would I do it again to get another experience? (supposedly it gets better each time) Yes.

Cons: Not good for people who are clausterphobic. Sanitation is uncertain, even though they do a compound filtration, ozone cleaning, and add a small amount of 35% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) after each float session, it is still a bit questionable. (The place was very clean though)

Pros: Even though I didn't feel like I got a massage, I think it would be great after a painful workout. (My trainer always told me to take an epson salt bath if I have sore muscles) It is a great option to help soothe non-contagious skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, inflammation, etc. Great way to clear the mind and train it to deal with silence, something we take for granted.

Whatever it is that will help you relieve some stress is worth giving it a shot, just like how we can't stop the aging process but to slow it down, we can't completely get rid of stress but figure out what works for us! Thanks for reading a pampered girl's secrets...see you on my next reveal!