Health & Beauty - March 2016
Time is of course relative. A quick trip down memory lane makes us wonder where the time has gone. Can it really be decades since our first dance or first kiss?
For fully fledged grown ups time is whizzing by leaving them to wonder what they can fit in before time runs out … As a tow headed child time stands still between lunch and tea with hours of doing very little very intently. Summers seem golden and glorious with each day filled with picnics and running through meadows in Laura Ashley inspired frocks.
My childhood was endless days of make believe. My siblings and I had our imaginations for no cost and no expense of thought was spared in our acting out of dramas we read in books. Books we read every day and night as our time was not stolen by screens. Hands up those who spent entire days pretending to be a pony!
We could interpret the written word as we saw fit and not in a slavish imitation of what a TV executive had decided on. Even here time is of the essence for the producer, what to leave in and what to leave out. How do you tell the story without losing the plot?
At that point in my life waiting for Santa was agonising, these days it seems I am only just taking the turkey out of the oven when it is time to put one back in. I am beginning to understand the people who just leave the Christmas lights up year round.
It is all too easy become disillusioned by time racing by and let familiarity bred contempt for things you once found enchanting. Hence the successful ‘Grumpy Old’ programmes showcasing older people moaning and getting paid for it. Let’s fight that one in the trenches!
So where does this leave us with the vexing question of what to do with our allotted time. No matter what we are doing it passes at the same rate day in and day out. I loathe and detest the words ‘time management’. But manage it we must if we are to fit in all we want to do in a day, in a year, in a life time.
There are many books out there on how to maximise the hours in a day. Various authors target those among us who are in the grip of procrastination, those who find joy in folding socks just so and those who need their hand held while they get into a recycling routine.
Think of every minute as currency – how are you going to spend them to get the best return? You cannot get away from statistics telling us we waste five years sitting at traffic lights or three years watching commercials. How hateful and depressing!
Young, free and single gives you whole afternoons to contemplate your pedicure and the state of your eyebrows, whether that scarf goes with that coat and how to arrange your dishes in colour order.
With the little time left over from the grown up daily grind you can formulate a plan that gives you satisfaction and results that will leave you less care worn and more care free than imagined. Getting others to join in and help is a key part of the plot. When is it too early for giving children chores? I am not talking about putting them up chimneys, (Guvnor), but shaking their own duvet or putting their own socks in the laundry basket and if you are lucky emptying the dishwasher. Ask yourself if washing the kitchen floor will bring the same satisfaction as finishing the book you are reading or going to a yoga class or any one of a dozen things you put off because you feel obligated to do something for someone else’s benefit or because you feel you should? If it is not an actual health hazard then leave it - that floor will still be there tomorrow.
Stop doing it all and start having it all.
When it comes to your beauty routine, you can make sure that any time spent on the outer beauty is supersized by eating the right foods to help your skin from the inside. This is a long term investment as it will not be an instant fix but will pay dividends through out your life.
Just by adding parsley to your foods, in the dish or as a garnish, can promote better cell renewal, production of collagen and cell repair. Parsley promotes circulation and we all need that to be a priority.
Blood circulation brings fresh oxygen and nutrients to the cells, which nourishes them and as it flows away it takes any waste. Think of it as cleansing the skin from the inside. This circulation of blood round the entire body takes less than a minute.
Oranges and other citrus fruits are natural blood thinners as well as strengthening capillary walls and preventing plaque build up in your veins and arteries.
Garlic cleanses the blood and also deals with dreaded plaque build up which is likened to the furring up of pipes. This cleansing action is also true for radishes, onions and leeks.
Adding a daily amount of those three foods to your diet can give you a glowing complexion even before you start on the exfoliating, cleansing, toning and moisturising. Look out for other Super foods to make your diet work in an optimum way.
Make every beauty treatment a ‘Two for One’. A mask that feeds and refines. A scrub that polishes and moisturises. An application of hand cream that nourishes and reduces aches and pains. If you are doing one thing what else can you do alongside it?
There is no shame in doing the vacuuming with a green clay mask drying on your face or doing your book keeping with your feet in a bowl of warm water with a green tea bag bobbing about it in. However if you can use these particular times to take a break and lie down and relax it will add minutes ‘miles’ to the whole process.
One way to get the most out of any treatment is to make sure you are applying or removing a product in the most efficient manner. When you go to the salon the therapist does not just slap a mask on and try to remove it with as few motions as possible. No, she uses long flowing strokes to apply, circular motions to work lotions in and throws in a few other massage techniques along the way and uses damp sponges and long flowing strokes to remove a mask all of which increases circulation and brings that glow we are all after. Using dry sponges and a rubbing motion supersizes the exfoliation benefits of a mask however this may be too much for a sensitive skin so be careful.
Your dry body brushing is revving up your circulation on a daily basis if you remember to do it…
Do not waste a second of your precious time by doing things half heartedly. Make each motion or thought the best it can be. Seriously, seize the day!
Happy Trails, Readers, Happy Trails
First published By The Dart March 2016 issue
