As human beings we thrive on achieving goals. After all we get a nice little hit of dopamine, the happiness hormone, when we achieve something.
And that’s all very well & good, but clear skin isn’t a “tick done, move on” type of goal. It comes in waves of good & bad & worse & back again. The goal of “clear skin” is impossible to achieve FOR EVERYONE IN THE WORLD because clear skin can be ruined by so many things – stress, a day of partying, new skincare, too much sunlight, too little sunlight, running out of healthy food, the climate, hormonal changes, your genes and a million other things in between.
Because the goal of clear skin is constantly on the move it can seem like we are never making progress & this can zap our energy & confidence. We feel like we’re never going to have skin we’re happy with.
And that thought is the biggest misconception & reason for dissatisfaction and unhappiness. We measure against the goal, rather than where we’ve come from. This is “the gap and the gain”. We measure always against the gap (the goal, which we never feel we’re reaching) rather than the gain (where we’ve come from). In measuring where we’ve come from, rather than where we’re trying to get to, we see results. We see things we’d taken for granted, or just well, not noticed. It’s a simple, yet profound, change in perception & it instantly shifts us up a gear. It’s so simple, yet has an immediate & positive impact on our mental health.
The Reticular Activating System is a bundle of nerves at our brainstem that filters out unnecessary information so the important stuff gets through. When we focus & think positively about life, our RAS tunes into the positive things that happen around and to us which makes us more positive. This makes us feel more positive & reduces our stress (which we all know is a trigger for bad skin).
So regularly write down & track your journey.
Look back at how far you’ve come & celebrate the gain.
Because wherever you are you’ve journeyed to get here, you’ve learnt & positively grown along the way.
