This is a story by Love Vitamin reader Esther, who shares her tips for naturally clear skin (submit your own reader story here!)

I hated it when people tried to give me advice on how to deal with acne; the truth is that so many different things can cause it, and I really do believe it’s different for everyone.

But there are definitely some patterns I’ve spotted while doing research, and I feel I am somewhat qualified to give some advice now that now my skin is 99% clear.

I have a thing about internet privacy so I am not showing a photo of my entire face but this is my actual before and after photos of my skin:

I started getting acne over a year ago when I decided to start buying acne products to improve my skin. Instead it went from mild to mottled.

I had declared that “I am someone with acne therefore I should buy acne products.”

Here’s the most important thing I learned:

#1 – Acne is Caused By Your Beliefs

If you want to be someone with nice skin, you need to change your story. If I asked you to describe yourself and you said “I am someone with acne…” that was your first mistake!

Start thinking and acting like someone with perfect skin NOW.

Don’t believe me? I will get you started with some material:

Watch “The Secret” (the original version with Esther Hicks) and read “Ask and It Is Given” by Abraham Hicks. They also have tons of Youtube videos for your amusement.

You can listen to an introduction to the teachings of Abraham Hicks here.

Here’s a summary: You become what you think about.

Your thoughts literally program your body (and your life). The feelings you have can determine your own health, that’s why people who are always thinking about illness can make themselves literally ill.

This can be changed by practicing, especially visualizing, what you want, NOT WHAT YOU DON’T WANT.

This is crucial; you have to master this if nothing else. Any specific advice anyone gives you, and any action you take, will be useless if you can only imagine yourself as sick.

Here’s the ultimate test: you’ll know you’re on the right path if you can close your eyes, imagine looking in the mirror, and having perfect skin.

Now, I know how impossible that can feel if you’ve never had a moment in your life where that was true.

What I did was find photos of beautiful skin on Google Images and iStock, focused on them every night before bed for at least 5 minutes.

Looking at photos of perfect skin will help you retrain your mind (your imagination). I would focus on the areas of the face I wanted mine to look like until that’s all I could imagine when I thought about skin.

I liked the photo below: nice jawline and cheeks. Mine look like this now!

This applies to other things too: I lost 50lbs a couple of years ago because I decided I was tired of being overweight. I decided I wanted to be a bad ass fit bitch instead. I have gone from people pitying me to envying me (and asking me for advice).

Optional Tips – Things That Helped And Didn’t Help:

I went on a low-fat diet to lose weight, which I also believe led to some weird health problems like bad skin and digestion.

I decided to experiment recently with a Ketogenic Diet (low carb, high fat diet) to lose the last few pounds. I did lose them (and I never felt so weirdly skinny in all my life), and then Christmas happened and I gained it back. Oops.

But anyway – ODDLY my body seemed to go into rapid healing mode. This was near the end of my acne journey; my skin was about 70% healed with minor breakouts. But within that one month my skin went from mottled to clearing up and looking fantastic! My fingernails started growing faster and longer (my boss asked if I had a manicure, he even joked that I could hand model for some of our products, ha).

My energy was consistent throughout the day, no “crashing” after meals etc, in fact the diet was so satiating I felt no hunger or cravings whatsoever.

I don’t stick to this diet anymore, it’s was merely an experiment, but it led me to replacing most sugar/carbohydrates with lot’s of healthy fats instead (meaning I eat lots of veggies, a little fruit, but I favor fat instead of bread/pasta/rice etc).

I’m not carb phobic (I can’t stand sugar anymore though), but I have seen amazing health benefits of eating a lot of fat, and it’s just become my preference to eat more of it. And no, I didn’t get fat (I am actually leaner now).

So here’s why:

Eat Fat

The Ketogenic Diet was a bit extreme because it’s very low carb, so I’m not necessarily recommending it – but if you’re going to change something with your diet it’s to eat more fat.

The ironic thing I noticed about a lot of people who desperately try to eat healthy is they claim they make healthy choices by buying low fat. You could eat salad and juice ‘til you’re green but some nutrients require fat to be absorbed into your body, so eat them with fat.

Here are some cool and delicious healthy ways to get more fat in your diet:

• Coconut Oil/MCT Oil
• Fish Oil
• Olive Oil on your salads
• Avocados
• Whole Milk (NOT SKIM)
• Or instead of milk use cream (especially in coffee)
• Butter
• Nuts and seeds (almonds are my favourite)
• Full Fat Yogurt (I buy 11% fat yogurt, never ever ever buy 0% fat Greek Yogurt, it’s rubbish!)
• Fattier meats (I like eggs and fish)

Include an ample amount of veggies, and a moderate amount of protein (I moderated my protein just as much as carbohydrates).

I compared the Ketogenic Diet to the Candida Diet and it’s almost identical. I had the same symptoms on both diets; I felt shitty at first then awesome after a few days. Acne improved on both diets! Coincidence?

Again, I’m not necessarily recommending the Ketogenic diet – just eat more fat!!!

Be Lazier

I spent hundreds of dollars to see a Natural Skin Care Specialist. She is brilliant but her products were like $$$$. The best advice I got from her was to use Young Blood, my new favourite mineral makeup.

After I ran out of her expensive face washing products (and I couldn’t afford re-fills), I started washing the makeup off with just water and my skin started healing really quickly.

The lazier I was with my “skin routine” the happier my skin got. You could say this is gross but whatever; nobody has to know.

It’s summer time now and I’ve been working on my tan, which has made my skin surprisingly soft and has hidden any scars and redness perfectly.. I would go as far as to say it is helping my skin regenerate faster too. I haven’t worn makeup in weeks, and I think I look fantastic without it now. I’m very lazy with my skin; I always use just water and some days I don’t even wash it.

I will quickly add that I declared to myself that my ultimate goal was to be free of makeup (and cosmetics in general).

One thing about acne was I felt obligated to wash and paint my face every day and it felt so degrading to me. I believe that having a goal like that helped me focus on success. I strongly encourage goal setting:

Your goal is to feel free, relaxed and comfortable “naked.”

See a Naturopath

I love my Naturopath; while my regular M.D. just shrugged and blamed genetics, my Naturopath always seems to know what to do. She’s the one who originally suggested I try low-carb because we suspected I have PCOS, and it’s supposed to help with insulin resistance.

I’ve seen amazing results with every round of supplements she’s given me. I won’t go into detail because they’re the same as the ones Tracy was using.

My doctor recommended I3C, but I switched it for Estroblock and my hormonal acne came to a screeching halt after two weeks. So no new advice there, I loved Estroblock and it worked for me too!

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So there you have it! I struggled with aggressive acne for a year, and this is what got me 100% clear skin today! I notice if I breakout, it’s usually after a sugar binge + upset stomach, but I prefer fatty foods now anyway.

If you go away with doing any one of these, focus on #1 and research the relationship between your thoughts and what happens in your life. You will be pleasantly surprised to learn you have so much more power than you thought.

If you ever feel powerless and depressed, I’ve found a very powerful question to ask is, “Do I love myself as much as I wish other people would love me?”

I am looking forward to everyone posting comments about how empowered they’ve become ;D

Bio: Esther suffered with painful acne for a year after losing almost 50lbs (through exercise and calorie restriction). She was hoping her health would improve, but it only got worse. After changing her goals to being “healthy and strong”, she feels much better today. She hopes to eventually start her own blog that shares her journey from making foolish mistakes, to learning how to live intuitively again.