Ma’am, put your hands on your head, and step away from the mirror.
I didn’t want to be the one to say it, but I think you’re abusing your mirror privileges.
The poor innocent mirrors don’t want to be stared into for hours and hours, being an unwilling accomplice to your own self destruction.
I know, I asked them.
They told me that they hate the way they’re being abused with overuse.
Not to mention that you’re always invading their personal space, inspecting yourself from a mere two inches away. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s super awkward when someone gets all up in your face like that, and so does your mirror.
The mirror totally wonders why you do that. No one else spends that much time that close to your face, so why would you need to judge your skin based on this reality that you’re sickly distorting?
As a result the mirror’s message gets misinterpreted. The mirror wants you to step back and look at yourself as a whole, like the way that others see you.
They want you to see that your beauty is not the sum of your individual pores, but instead the sum of your being as a whole – your kindness, your love, your intelligence, your energy, your personal style, and your silly quirks.
But when you do it wrong, you think the mirror is saying that none of that matters. You think the mirror is calling you ugly.
Next thing that happens, you’re squeezing everything in sight and crying on the floor, cursing the mirror.
What a world these mirrors have to live in.
So please, ma’am, step away. And maybe even send some good vibes your mirror’s way as you’re doing it. It needs it.
Hi! Thank you so much for all your work, your website has really been helping me for the last couple of months! I’ve had acne for 12 years now (I’m 25), took antibiotics, accutane (twice, ouch!) but nothing worked. Obviously I was left with bad skin and equally bad IBS. Anyways, I’ve been seeing a naturopath for the last 6 months and my stomach is feeling better. However, I’ve seen literally no improvement on my skin, still covered with acne, redness and scars (I’m really fair skinned, so every spots leave a mark). I’ve read your article on the timeline to heal and I know it can take a while but I was expected some kind of result after 6 months! I guess I’m feeling down and just wanted to ask you and/or other readers if it took as much time for them as well ?
Hi Magdelena, unfortunately I can’t say exactly what’s up as it would just be a guess, but sometimes for some people healing can take many months longer than we would hope, but they do eventually get there… obviously it’s not ideal for it to take so long but the fact that you are feeling better underneath is a good sign. Sometimes all the healing happens underneath before it shows on your skin, and then at some point the healing will head to your face. For others, it happens in reverse… the changes show up first on the skin. Hang in there x
Hi Magdalena,
Hang in there! It can feel like it’s taking forever at times. I think it’s really positive and helpful that you’re working with a naturopath – that’s a good way to go in addition to seeking out information yourself. You’ve put your gut through the ringer with the antibiotics and accutane treatments, so it could take some time to heal it and that’s great that your stomach is feeling better. I was on antibiotics daily for 18 months. It took a little over a year of gut-healing and healthy clear-skin supplements/diet for me to get 99% clear.
Best wishes. It will happen. 🙂
Meagan
This is great adivce, the less i have looked in the mirror the better I feel about myself on more than just a skin level. I think your website is fantastic and its already helped me in may ways about how I feel about myself and others and also the food I eat, so thankyou :). I have changed my diet and my attitude in many ways and my skin is so much clearer. Saying all this i still have skin issues and still wear makeup albeit very light. The less I have done to my skin the better it has become but have never managed to do the whole 9 yards of doing nothing to it. However, I have tried a few times recently but only for a few days at a time. The problem ive found is by the end of day 2 my skin definitley looks better in some respects but I already get the dead skin mask and my face itches, burns and feels really hot. This bizarely never happens with makeup and cleansing, so i feel as if my skin has got used to this and is acting out when I stop. Have you any advice?
Thanks Ali! yeah it’s to be expected your skin will do some weird things when you stop doing the thing you’ve been doing to it since forever… if you are going to go full on ‘doing nothing’, then you need to be prepared, and give your skin some time to work itself out. For me it was so worth it, I’m so happy I decided to go for it!
This is comforting. “Squeezing everything in sight”– very relatable! But it’s okay, I’m learning to be easy with myself. My skin is just skin and I can’t control how it behaves, but I can control how I feel about it. My skin has gotten much better and I’m learning to love myself which in turn helps heal it.
That’s super awesome Abby, having love and kindness for yourself is so underrated when it comes to healing the skin x
Tracy-
I found your blog tonight and have known what to do to help improve my skin condition. I had taken the steps last summer and saw incredible improvements in my skin. Someone was holding back my progress, using my tweezers. Daily. Hourly. Obsessed.
Me.
But last Friday was my turning point.
I put down my weapons and saw myself. Scary stuff.
Now 3days away from the mirror and back on the strict Paleo–
Overall redness is diminishing and the “baby boomers” (which I named because I’d never experienced cystic acne before my pregnancy ’06-’07) have almost vanished!
Having an outlet for discussion, reading, knowing I’m not alone in this humiliating condition is beyond words of relief, joy, and graciousness!!
(She’s not alone in this experience.)
Its late tonight, but I’m taking the aloe/MSM recipe in hopes of improving the damage and scars during my embarrassing paths of self destruction.
Excited for whats to come!!
My body has been in turmoil for too long, so I thank you- this is great advice you’re giving.
and I’ll keep reading~
+jo_©
Sending love and strength your way Josie! 🙂
Hello~
Its josie again :: I’m not even 10days into this regimine and seeing dramatic improvements +physical and emotional. Positive energy spewing~
Thank you again, Tracy, for taking the time, really means so much❤
That’s so great to hear!!
Hi
Found your website today, so great there is support out there for these often not spoken about things. I had acne until i was about 19. I don’t have perfect skin now either but I still beat myself up about it, although i don’t consider myself as having acne its still a consistent issue, I would probably have lovely skin if i didn’t pick. Its amazing what a difference it make to just let your skin do the healing instead of trying to control it. This website has inspired me to treat myself better from the inside and not beat myself up about having a pimple of two.
Woohoo, so glad to hear that Chelsea 🙂 It’s good to hear that you recognize that you may be creating a bigger problem than is actually there… I hope that with my guidance you are able to learn to stop the picking and love yourself beyond a couple of pimples… it’s totally possible! Good luck!