Category: Lifestyle and Health

Mental Health | Tips on getting through lockdown

You are not alone.

After trying everything possible to get a LIVE call together with Laken Folster, Counselling Psychologist, we have admitted tech-defeat as it just seems her phone does not want her to go LIVE! Laken and I were able to have a ZOOM chat together whereby I could ask her the questions sent through by my IG followers, and she has kindly put everything together in writing for me to share with you all. In essence this post covers: Why the lockdown has us feeling anxious, unsettled and unstable & what we can do about it.

Shan xoxo

SUMMARY:

  1. What happens to your body and brain when you are quarantined and how to cope:
  2. Mental health tips
  3. Staying or being motivated
  4. Adventure therapy- growth- positivity
  5. Dealing with anxiety
  6. Relationship tips
  7. How to balance it all
  8. Pregnancy and isolation
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Covid19 | Education & videos

I’ll keep adding helpful videos that I come across so you can download and share on Whatsapp with loved ones and hopefully people in our townships and communities to better educate and guide them to help get us through this 🙏🏼

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10 Steps to ensure Mental Health Wellness during ‘lockdown’

The thought of enduring a country-wide lockdown for 21days (or more) naturally brings with it a large dose of anxiety. Some of us will be in lockdown with our families which is wonderful in many ways… but children who are home-bound for any period of time will become more irritable their siblings, frustrated with their surroundings and test us in many ways. Moms will have shorter fuses, naturally taking on the strain of what is happening in our nation, also feeling stifled by the lack of external input, as well as exhausted by having our kids on top of and around us allllllll day long. Not to mention the unusual dynamic of having Dad/hubby around 24/7! In most cases Dads are just not used to being home for this amount of time, and it’s not likely to be smooth sailing for the duration of this isolation period, for anyone. All round we are unified in facing something we’ve never faced before. Many of us are going to be heavily impacted financially by this lockdown, and that brings with it its own stress. Others of us are preparing to isolate alone, with no one to share this time with, and days will be very long. Each of us is going to cope with this in our own ways, and it’s really important that we do our very best to keep mentally strong & positive.

Laken Folster is a counselling psychologist who has very kindly shared some helpful advice on how to maintain a healthy mental state during this lockdown, how to cope and get through this with a positive mindset:

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Covid19 update | SA in National State of Disaster

This is what I took from President Ramaphosa’s address 15 March 2020

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My Skin Care Routine | Serums

Something you may start to notice as you enter your 30s is that your skin looks less full. According to Dr Levin, a board-certified dermatologist specializing in medical, surgical, and cosmetic dermatology, cell turnover slows down, skin recovers less easily from inflammation, important proteins such as collagen and elastin breakdown faster and less is made and the naturally found skin plumping sugar known as hyaluronic acid starts to decrease. Forehead wrinkles, crow’s feet, bags under the eyes, and more prominent laugh lines called nasolabial folds are all new things you might notice in your 30s (oh, the joys!). Changing hormones also contribute to many of these changes, specifically a loss of estrogen that causes us to lose volume and bone mass in our skull, cheekbones, and jawline.

Insert the need for serums here>>
Serums are skin care products that are designed to deliver high concentrations of specific active ingredients to the skin. There are many different types of serums on the market that perform different jobs, ranging from hydration to skin brightening.

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My Skin Care Routine | Essence

Since an essence provides an extra layer of hydration, those with dry skin can obviously benefit. If aging is a major concern, this added boost of moisture can also help to alleviate fine lines and prevent wrinkles

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My Skin Care Routine | Toners

I have learnt that it is imperative that those of us with oily or acne-prone skin use a toner. It helps to better unclog pores by removing oil, dirt and make up. By removing build up from your pores you also create the appearance of them shrinking. Bonus! Toners can help close pores and tighten cell gaps after cleansing, reducing the penetration of impurities and environmental contaminants into the skin. It can even protect and remove chlorine and minerals present in tap water. Source.

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My Skin Care Routine | Exfoliators

This post stems of my orginal skin care post & overview here

Entering your 30s brings about various changes to your skin. One most noticable of these is that your skin may start looking more dull. There is a scientific reason for this: Your skin cell turnover slows down as early as your 20s. By the time you hit your 30s new cells are visible every 28-35 days, whereas they once turned over every 14 days or so when you were a child. What this means is that dead cells start accumulating on the surface of the skin and interfering with light reflection – so where you once reflected light off healthy cells in your face, there are more layers of dead or drying cells getting in the way of that bounce-to-glow. This is one of the main reasons that frequent exfoliation is key.

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My Skin Care Routine | Cleansers

My favourite cleansers – targeting anti-aging, pigmentation & acne – skin care for 30 somethings

This post stems off of the orginal skin care post & overview here

Cleansing is step 1 of any skin care rountine
I personally cleanse once in the morning and twice in the evening to ensure I remove all sunblock, make up and “the day” off my skin.

These are some of the products I have used and enjoyed. I am not a trained skin therapist so please do take guidance from a professional. This post contains my unbiased opinion on products that have worked for me. I have a combination to oily skin, so if you have a a dry skin you may not enjoy these products the way I have.

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My Skin Care Routine || Overview

Skin Care for 30 somethings

After sharing on Insta the other day how grateful I am for my skin therapist (Adele) who has taken my skin on a journey of healing and improvement, I was inundated with messages asking me to please share what I am using, and what I used when I had acne breakout and pigmentation explosions in my pregnancies.
This post will cover my skin routine, linked to multiple posts with various products I love in those categories. I hope this post acts as a guide for you if you are a thirty-something looking to start taking care of your skin

While my skin has come such a long way, and I am thrilled with the texture and health of it, I still struggle with uneven skin tone, hormonal breakouts, and congestion. I am in my mid-thirties and so anti-aging products are high on my priority list as well, and so skin care is a place I invest a substantial amount of my salary into 😉 I certainly didn’t buy all these products in one go, so please don’t read this post and blow all your savings tonight! Building a skincare regime over time and in a way that best suits your budget is the best way to go, especially because you can slowly see, as you introduce new products into your routine, what products you do and don’t like, and understand what product is having what effect on your skin. If you go buck wild and purchase 8 new products overnight it will be impossible to know what you like or what product is responsible for potentially giving you a reaction. Easy does it. With skin care it’s always best to keep in mind that slow & steady wins the race and try avoid “quick fixes”!

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