How many times do you wash your hands? A silly question from me, I know. Of course, they wash them when they need to, Ezgi.
But you remember the time when washing hands was the most important thing we did in our day, right? And it wasn't enough. We added hand sanitisers to our ritual of washing hands.
We had to. I don't know about you, but I am not yet superhuman. So I washed my hands and used my sanitiser. At the same time, I did all I could to keep my body emotionally, physically and chemically in balance. So that my body can fight with whatever is outside of my control—a virus, a stressful life event, something in my food, or my soap. I am ready!
Ready, not in the sense that I am nervously waiting for what's next.
Ready, in the sense that I trust that my immune system will take care of me.
How many of you have left hands with Eczema? Quite a few, I assume. Hands are tougher than our facial skin. It is said that we touch over 100 items in a day. The thing is, it's not all bad. We need the good and the bad bacteria on us—enough of the bad ones to come in and say hi and introduce themselves to your immune system. Every time your immune system meets with a new bacteria, you become stronger. If, for any reason, your body is overtaken by the same family of bacteria, your immune system has already created antibodies to fight it because they have met before.
Hold on! You shall not pass! I know you. Let me get the medicine I specially created for you. Let me take care of my human, says the immune system.
Do you see? How can you not love yourself, this intelligent body? Can you please hug yourself right now? Look, I am hugging myself! You do it too! Come on, don't be shy! None is looking :)
But we had to overuse these soaps and hand sanitisers. We caught unguarded, and some of us are left with Eczema in our hands now.
Skin got broken and thinner. Allergens and irritants inside soaps and hand sanitisers, as well as bacteria from the environment, started entering through the broken skin.
What did your immune system do that never gives up on you? It has started sending all its resources, antibodies, and powerful chemicals reserved for this moment of attack to the area to protect you.
That itching, redness, swelling, rash, pain, and oozing are basically your immune system overworking in that area and doing everything it can to protect you and defend you.
What you need to do is not try to silence the immune system by finding ways to relieve these signals, which medicine calls symptoms. Instead, you need to give the body the ingredients to heal that broken skin first.
It is time for us to be a bit more clever now. Don't you think? We are living in the information age.
So what are those ingredients, I asked myself? I put them together in our Forest Balm. Let me take you to my logic—the why.
Plantain: There is an infection in that area; the skin is broken. Plantain is known as nature's drawing agent, which means it draws out what doesn't belong, leaving dry, broken skin in a clean state. If there is nothing unwanted in that area, your body can easily put itself back together. Otherwise, your body will keep fighting that unwanted substance. Let's make it easier for the body. Let's remove it with plantain.
Rose: We removed the impurities with plantain, and the skin started to put itself back together. But there is heat in that area, which means redness, itching, and pain. You will keep touching if we don't do anything about this heat. And what's the medicine for that? "Rose". Rose reduces heat. It turns down the excitement in the limbic centre of the brain, which regulates passion. It is also an antioxidant, which basically means "cooling". It will also help tighten the broken area, strengthen skin cells, and regenerate skin tissue.
Lemon balm (Melissa): Let's add the best nerve sedative to this formula to help Rose. Lemon balm will cool and calm your nervous system and that inflamed area so beautifully. Have you ever met her? You didn't? Do you have difficulty sleeping? Are you nervous? Find a genuine place that sells "Lemon Balm" as a dry plant. Not the "tea". The dry plant. Infuse some in hot water, drink a few hours before bed, and then email me the next morning if you can wake up :).
Chickweed: We need to feed the skin with a nutritive herb, just like eating whole foods. Do you know why it is called Chickweed? Because chickens intuitively find this herb so nutritive to themselves that they love eating it. Because it is nutritious, it is incredibly healing to wounds and broken skin. As if it is not enough, this little plant also helps the skin assimilate nutrients from every nourishing ingredient in the recipe. It is also incredibly moisturising and soothing to the skin.
Let's seal everything off with beeswax. Wait! This is not your usual beeswax. This beeswax is the ecosystem of the Thousand Lakes. Are you concerned? Read this post. It is too long to add here. Just because some do it the wrong way, we can not abandon nature. We have to move with it in balance and peace.
However, if your skin is not struggling with dryness, you can choose the plant wax option, which will be lighter. But don't choose the plant wax option just because you may be concerned about beeswax before reading the post above.
How do you apply the balm?
Let's come out of survival.
You did your daily rituals, brushed your teeth, and read the book; kids are in bed, and you are ready to fall asleep, which means you won't be touching anything with your hands. That's the time to apply this balm to your hands.
You need to give your body time to heal. A time that you do nothing with those hands so that everything is absorbed and used to heal without interference from the environment. We can not treat our bodies the way Jeff treats his employees at Amazon. We have to be patient. You can not force healing. Fast-absorbing drugstore cream with %80 aqua (water) is not healing. Of course, that thing has to absorb fast and smell perfume. It is cosmetic. That's the purpose. Otherwise, no one would buy it. Healing is not the purpose.
Because you are patient with yourself, each day slow and steady you will wake up with softer and calmer hands and start your day.
How about applying in the daytime?
You will be touching things during the day, and your skin will sweat naturally. If you stay in survival mode, which means you are worried and keep applying throughout the day, you will be mixing sweat and what's in the environment with the balm and sending everything deep within the skin. Plus, you will be reminding yourself that you have Eczema.
As I said, It is time for us to be a bit more clever now. We are living in the information age.
The latest science proves that genes don't make you sick. Your response to your environment signals the gene, which then creates the illness. What is one's response to the environment? An emotion. I don't have Eczema in my hands, but you do. Why? This means your response to what happened was stronger and longer than mine. Enough that you have Eczema now.
An emotion of worry will keep signalling the same gene that holds the code for Eczema. If you keep applying during the day and do not trust your body with your nightly ritual, what emotion will you be feeling? Worry, fear.
You will be taking one step towards healing at night and two steps back during the day with your worry.
Trust.
Trust that your body will do the work.
Be patient.
I will always do everything in my power with these newsletters to share as much scientific information as possible about the mind and body connection to kill this mistrust. It is my lifelong mission.
We can not deny the truth anymore.
"The power that made the body heals the body."
Let it.
Look, we are holding the hands of rose, chickweed, plantain, lemon balm. They are ready to help. Will you come out of survival to help them?
Will you?
with all my love,
Ezgi
Ezgi