I really thought that by the time I was going to be writing this post today that I would have some great personal news to excitedly share. And yet another month goes by where I’m convinced that I’ve done everything possible to become pregnant and sure enough I discover that I’m not. This month felt so different though. I decided to make some major shifts in my self-care, gave up having a glass or two of wine, honored each phase of my cycle more consciously than before, eliminated excess herbs and replaced them with prenatal formulas. I felt pregnant, I looked up potential due dates and started crafting my summer plans accordingly. This might feel a bit preemptive, but I felt that different that I took every little sign as seriously as I could. As you can imagine, it’s a bit heartbreaking to get reminded once again that your body’s signaling was off. Or maybe I was just so convinced that I was doing everything right that I created a fun narrative in my mind that when you follow a specific formula, you can get the expected end result. That’s when it hit me. I have spent my entire career educating clients that it’s not that simple, yet I still couldn’t really comprehend it for my own ability to conceive. The parallel inspired me to share my story so it can hopefully inspire you when it seems like you’ve done everything for your skin but the result is still not what you expected.

Now as many of you know, I’ve been wanting to be a mom for as long as I can remember. It’s on my non-negotiable list of things to accomplish in my life because every day I work hard so that I could provide for my future family and I work on myself more and more so that I can guide my future children into discovering how to love themselves fully. I hear both ends of the spectrum in feedback as well; “You’re too young to have kids”, well, not where I’m from and what my heart tells me. And “children are really expensive and it’s an endless money pit”, okay - thanks, captain obvious. The worst is “when you stop trying, it’ll happen” which to me doesn’t make sense other because I’ve actively tried to not get pregnant for half my life pretty easily so I am going to consciously try by creating mindful habits and educate myself as much as I can.

It doesn’t help that when I get my period 4 days late right before I have to put on my facialist Hayley face and just move on. The same day I got the news that I wasn’t pregnant (I was waiting until day 7 of a missed period to take a test), I ended up giving a facial to one of my friends, Dr. Patti Kim. Patti and I have known each other for about a year now and have such aligning philosophies in health. We decided to trade our services in order to support each other and I would never have thought that I could teach someone who’s a naturopath something different about their skin and health. But I did. My approach is based on intuitive care where the lens of health will be shifted according to what your skin is communicating with me. I realized that if I was able to open up apart of a very elevated and educated individual’s mind on how to approach their skin health differently, perhaps there is more than I can learn on conscious fertility and conception.

My understanding of conception and overall fertility started off as basic as the next person who had the very limited education through our health programs in school. It wasn’t until I became an esthetician and started understanding each individuals’ differences within the phases of their cycles that I, myself got to evolve my education on hormones and our cycle health. I briefly spoke with Patti about some of my conception and fertility fears because try as we might it hasn’t happened yet, and she broke it down really simply for me. Each individual will have a very different road to a successful conception, pregnancy, postpartum, and overall motherhood. It’s as though it hit me that I was falling prey to the basic information and subconscious fear that I am unable to conceive all at once. But when I started to let go of the misinformation, that’s when I started to hear the news that my body’s communication can be read differently. As much as I track the phases of my cycle, the one thing I haven’t done is consistently take my basal temperature. According to Patti, this truly the most accurate way to receive the type of information that I need in order to consciously conceive. She gave me a ton of simple hacks that really opened up my mind to believe that I’m not really the problem, but rather my strategy is.

So whenever I get a client who is expressing that they’ve tried everything and their skin is not reflecting what they want as a result, I have to have a very similar conversation like the one Patti had with me. There are endless possibilities that could be created the imbalance and one person’s success story or another’s unsolicited advice won’t always resonate. The truth is that there are no shortcuts or quick fixes that will result in what you are looking to achieve if it’s in alignment with what you believe is possible. Having my conversation with Patti helped me expand that there are other supportive measures that I haven’t taken even though I was certain that I crossed everything on my list. With your skin, there will be an endless list of choices we can make whenever you step into my treatment room but it has to start with the following acknowledgments:

1. Do you believe that you’re worthy of great skin? If the answer is yes, that’s the first step towards expanding your consciousness that you will need in order to receive the answers from your subconscious/intuitive guidance on where to focus for your skin’s health.

2. Are you willing to let go of past practices? When you are open to starting from scratch, you are giving your skin the space it needs to reset on its own and determine the right pathway of healing for you. If you’re not willing to let go of past recommendations, products that you’re convinced are the only thing that works, or just what the go-to influencers are preaching then you won’t fully give yourself space to receive the possibility that something completely different might work.

3. Will you choose to be loving towards yourself? I admit that my first thought towards getting my period was that something is wrong with me and I dabbled in a little negative self-talk. That small amount of doubt that I create on my body’s ability to create a baby is enough of a block for me to never get pregnant. Once I let it go and chose to be loving towards myself, a ton of solutions came to me including a new thermometer and prenatal vitamin. If something doesn’t work with your skin right away, that’s okay! Just remember that the person wearing the skin is a loving human who deserves the support no matter what.

I’m sure there a million more parallels with my personal health journey and the skin journey you are on, but it’s just another reminder that is systems are all interconnected. The communication we have with our body, mind, and spirit is just one full conversation. The willingness to see ourselves as a constantly evolving being with no direct answer makes us that much more willing to expand the possibilities of our health consciousness. So maybe next month I’ll have more updates or maybe I’ll just have another lesson to pull from in order for you to expand on your beliefs that it’s possible to achieve your dream skin no matter what obstacles you've been faced with. 

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