Love Letter #41 | Exfoliate!

Dear World.

This is a bit different. Bear with me.

For more than half my life, I’ve been told (to the point of annoyance) that I should exfoliate more; “drink more water”, “stop eating that junk”, stop doing this and do that instead. My stubbornness and unwillingness to properly care for my skin by including exfoliation in the treatment routine has seen me suffer from pimples, crazy hyper-pigmentation and an all round rough skin surface and uneven skin tone.

I won’t lie, though I couldn’t care less about how I appear/appeared to people, I was a target for bullies. I went through the ringer at the primary level and at the secondary level. The intended hurt sunk way more into me than I anticipated. Following this, I was not appearing good to my own self and begun to self loathe. I embraced an “ugly” (whatever the heck that means) appearance. I thought for years that nothing would change. So I barely tried to correct the fixable imperfections. One day, like maybe a year ago, I got tired of embracing the ugly persona. I made the decision to exfoliate.

No, this isn’t some miracle revelation about flawless skin. Like, I still have an uneven skin tone, I still have some pimples and I still have hyper-pigmentation. However, your girl has seen improvement within the short time of exfoliation. Now I know, some habits take a while to develop. For me it just so happened that using a brush, a facial scrub, a body scrub,a pumice stone or a loofah takes some getting used to. The point is, I’m trying dammit!

In addition to exfoliation, I made the choice to alter my diet. I drink way more water, I stay away from the sodas (except for that one or two time when I just have to have that soda taste), I have cut cow’s milk all the way out of my diet and I have drastically reduced cheese. The fast food has been reduced and based on those decisions, my skin and my body have improved. So the thought came, right; I should do something similar with the people in my life. Most importantly, I drink more wine and flavoured beers. After all, I still enjoy being faded and not giving a hoot when in that zone.

For the past year or so, I have also scrubbed some people out of my life. I have taken them off my menu of who I engage; washed them away with all the water I’ve been drinking to hydrate. I have rubbed them all the way out. Just like how a weed man rub im han miggle. You know bout those who add nothing to your life? Yeah, those folk. I made the conscious decision, just as I did for my skin and overall health, to clean the impurities and unevenness away from my life. I can safely report that it’s been so far so good.  I ask myself the questions, why didn’t I do this sooner? Nothing before its time, I guess.

The results? Better looking skin. Better feeling skin. An easier life; one free from those who mean me no good and filled with those who love and care for me. My pee is clearer! And of course, I can uncork and unWINEd more with my wine.

Life isn’t great but I can most definitely say that it has gotten a whole lot better with these changes through exfoliation and diet changes. I look forward to what will happen when the hyper-pigmentation goes bye-bye for good and life gets even better.

 

Signed with love,

Candice