Love the skin

THE BEGINNING of any year is a time when many of us make resolutions and set goals. I will quickly add that any time is a good time to make positive choices in our lives. It is very important that we try to maintain healthy lifestyles. Health is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. As you seek to improve your health, continue to be your biggest cheerleader no matter what condition you are currently in. Don’t be too hard on yourselves, count your blessings! Never forget that you have been fearfully and wonderfully made. Ensure that your self-esteem remains high while you take steps to get and maintain great health.

As we know, the skin is the largest organ of our body and serves many important functions vital to life itself. It can also provide important clues at times, about other diseases going on inside our body. Since the skin is part of our physical appearance, skin problems may cause persons to feel embarrassed, emotionally upset, depressed and ‘stressed out’. We have to work hard to avoid harbouring these feelings as we take care of our skin. Skin health is not just about treating bumps and spots. It goes beyond the physical and impacts our mental and social well-being as well.

Here are five basic reminders as we consider our approach to healthy skin:

1 Love the skin you are in — we have all been made beautiful (Ecclesiastes 3:11). God doesn’t make mistakes and He doesn’t duplicate. You are an original masterpiece. Your very hairs are numbered. They each have a number — that’s profound. So even as you seek treatment for your skin, hair and nail problems, you should still love yourself. Nothing is wrong with seeking treatment to improve upon areas of your skin that bother you, once these treatments are safe.

2 We have all been created equally. There should be no such thing as a ‘high’ colour or ‘low’ colour, or ‘good’ hair and ‘bad’ hair. It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In the eyes of God we are all beautiful.

3 Fairer skin types are at a greater risk of sun damage, skin cancer, premature ageing but all races still have some risk of these conditions as well. So we should all be using sun protection. Darker skin types are at greater risk of scarring and dark spots developing after inflammation of the skin.

4 Skin bleaching and deliberate tanning should be avoided since they damage the skin.

5 Mind your own skin business. Avoid saying negative things about someone else’s skin unless you are encouraging them to check out a suspicious skin problem (e.g. possible cancer). It can cause a lot of embarrassment. I see the effects of this happening way too much. Let’s be kind and treat others as we would like to be treated.