Navigating the Psoriasis-Stress Connection: Understanding the Impact and Cultivating Coping Strategies
Life is slowly returning to a the ‘new’ normal…but do you ever find when intense stress starts to calm, your flare ups get worse?
Many of our Aalgo users have had severe flare ups during the lockdown period, so chances are there are many more suffering and unaware of how seaweed can help relieve this.
Sadly, there is no cure for psoriasis or stress. The best way to tackle this is relieve the irritation first and then work on the stress!
Here are a few gentle tips on how to help reduce the irritation and stress of psoriasis:
1. Apply an Aalgo seaweed wrap to the red overgrowing scaling skin.
Apply Aalgo as a paste to the area on your body that has the driest patches, this will exfoliate the overgrowing layers of skin and leave a dark red mark.
2. Soak in an Aalgo bath.
For relief of irritation and also to see the reduction of the dark red/purple patches on your skin, sieve 2 tablespoons of Aalgo into a LUKE warm bath and relax.
3. Apply Aalgo as a hair mask.
Mix Aalgo to a paste, wet your hair and apply the paste to your scalp. Enjoy the relief from an itchy or flaky scalp.
4. Try to shower as little as possible during the ‘clearing’ process.
Power showers dry out our skin, preventing your skins natural oils coming to the surface to selfheal.
Showers also wash off the invisible residue from the Aalgo baths, slowing down the healing process.
5. Take 5 minutes a day to focus on your breathing.
Breathing slowly helps calm the mind and allows your body to enter into relaxation. Even 5mins of relaxation per day during these times can impact our stress levels and help our health.
6. Drink at least 8 glasses of (preferably room temperature) water every day.
Hydration is key when it comes to our health and our skin health. Water intake reduces dryness and itch on the exterior of the skin. Warm water helps to remove toxins in our bodies also again aiding in self-healing.
7. Surround yourself with positivity!!
A positive environment is extremely effective in all forms of life, whether this be a place or people.
For example; a de-cluttered space is proven to reduce stress and influence calm into our lives.
Positive people who support and understand us allow us to relax more, the reduction of stress aids in the reduction of psoriasis.
8. Do one thing each day for yourself!
This can be something really small, like take an extra 5mins enjoying the morning paper, go for a 5min run, buy yourself a little gift, listen to a comedian to make you laugh, enjoy a long bath with beautiful candles…
Feeling self-worth is very important, especially during this period.
9. Eat food that makes you feel good.
A healthy gut is a healthy body. Anti-inflammatory foods like fruit and vegetables help ease flare-ups. We believe the keys to healing yourself is to start by feeling great!
Saving the best till last…
10. Self-care and skin positivity!
Throughout our lives we are continuously told what beauty is and how to achieve it, however we need to remember that each and every one of us are beautiful!
Both with and without skin irritations, that during these flare-ups to know and to believe that psoriasis does not take from our beauty whatsoever, and to never be ashamed of it!
As everyone keeps telling us, these are uncertain times, and yes that they are for sure…Yet when we have sensitive skin and sore flare ups, we need a little bit more than a name for this period of time.
Let’s try help each other find relief in all ways possible, support each other and that alone will decrease the stress and increase the speed of the healing.
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