What does skin health mean?

In our modern day society and medical realm the concept of healthy skin has seemingly become about performative skin care, defying ageing and maintaining a glass like skin consistency at all times. Mostly, these concepts are only extensions from the pop-beauty and fashion culture that has shown to be remarkably destructive to human health for centuries. This can not be confused with what it means to have healthy skin.

The skin cannot be viewed in isolation from the greater environment of which it both creates and manifests from. This is true for all parts of the body and is an underpinning medical philosophy that has been used in medicine since the oldest text that can be found on medical practice. It is only in very recent history that the ‘evidence based’ scientific model has developed to examining parts of a whole in separation to the whole in which they belong to.

In the case of the skin, the greater environment is very unique, as it is in constant contact with both our external and internal world in every single moment. It is for this reason it gives us such useful wisdom on what is supportive and what is damaging to us in both our outer environment and inner one.
In addition to having many vital systems running through it, the skin is an extension from both the immune system and nervous system.

The skin acts as the first vital defence in any threat to the body, receives feedback from the environment which is perceived by the nervous system, but also receives messages from the nervous system to the skin. It is built from the same primordial tissue of our spinal cord, and the two functions are in constant communication providing feedback to the entire central nervous system on whether the body is safe to rest or under stress.

Every other organ feeds into the skin in some way. For example: the liver and gall bladder mostly providing information to the tissue, whether it need to be relaxed or hold tension. The heart and small intestine provide circulation, lymphatic movement and warmth. The spleen and stomach influence the fat deposits and glow. The lungs and large intestine help process the pathogenic release and the oxygenation. The kidneys and bladder influence the hydration.

There is nothing about the body that cannot be seen on the skin, if one knows how to understand the language.

The body is governed by a fundamental natural law that demonstrates all living beings with a vital force have an innate capacity to heal themselves, when in an environment that is resonate to their self. Another concept which has been observed and utilised since the ancient medical practices and recently disregarded.

Because the skin is so intertwined with every process on the human body AND visible to our human eyes, it will involve itself loudly in processes of homeostasis (restoring balance). My philosophy is there are two main reasons for this.

1. So you can receive immediate feedback on how and what does and doesn’t support your vital force and;
2. So your community can do so too

In an age where practitioners use appearance altering and performative synthetics as the first options for treating skin conditions we are collectively missing a grand opportunity to enrich a persons life with more connection to the vital force we all have access to as beings of earth.

The skin is never working against us, quite the contrary. It is always sacrificing itself to create a more inhabitable environment for our deeper and more vital organs and mysteries. For the skin to be considered truly healthy it should be incredibly responsive and communicative with us about our environment, habits and lifestyle. This does not mean reactive, there is a difference to determine between what is a message or what is long term imbalance turned disruptive. In any case the skin is never the main issue.

In most people’s lives they will experience a period of skin challenges and often they know on some level that there are things they are engaging in that are not supportive for them. Some will experience ongoing and troublesome skin conditions and though they can become auto-immune in cases of severe loss of vital force or triggers, I believe everyone can access more harmony, more balance, more vital force by using their skin to show them the way.

what about skin care?

Orthodox skin care today is based in performative, results driven, active, isolated extracts. Synthesised ingredients, extracts of whole ingredients, performance based molecules and capitalist farming and manufacturing takes something very special and alchemical away from whole herbs, herbal medicine and what the skin can safely and ecstatically integrate into our system. I believe the skin provides us an opportunity to trans-dermally absorb herbal medicines in a slow, gentle, safe and sensual way, which is an extremely different model to what the industry currently works with generally. Skin care in my world is simple, slow, ancestral and also a part of the daily medicine of life. No synthetic ingredients or highly processed and manufacturing products are featured in this work. Most of the skin care used in your ritual will be formulated for you during the ritual itself, as well as several products from local hand makers and creators.