What about your skin?

Over the years, I have been asked this one question many times. What is the most important thing in life to you? Well, my answer has changed as I have gotten older. In my teen years, my answer was to be independent and successful. In my 20's the answer was always (my goals in life to become successful). In my 30's the answer was always (my family). Now that I am in my 40's my answer is (myself and my health). I wish I learned how important in life it is to put yourself first. Some people might think I am being selfish with that statement. But hold on, let me explain! When you are young, you feel like you have all the time in the world and your body feels amazing. you can go out at night into the wee hours of the morning, go home, get 1 hour of sleep and then get up and go to work. You feel great and function just fine throughout your day with just one cup of coffee. You never have to exercise, eat what you want, and you stay skinny. Your skin looks amazing, and it glows. Then one day, you wake up and all of a sudden you don't feel great. You can't recover quickly from that hangover and there is just no way to function at work or in general. You start to have aches and pains. The bags under your eyes are getting darker. You start to gain weight easily. You look at yourself and wonder What Happened!?! Well, what happened was, you focused so much on everything else and everyone else in life and forgot about you. No one teaches you how important you are. One of my favorite quotes is "It is health this is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver." - Mahatma Gandi. Of course, people preach about good diet and exercise and vitamins. But most of the time you hear about diet and exercise after you need it. But, what about the rest of your body? Your only taught about all the things to do for some of your internal organs. What about the largest organ on your body? What about your skin? Is your skin screaming for help? Your skin is the largest organ on your body and is the walls to your castle. "Skin is the only organ that reflects the state of your health" - Dr. Howard Murad. Your skin is made to protect you from harmful substances and UV rays that are harmful to your DNA. Your skin is also made to absorb Vitamin D which is crucial for bone health, immune function and other bodily processes. The New York Post just released an article called "This healthy trifecta slows down aging - and cuts the risk of invasive cancer by 61%". In this article it talks about how vitamin D plays an important role for your body. Your skin is an organ. Like all organs, if you don't treat it right, it will start to shut down. Let me explain. Every day you are weakening your skin without even knowing it. Just by wearing clothes to taking a shower to swimming in a pool. All these things are killing your skin and preventing your skin from properly absorbing Vitamin D from the sun. How?  You ask. Have you looked at all the ingredients in your laundry detergent, bath soap, shower gel, lotions, oils, cleaning supplies? All of these things have very harmful ingredients that your skin is trying to protect your insides from. But what most people don't realize is that these ingredients are also slowly damaging the cells in your skin. (An easy app to use to help you identify chemicals in products and how they affect your skin is clearya.com) That's a lot to change! It could seem very overwhelming to change everything we are used to using externally, all at once. So, I say don't! Start by changing only one item at a time. Like, switch to an all-natural soap or shower gel. Or maybe an all-natural lotion or laundry detergent. Make it a goal to switch over to all natural over a span of a year or two years. Over time, you will start to feel better. When you feel good inside and out, your vibration is high, and life becomes exciting again. So, I ask you. Is your skin happy?