Hi there!
Do you ever have the feeling that ‘your gut is telling something and you think it’s right, but you don’t want to hear it because you actually don’t appreciate what it's saying'?
Because I do!
I’ve learned a lot from my gut feeling (which I sometimes don't want to acknowledge in the moment) and I'm still learning from it.
The last few days have been some of those "learning from my gut feeling" days. If you didn't already know, diet and psoriasis are very closely related. I know the certain foods that affect my skin. After all these years of knowing what my body likes and dislikes, I still get this hopeful thinking that “maybe this time will be alright, maybe I can handle this”.
Highly fermented food is one of those foods that affect my skin. Even though they're super good for your body in general, my body doesn’t seem to think so. Whenever I over-do-it, my skin starts to get very angry. Kimchi, for example. I absolutely love Kimchi. I can eat it like a cow eats grass. Fresh kimchi is good but my favorite is the aged, sour kimchi (the kind that has a ‘pussssh’ sound when you open the container)
Well, I had that last week, I enjoyed every bite of it, probably way more than my body liked. My head was telling me “hey, that’s way too much!” but I ignored it. A few days later, red irritated spots showed up on my neck as well as on my face. After applying my Dead Sea Salt cream, they quiet down overnight and they seem to be calmed down in the morning, but by the end of the day, they start to wake up again. You know how it goes... Then, my scalp started to get irritated again, and my whole head felt like wearing a tight helmet.
I should have listened to my ‘gut feeling’!
Then, here we go again on what I call “Pso-cycle”.
Trigger (food, stress, environmental) ➡️ Flare up ➡️ Red/Spots/Flaky days where it fluctuates ➡️ Calm down ➡️ Hopefully disappear.
Do I panic? I used to, but not anymore… because I decided to use this cycle as a learning opportunity. Experimental opportunity. Zooming out opportunity. Oh, but first, I remember to apologize to myself for ignoring my own ‘gut feeling’ which could’ve helped me avoid the whole thing 😅
Anyways… I think I will take this time-around with that same “Trying something new - experimental” approach. I might purchase something I’ve had my eyes on - Good quality solid shampoo. I might try something that my gut might appreciate - liquid ginger/turmeric tonic. Then, I will cook something that may calm the inflammation - wild caught salmon with avocado cucumber salsa (that’s not a new thing but my body really likes this). No Kimchi.
I am still working on SkinCalm Shampoo for Psoriasis, and I have a couple of new ideas that I’d like to implement, so that’s another ‘something new’ project.
After all, going through this “Pso-cycle” doesn’t sound too bad, when I think of what I can learn from it. It doesn’t have to be big or exciting stuff, but trying to think of this cycle as an opportunity is much more productive and positive than being disappointed or feeling sad/frustrated.
What do you do, and how do you deal with/approach your pso-cycle when you have a flare? Please share with us! Our email is info@skincalm.com :)
