Boost Your Mood With Dry Body Brushing
Got the blues? Been feeling in a funk and just cannot get out and don't see how? Try dry body brushing (dry skin brushing) as a fast and effective way to beat the blues away. Dry body brushing has many benefits, one of them the invigorating feeling that results from the brushing. Your skin, blood and overall health benefit by doing this for just a few minutes each day before you shower.
Our skin is the largest organ of our body, yet most often neglected. We rarely think about what we can do to take care of it besides slathering on some cream. Dry body brushing is the most natural and effective way to immediately start seeing and feeling results throughout the entire body.
Some Benefits:
- Gets your heart rate going
- Boosts your mood and energy
- Circulates blood and lymph through the body
- Removes dead skin
- Tones skin and helps with cellulite
- Helps eliminate toxins by speeding waste removal
When you begin to dry brush your heart rate will increase just slightly enough to get the blow flowing in the morning and invigorate you. The sensation of the brushing, along with getting your blood flowing, lifts your mood immediately. You will feel energized and ready to go, and once you shower you will feel like a whole new, refreshed you.
Consider your lymph to be part of the filtration system of your body, moving nutrients cells and through blood and moving toxins out. Helping your lymphatic system function at its optimum level helps eliminate toxic buildup in the blood, cells and organs. You will begin cleaning your body internally just by brushing the outside.
As an added benefit, dead skin cells will be sloughed off and fresh, new skin will be revealed. Dry body brushing does something more than harsher chemical exfoliation, as it seems to "wake the skin up" from the inside and you will notice a whole new glow and feel after just a few days of doing this. Plus its natural and doing what is natural as opposed to using harsh chemicals is always best for your body.
There are some who claim that dry body brushing improves the look of cellulite or even breaks it up by removing the toxins that are said to cause it. Whether or not this actually occurs, you will see improvements in tone, color and the texture of your skin looking its best.
What brush to use
It's easy to find a dry brush that is suitable for brushing your entire body. They can easily be found in many grocery and natural food stores in the bath or beauty sections. You will probably find a varied selection of brushes, but don't overwhelm yourself with worrying about the choice. Simply choose a body brush with natural bristles and a long handle. Most natural brushes have a wood handle as opposed to the plastic handle that many synthetic brushes have.
A quick read of the attached tags, or asking the store employees for assistance, will help you find a natural bristle brush. You may also want a very small brush specifically meant for your face, as the large brush will be too large and cumbersome and too harsh for your delicate facial tissue. Most basic natural brushes can be purchased cheaply for under $10.00 (U.S.).
Preparation
Starting with a warm room is highly recommended as it will make you feel better while you brush your entire naked skin. If you have a heat lamp, heat vent or heated floor, turn it on for a few minutes prior to getting in the shower to dry brush. It will feel like a warm hug while you treat yourself with the brushing. Consider it like a 5-minute spa experience every day and something you give to yourself as a nurturing gift. You will feel warm and invigorated by the entire experience each day.
How to dry brush your body
Whether you choose to brush from your feet to your head or head to feet does not matter as long as the strokes of the brush move towards your heart. You want to move the lymph back to the heart to circulate through your entire system. You also want to avoid damaging lymph or blood vessels and causing varicose veins through undue pressure in the wrong direction of the vessels.
Simply begin stroking the brush on your skin. A good long, brisk stroke towards the heart is best without applying unnecessary pressure. You don't have to go out of your way to apply any more pressure than the brushing action itself requires.
Just continue brushing in strokes towards your heart from either top-to-bottom, or bottom-to-top of your entire body. Use counterclockwise strokes on your stomach towards the heart. When done, turn on the shower and wash away any of the dead skin cells and toxins that are resting on the surface of your body. Some recommend a cold blast of water at the end of your shower to tighten the skin pores and to add to the invigoration and health benefits. This will be your preference to "cold blast" or not.
If you feel that you enjoy taking more than 5 minutes to brush your skin each day, begin extending the amount of time. Fifteen minutes is optimal and very beneficial, but even five minutes will greatly improve your physical and mental health. A good rule of thumb to begin would be 7-10 strokes per area to start.
Never brush yourself so much that your skin is red. If you are seeing redness on your skin, you may be applying too much pressure or are brushing for too long, so cut back on both and see if it improves. Again, with proper brushing technique redness should never happen. You may see your skin temporarily flushed due to increased blood circulation to the surface, but that disappears very quickly as you move to the next area.
Caring for your brush
Remember to clean your brush as often as you prefer, but one to two times weekly is suggested. Just use a natural soap, one without chemicals, to gently cleanse the bristles and hang it to dry. That's it.
If you start this inexpensive and simple regiment daily, you should see your mood lifted, your skin glowing and your overall health improve. After a month of doing this, the benefits will be quite obvious, so give yourself time to see the little improvements each day and know that you are helping your body heal, rejuvenate and your mind will love you for it too!
