Hey everyone. An update for you. I recently got back to New Zealand (about six weeks ago) and guess what?
Flare!
Not a big flare – not one that is forcing me to stay locked inside – but still bad enough that it annoys me, disrupts my sleep a little, and makes me unhappy.
What’s happening exactly? Redness on my face, peeling on my face, very dry and itchy skin on my stomach and neck, and in the folds of my knees and elbows.
From a distance I still look normal, but close up you will notice my skin is upset.
The good news is, I feel like I’ve figured it out.
I wrote a few months ago about how our environment affects our skin and how changing environment is almost like a magic pill – it heals my skin, almost overnight.
This has been reinforced by two things:
- I’m seeing it again right now. My skin has been perfect all year, then as soon as I’m back in New Zealand, within weeks – bang.
- I was talking to a guy at my gym the other day how I’d been living in the Pacific Islands for some time, and he said “The humidity probably wouldn’t be very good for my eczema.” I told him, I also have bad eczema and it was much better over there for my skin. Then he told me, “When I go back to Taiwan, my skin actually gets way better.”
I am losing count now of people who have told me they move away from Australia or New Zealand and their skin gets better almost instantly. It is not a coincidence. Certain countries are very bad for skin, and we don’t have the money or resources to find out exactly why that is, but we do know it’s true.
The big positive for me out of this is – I no longer stress about my skin. I’m no longer wondering “How long do I have to put up with this? Will I have to live like this forever?”
I now know I can heal my skin instantly by simply getting on a plane, and within 48 hours my skin problems will be gone. This is so healing for my mental health, knowing there is a solution that, for what it’s worth, is always there whenever I need it.