I have had a request to write about skin care, so here goes.

Our skin is an incredible organ serving so many purposes:

• It keeps us from drying out.
• It provides us with incredible sensations of the world and those that inhabit the world with us.
• It is a major part of our immune system, our first line of information and defense.
• It protects us from many of the bangs and bruises of life.

Remember that the skin includes also the line of all our openings: ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, through our whole digestive tract, the urinary system and the vaginal opening.

We really dislike when our skin is clearing something out for us: rashes, pimples, diarrhea, mucus, and pus. Yes, this is how we can see what a good job the skin is doing, though we may not be so happy. Remember all of this is a sign you are healthy, that the body can move things out and prevent them from lodging within us or perhaps going deeper and causing more disruption and weakening of our vital spirit/energy/essence.

Our primary job when you see these signs is to support the body in its clearing process. Primary is that we hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Some people may think I am talking about detoxing. NO! We need to nourish, nourish, nourish. Fluids help to sooth and bathe tissues.

• This can be with drinking water or nettle tea.
• This can be with nasal flushes or eye washes with chamomile or eyebright tea.
• My favorite is baths, to a small area of the body: hand or foot soaks, first hot for 30 minutes and then cold for 1 to 3 minutes, poultices to the chest, or sinuses, or hemorrhoids. or full baths with aveno and/or baking soda or sea salt.
• When you have a rash or pustules, hot salt soaks can help the body clear it on to the surface so it can permanently clear.
• My favorite for rashes is plantain tea or poultices and for pustules or acne, try chickweed.

A poultice is just the herb crushed and wrapped in a thin cloth such as cheesecloth moistened with hot water. Do any of these treatments as frequently as you feel is helpful, comforting, and restoring.

If you find you are getting the same discharges over and over again, think about balance within which is what the body is seeking. Do not detox, but nourish the system you feel maybe out of balance (also called homeostasis). Each system of the body has a tonic herb to support its balance. For instance:

• For the nervous system and skin it is oats
• For the respiratory system, upper and lower it is mullein leaf
• For the female reproductive system it is raspberry leaf
• For the male reproductive system and urinary system it is corn silk.
• The digestive system has many different ones, depending on which part is out of balance, but the first step would be bitter herbs.
• For the immune system think of what is called an adaptogen herb, such as mushrooms and others depending on the system that seems to be part of the disruption.

This complexity of the issues could fill several books, but this will get you started. Please let me know any questions I can answer in future blogs, on this or any other issues.

Love that skin!!!!!