The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as the old proverb says. Unless actions follow through on any intention of doing good, it’s essentially meaningless. When it comes to self-care - whether it’s resolving to get fitter, eat well, or log in eight hours of sleep a night - the bigger the ambition is, the harder it is to keep it up. For self-care to matter, it needs to be a habit, when it’s happening automatically, which we’ve believed to be rooted in creating routines.
One hurdle we can help you overcome is being intimidated by the amount of time or effort that goes into a self-care routine. After all, it’s not uncommon to struggle with something that requires a lot of commitment: time is a precious resource few of us can afford to ‘give up’.
We’ve turned to PureMaven’s Lily Agosto, one of the platform’s Mavens who’s a rare combo of being both a licensed esthetician for many years and a certified Reiki Master. Her unique background is especially helpful with this task: her own practice Mindful Beauty fuses wellness practices with treatments traditionally classified as esthetic services. “Mindfulness done right can elevate the effect of any routine,” Lily emphasizes, adding that “incorporating it into things you’re already doing makes it an easier transition.”
Lending an expert helping hand, Lily recommends doing your morning or nighttime skincare routine with affirmations, and you’ll get both a beauty and wellness exercise done in less than five minutes. Yup, you read that right: affirmations are simple but potentially powerful sentences aimed to tap into your conscious and unconscious to motivate you, and they’re designed to be spoken and internalized. For the uninitiated, saying words out loud when you’re alone is basically talking to yourself, and that can get…weird. With Lily’s leveled-up mindful skincare routine demonstrated in her video below (a sampler of her Meditative Facial Massage masterclass on PureMaven), this barrier is lowered since you’re likely doing skincare routines in private. Check out the affirmation she has chosen for this video - it is one we could all probably use heading into every…single…day of the week!
A few Maven tips from Lily to remember:
Put your phone away and remove other distractions when you’re doing this: turn the TV off, close the bathroom door, silence that cellphone. You’ll be surprised at how 5 minutes can be a solid amount of time if you’re staying focused on a self-care task!
Pay extra attention to your movements and how your skin is reacting to them. This naturally slows you down to just the right rhythm to get you into a mindful mood. Sometimes it helps to put some relaxing, gentle music in the background
No gua sha or jade roller? Use your hands and fingers and get that skin-on-skin warmth working in tandem with your favorite skincare products. (we’ve tried starting this routine from when we’re washing our faces, and mindful skin cleansing is a revelation)
Let us know how this works out for you and email us at care@puremaven.com or get on social media:
Follow both @theyard and @puremaven on Instagram so your messages get a direct route to our inboxes
Create a free PureMaven account (or have an existing one) to access more expert wellness guidance
Share an Instagram post, reel, or story of any self-care act that inspires using the hashtags #BeKindToYourself #WellnessWednesday and tagging both @theyard and @puremaven.
Or, simply comment on the related Wellness Wednesday post on both @theyard and @puremaven.
A SPECIAL GIFT FOR MEMBERS OF THE YARD: reach out to us and mention your Yard membership, and we’ll send you an insider code for an exclusive discount to Lily’s Gua Sha Meditation Facial Massage virtual masterclass.
#BeKindToYourself @puremaven @theyard
Comments