Shelly's Q&A to for Natural Beauty

What's one thing we can all do to age more gracefully?

If I had to sum it up into one all encompassing statement, it would be to do things that reduce inflammation in the body and that make you feel "lighter".

That could mean cleaning up your diet, performing self massage, meditating, singing, dancing, journaling, doing gua sha, hanging with friends, laughing, playing with your pet, etc.

All of these things help to quell and prevent inflammation in the body which helps to reduce overall stress. The reverse is also true; when you reduce stress, you automatically reduce inflammation.

The body knows how to heal itself naturally, it was designed to self heal and repair on its own - what gets in the way of healing is inflammation. Find ways to reduce inflammation and you’ll age more gracefully.

Do you have a favorite mantra?

“When we heal ourselves, we heal the world.”

The ultimate goal is to help raise the vibration of the collective human race. But that starts with improving ourselves as individuals first.

The practice of skincare is not about using the most popular facial creams on the market or doing whatever is trendy at that moment, it’s about spending time on your skin, touching it, assessing it, giving it love, feeding it the right nutrients inside and out.

Skincare is a natural way to connect with the deepest parts of ourselves through therapeutic touch and intention. Our skincare practices and rituals should become a part of who we are and shape who we are still becoming.

I think using skincare as a way to express self love helps us heal on a very deep level. And when enough people have the intention of healing the self, the vibration of our planet will raise too.  

Any tips to enhance our natural beauty?

To me, natural beauty is an energy, it’s all in the person’s aura. Practice kindness, compassion, generosity and love and your vibration will start to change immediately. Your cells are always listening to your thoughts and feelings - to become naturally beautiful you have to focus on becoming your own source of light, inside and out.

 A really quick way to enhance natural beauty is to become conscious of the way you hold your face. Instead of holding your brows and forehead with tension, relax the forehead, start to feel the ears and sides of the head relax too and let your eyes become soft. Then, start to bring awareness to your cheeks and mouth. Instead of allowing your mouth and cheeks to “hang” down on your face with gravity, hold slight tension in the cheeks with a slight curling up of the corners of the mouth, kind of like the Mona Lisa.

These simple tricks completely shift your energy within seconds AND since muscles have memory, it trains the muscles of the face to be lifted, while still feeling relaxed and at ease.