Its surprising how often equal and opposite forces are at play, even when it comes to skincare and makeup.
Recently, I’d been struggling with a few things with my skin, namely some congestion around my nose. I’d also been struggling a really tight hip and ilotibial band or ITB, which were affecting my yoga and walking. Both of these were a real pain, and quite annoying. However, I found the causes of both were the opposite of what initially seemed like it should have been the issue.
For the congestion around my nose, I’d tried scrubs and pimple creams, but they only seemed to make it worse, and in fact, made the area around my nose peel. For my hip, stretching the hip only provided a very short amount of relief. So what did I do?
I tried doing the opposite, which seems counter-intuitive. I tried a hydrating mask, and also tried stretching my hip flexor (the opposite side of the body to where the symptom was). In both cases, the so-called issue resolved extremely quickly.
If you have oily skin and skincare for oily skin isn’t fixing it, it may be because your skin is producing excess oil to combat dryness. In the case of the sore hip, my hip flexor was tight, meaning that the back of my body was working extra hard to compensate. I know it seems counter intuitive, but these really are worth trying. Try stretching the opposite side of your body. If one side is tight, you don’t want a see saw effect, where you fix one side, only to have a problem on the other because the side you stretched is now trying to compensate. This is so true in yoga as well as skincare. There’s a reason we always say to do poses on both sides, to even yourself up, and to ensure one side doesn’t over compensate.
