Becoming Enough With SKIN&CO x Prospect Farms

This post was produced in partnership with Prospect Farms and Skin&Co as a part of our Mental Health Week Initiative. Join us on social@ProspectFarmsMaine to learn more!

There’s a beautiful quote by Brené Brown that goes: “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” How many times do we forget about what truly gives our years, days and minutes the energy to operate? It’s the power we have within ourselves. And we all have it.

Some have mastered it better than others. Or some are learning to hear that voice within while still getting distracted by the more prominent voices coming from the outside saying: “You are not enough. You’re not pretty enough. You’re not smart enough. You’re not connected enough.” The truth is, you are absolutely enough.

I’ve learned that we are enough through the years. I learned that, indeed, life gives you what you are ready to handle. You might think you are not ever prepared, but the truth is: you have an untapped power within yourself that unleashes when you’re in danger, and it comes out to protect you.

Much of that strength is truly a spiritual and mental growth that happens over time. Every single moment, every single conversation, every minute of our life goes into growing that strength that protects us. Imagine if we surrounded ourselves with very negative, unkind and unobjective people and thoughts every single moment of our day. We would be building such an unresponsive, malicious, unkind and unobjective defense to that very same strength needed in times of hardship for our mental and physical well-being.

Instead, how do we grow, nurture, and maintain that strength and mental capacity needed, especially in today’s world? Here we go, back to the Brené Brown quote: by talking to ourselves like we would to someone we love. Loving ourselves doesn’t mean allowing ourselves to eat burgers and fries whenever we want to or call in sick just because, “Today I’m doing me”—quite the opposite. Loving ourselves is understanding what we can support from within by pushing a little further every day, and holding back with a conscious understanding that we will get there, but just not today, some other time. Loving ourselves also allows us to smell, taste, feel a greater connection than that we have with our jobs, our families or the world we live in. It’s a connection with your own self.

How to Feel Like Enough

In honor of the Mental Health Week Initiative SKIN&CO and Prospect Farms are partnering on,  I want to really focus on the steps we take, daily, to support ourselves. We have come a long way, particularly during a year that’s been very hard on our mental and physical health. It’s been a year that has forced us to stay away from the people we love (and those we don’t like much either), from things we enjoy doing, from traveling to places that teach us a little more about ourselves. It’s been a year that has truly put pressure into looking into the bigger picture that we didn’t usually have time to look at before. While we are restricted from doing so many things we love, there’s a great list we can still achieve within our own homes.

Clear Your Space, Clear Your Mind

I am one of those that, when days are not-so-cool, needs to clean up. If something is not right, the first thing I need to reset and restart is to be in a clean, welcoming and supportive environment. A similar approach works within me. How can I support my own self without starting from a place within that is clean, welcoming and supportive?

As a hardcore born-and-raised Italian, you’d think the room I would start would be the kitchen, but really, it’s the bathroom (well, followed by some random trips to the kitchen because I believe that all senses were created equal!).

Soak It Out

One of my favorite nighttime winter rituals starts with a bubble bath. Last year we created this super soothing, refreshing and invigorating bath gel called Sardinian Spirit. It was created to give an opportunity for local farmers to create a product in partnership with our brand straight from their farms in Italy. It’s the process of breathing in the fresh aroma that truly helps soothe the senses and invigorate the spirit.

Turn Meals Into a Ritual

As I move from bath to kitchen (of course after a proper skincare routine and some essential oils) my next self-love action is manifested in cooking. So why don’t we all allow a minute or sixty to love ourselves, bathe ourselves in a relaxing ritual or cook ourselves a delicious fresh meal, like we would for someone we love? I think this year is teaching us that we surely should. 

Over time, I’ve learned that there’s a special, mystical, reinforcing energy we give ourselves when we take care of our own bodies. Our own skin. While many call it self-care, I like to call it self-love. We spend so much time and energy loving others that we are indirectly trained to feel almost guilty loving ourselves. It is one of the reasons I created SKIN&CO. I grew up and have lived around farms most of my life, and I know the love and care that go into growing the right ingredients. The potency of ingredients grown properly, and the nutrients that they contain really make a difference in the way our bodies process them. 

Treat Yourself Like You’re Enough

To get you started on your journey to self-love, SKIN&CO has partnered with Prospect Farms to help you build your self-care ritual. Enter HERE to win The Ritual Body Set from SKIN&CO and 750 mg bottles of Prospect Farm’s Awaken and Natural Balance tinctures.