How I stopped using Chi instead of Botox

I know, I know. I always preach to you, take 10 minutes on weekdays to apply "Chi instead of Botox", that's enough for wonderful results. I've been doing it myself for years. Well, and then of course there are always phases like this...

I stopped doing it a few weeks ago. Why? Hmm, I had so little time and so much stress and blah-blah-blah. I’d love to tell you that. But it’s not true. So, if I’m being completely honest, it was just plain old laziness. I didn’t fancy it, full stop. At first I thought, ‘Just take a week off, it doesn’t matter’ (translation: it doesn’t matter 😉). One week turned into two, then three, and nothing happened, and then I just completely forgot about it.

Last week we were in Croatia. You relax, feel better, become more mindful. And so here I am, sitting at the breakfast table, listening to my children chattering away, and I don’t feel well. My head feels strangely heavy, and my eyes just won’t quite wake up. I realise I’ve been feeling this tired in the mornings for a few days now. I have another coffee. It doesn’t help; it just makes my stomach ache – I’m not much of a coffee drinker. It takes a full two hours before I no longer feel as though I’m carrying a swollen melon on my shoulders. The next day, it’s the same. I put it down to the heat. It’s only when I’m standing in front of the mirror, applying my face cream, and thinking, „Wow, my skin feels strangely rough and it feels as though the cream isn’t sinking in at all,“ that it occurs to me I’ve been neglecting ‘Chi instead of Botox’ for ages. A feeling of happiness washes over me, because I now know that I won’t be feeling like an old elephant for half the day today.

The first thing I do is facial yoga. Twice as long as usual, so a good quarter of an hour. After that, the feeling of tiredness and heaviness in my head is gone. I already feel better. Unfortunately, I don't have a scraper or a cupping spoon with me. I get a soup spoon and try to scrape with it. It feels uncomfortable, it's too intense on my freshly tanned skin. I remember the email from a reader who wrote that she is scraping with an espresso saucer for now. I search the kitchen again and try it out. It's not the same as my scraper, but it works. My skin looks fresher again, feels softer, I can literally feel the lymphatic fluid draining away. I feel completely different to how I did half an hour ago. Feelings of happiness are spreading.

This great, fit body feeling is pretty high up on my scale of values. For me, it has nothing to do with vanity, but simply with quality of life. If I don't feel fit, I have gloomy thoughts and that leads to a whole rat's tail. The puffiness around my eyes is gone, I feel twenty years younger in one fell swoop. And because I feel so good right now, I tell my family that I'm going for a walk on the beach, alone with myself, just to start the day with mindfulness and a contented smile, to feel good about myself and listen to the waves, to be happy, grateful and connected. Honestly, how often does a woman - and even more so a mother - get to have moments like this?

Well, and then I thought that instead of sending you new material today, maybe I should send you some motivation in between. That's why I'm telling you this story. Stay tuned, it's worth it. Take a break, but go back to chi instead of botox soon. Treat yourself to this youthful freshness, this body feeling that doesn't stop at the neck, but also spreads to the face, head and throughout the whole body.

If you don’t yet know what Chi is instead of Botox, you’ll find all the information here: