6 Amazing Benefits Of Dry Brushing Your Skin
Small and simple habits are threaded throughout your day, and those habits, collectively, are the things that determine whether you’re living a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle. You probably get up in the morning and head straight to bathroom, where you first relieve yourself and then automatically turn to the sink to wash your hands and brush your teeth. Those first few habits kickstart the day into a chain of other habits—some good, some bad.
Well, there’s a small and simple technique that you can add to your daily wellness routine—a good habit to instill that will tip the scales in your favor when it comes to healthy living.
Dry brushing may not seem like much at all, but the health benefits are actually quite vast. It is an excellent way to exfoliate the skin, increase blood circulation, boost lymphatic support, clean out your pores, and naturally get an energy boost.
Best of all? This DIY beauty trick costs nothing (aside from the cost of the brush itself), requires no special skills, and doesn’t take much time at all.
RELATED: Detoxify Regularly With Dry Skin Brushing
What Is Dry Brushing?
The dry brushing technique requires a soft but firm skin brush. Standing dry and naked in the shower or bathtub, you’ll begin to brush your skin starting from the feet and working your way up toward the heart. All brush strokes should be directed toward the heart.
Why Is Dry Brushing So Important?
Your skin is the largest organ in your body. It plays an incredibly important role in detoxification and therefore holds a lot of toxins much of the time. At any given time, your skin receives a third of the blood that is being circulated in the body. When the blood is laden with toxins, the skin quickly reflects that in all kinds of skin problems.
Dry brushing helps us to maintain healthy skin, which in turn helps us to maintain healthy bodies.
RELATED: Simple Beauty Routines to Heal and Nourish Your Skin
Health Benefits of Dry Brushing
This is how you can benefit from adding this simple five-minute habit to your daily routine.
1. Exfoliates the Skin
Exfoliation is something that everyone should be doing. With each passing day, your skin cells regenerate, and new, healthy skin cells form. The older skin cells get pushed to the top and eventually die, and then they sit on the surface of the skin, blocking pores, inviting bacteria, and ruining your complexion.
With a daily dry brushing routine, you’re sweeping away those dead skin cells and clearing the way for clean pores. Even the smaller pores that are hard to clean out benefit from dry brushing. The result? Blackhead-free, acne-free, backne-free skin that is soft and glowing.
2. Provides Lymphatic Support
The lymphatic system is made up of vessels, ducts, and lymph nodes throughout the body. The whole system plays a major role in immune function and in the detoxification of the body. The fluid that flows through the lymphatic system is called lymph, and it has many jobs, one of which is picking up and removing all the waste let off from every cell in the body.
Dry brushing provides stimulation to the lymphatic system, making it work more efficiently so that it can easily remove toxins from the body and increase immune support.
3. Improves Circulation
The more you get your blood moving, the more oxygen is delivered to all your limbs and organs. Better circulation means quicker healing from injury and wounds, more efficient functioning of all organs, healthier skin, and a healthier heart.
Get your blood pumping each morning with a dry brushing routine.
RELATED: Herb of Choice for Stimulating Circulation: Cayenne Pepper
4. Reduces Cellulite
Toxins accumulate in fat cells, and those cells accumulate just under the skin, causing a dimpled, lumpy appearance, which many people find unflattering. Cellulite most often accumulates in the buttocks and thighs, although it can occur in other areas.
No need to go to extremes to remove that cellulite. Dry brushing helps to break down those toxins and those fatty deposits that are sitting beneath the skin.
5. Provides a Natural Energy Boost
Dry brushing is recommended as part of your morning or daytime routine because it is naturally invigorating, and you probably want to skip that energy boost right before going to sleep.
After a dry brush session and a shower, you’ll step out of the house feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day.
6. Sets the Stage for a Healthy Day
If some of the very first things you do when you wake up are part of a healthy wellness routine, you’ll be more likely to keep up those healthy habits throughout the day.
Your healthy choices early in the morning will encourage you to choose an apple over doughnut and gym over bar later on.
Choosing a Dry Brush
As mentioned above, you’ll want your brush to be soft but firm. Another important feature for your dry brush is that should be a natural bristle brush—not nylon or other synthetic materials.
Dry brushes with long handles allow you to access those hard-to-reach areas like your back and prevent too much bending and twisting while dry brushing.
It’s best to get a smaller, softer brush for your face if you plan on dry brushing your face as well. The bristles from a larger brush will probably be too rough on the sensitive skin on your face.
How to Dry Brush
When you first start dry brushing, use very gentle and soft strokes. Your skin may be sensitive at the beginning, but eventually, it will get used to it.
Starting at the feet, brush up your legs in long, smooth strokes. Do the same from your hands all the way up your arms. Always brush toward the heart to promote healthy lymph flow. On the stomach, chest, and armpits, brush in circular clockwise strokes.
Dry brushing shouldn’t hurt at all. If it does, you’re using too much pressure, or your brush isn’t soft enough.
Conclusion
Your skin, lymphatic system, circulatory system, and energy levels will all benefit from adding this simple, short trick to your daily routine.
After dry brushing for a while, you may notice that your skin is softer and firmer. Find a brush that works for you and go for it. It’s certainly worth a try.
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