Benefits of Dry Skin Brushing
Dry Brushing your skin is a very simple lifestyle routine with wonderful benefits.
Behold, a simple and beautiful way to take care of your largest organ - your skin! Dry skin brushing is a popular wellness practice and as you can tell by the name, involves using a dry bristle brush to “brush” the skin in a particular pattern.
Dry brushing involves a tough-bristle brush and dry skin. I typically like to dry brush before I shower, but I do know some who prefer to do it first thing in the morning when they wake up. The key to remember is to move towards your heart. I will talk about the reasons why very shortly, but basically you start at the bottom of your feet (some use circular motions, I like using short and straight strokes) and move upwards towards the heart. Anything above your heart means you would need to work downwards. You also want to make sure that your brush does not get wet. If it does, let it fully dry before using it again. You need the bristles to be tough enough to cause slight discomfort; and you must use enough pressure to reap the benefits.
The main benefits that I want to talk to you about today are benefits that I have reaped in my own life through my daily dry brushing practices.
Circulation
It makes total sense that the act of dry skin brushing benefits the circulatory system. The act of physically aiding your blood vessels in moving blood definitely translates, especially when we are intentionally moving blood towards the heart. Another system that you may not have known about is the Lymphatic system. This system is made up of lymph nodes, lymphatic vessels, lymph, your spleen, your tonsils and your thymus. The Lymphatic system is categorized as both part of the circulatory system and the immune system. Cool, right? Not only does this benefit overall circulation, digestion, brain function, etc…dry brushing also benefits your immune system and aids in detoxification which we will dive into now.
Detoxification
Using dry skin brushing regularly, you are supporting your detoxification pathway by opening a very important Emunctory: Your skin. An Emunctory is any tissue that allows excretions/waste to exit the body. This includes the Urogenital tract, the Gastrointestinal tract, the Respiratory tract, and of course the skin as we have already mentioned. This is a key concept in supporting the body’s many natural detoxifying systems, making sure the Emunctories are open and able to do their job properly. Guess what? This also means that you should ditch your anti-perspirant. Thats right, your sweat is a vessel for your body’s waste elimination too! That means when you are blocking your pores (even if it’s only in one area, we need all the surface area we can get). This is also a massive reason to use all natural skin care products, your skin absorbs everything!
Healthy skin
Using a tough bristle brush means that dry brushing serves as an excellent exfoliator. This also goes hand-in-hand with circulation and detoxification and helps contribute to healthy, bright and beautiful skin. This also helps open up the pores which, you guessed it, circles back to helping the body in detoxification. I also really enjoy this practice because its a part of my skincare that’s more than just putting oils and creams on topically (which is also very important), but its very mindful and super relaxing as well.
Choosing a Dry Skin Brush:
Make sure it is made of natural fibres (we don’t want plastic)
It should be fairly firm (I like to compare it to a large tooth brush)
Look for a shape that is comfortable and makes sense for you (there are so many different shapes, but you just need one to get the job done)
I have attached a short and sweet tutorial video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJfFe18L7pQ
Happy Dry Brushing!
