Introduction to Simply Vibrant

Join my email list so that you can see what happens when simple intentional self care, and empowering spirituality get together and have anointed lip balm babies! LOL! I am so excited to share this brand new series with you!

Edited Transcript of Video:

My name is Carmen Shenk. I’ll be your host as we take a look through hair, skin, hands, face, and makeup routines, to make sure that we’re actually taking really good care of ourselves. Why? Because you matter! You deserve to be well!

One of the things that we forget as entrepreneurs, as parents, as busy people …we forget to take care of ourselves.  We can jeopardize our relationships, jobs, businesses and side hustles by not taking care of ourselves. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we’re going to be spending a lot of money on healthcare and a lot of time in doctor’s offices.  Time and resources that we could be spending on the things that matter most to us.  So it is especially important that we really focus in on taking good care of ourselves now with great quality self care so that we need less health care later on.  And that’s the main reason that I created this series.

There are four things about me that I want you to know going in, because it will give you a feel for what you can expect in this series:

We went tiny in the fall of 2014. Yes, we actually moved into a tiny house. It was 125 square feet. But one of the beautiful things about that experience was that I got rid of so many products in my life. It was so liberating. It was just really great to just clear the deck because you know what?  It didn’t all fit! It wasn’t going to fit and that’s okay because I didn’t need it anyway. The best thing I discovered in living tiny, was that simplicity REALLY agrees with me, spirit, soul, and body!  Purposeful Simplicity set me free and I am excited to share what I learned with you.

Secondly, I have a skincare issue. A year ago I got a diagnosis that I cannot spell or pronounce (but I keep a note in my desk with the name written down: Pemphigus Folaceous). It’s an autoimmune skin condition. Basically it means my skin itches, and a flare up looks and feels very much like poison ivy.

Unfortunately, the medical profession could give me the diagnosis after an extremely expensive testing process, but they could not cure or prevent outbreaks.  And prescribed medication such a Prednisone is its own kind of horror.  So the medical profession has not been a whole lot of help (for my skin or my finances). I’ve had to get really intentional about taking care of myself because when it all comes down to it – that’s my job.  Nobody else’s.  Mine.

There are lots of great non-toxic personal care products on the market, but not all of those are formulated for people like me with sensitive skin.  Therefore, when I find something that I can use? I’m delighted to share that news!  At each step in this series, I share the recipes that have been tested on my own skin so that you can use them with confidence. If they work for me, then I’m confident that they will also be helpful for you.

Also in the same vein (and it’s all connected) I have some food sensitivities.  I’ve got a 17 page list for foods my body doesn’t like.

For example, I found out that I have a food intolerance to almonds. Well, I had been eating a lot of almonds, and I love Marzipan, and I was using sweet almond oil in a lot of the DIY recipes that I used on my skin.  So all of those things, eating almonds and using the oil, all that was making my skin go nuts (lol!).

The first week after I got the results, I went completely almond-free.  And as a direct result – I was able to completely remove one medication from my routine.  YAY!  That was a huge for me!  So it’s been really helpful to learn about food intolerance because it has really helped my body heal.

Therefore, I have included in this series a video about food sensitivities so that you can also be tested and discover if a food sensitivity is causing problems for you as well.

Another thing I learned living in a tiny house is trash can pile up quick! And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to notice all the damage we are doing to the earth.  As a result, I have zero tolerance for single use plastics and disposable items. So you will see as we go along that a lot of my choices and the routines I make for myself are simple and beautiful and reusable.  Earth friendly choices matter to me.  And I continue to work to make my self care routines more zero waste.

I really love to DIY everything. I love making it all from scratch, plus that’s a great way to cut down on single use plastics. The more opportunities for research and creativity, the more I love it!  I’d very happily make every single product in my life from scratch if I could… And I’ve tried to make many of the things we use often.  Every time I succeed, I feel triumphant.  There have been quite a few recipes I’ve tried that I. will. Never. make again.  LOL!  You get the benefit of things I have learned the hard way over the last five years.

Unfortunately, sometimes I’m just too busy to DIY things. So on those days when I don’t have time to make my shampoo or I can’t make this or that or the other thing (or simply want more of a luxury product) I do have a short list of companies I enjoy buying from.  So when I can’t make it myself, they are my go to source.

I love how simple that is. When I recently ran out of the moisturizer that I use on my face, I just added it to my order and it’s gonna show up in a few days here at the house.  I place an order once a month and I don’t have to make a special trip anywhere. I just visit the website quickly, add one thing to my cart. Fantastic. I love the simplicity and ease of that.

If you’re like me, a busy entrepreneur, you know that taking care of yourself is probably one of the hardest things to find time for. It doesn’t make sense that we are at the bottom of our own list, but as parents, and as entrepreneurs – it is so important that we take good care of ourselves.

I remember when we had a busy, busy restaurant and I had the whole staff and they depended on me for a paycheck.  So in that case if I neglected myself – I wasn’t just doing harm to myself – I was not serving my staff well.  If I didn’t take care of my health, this would be a short term employment situation for them and that would suck for everybody.  And in the end, one of the reasons we closed the restaurant was because the stress had gotten to us.  I was in the emergency room with my handsome husband with chest pains a number of times, and I was showing signs of extreme adrenal fatigue.  We’d been working too hard, we were missing each other, and our health was beginning to suffer… which was one of the reasons we needed to find a different way to live.  That’s what brought us to living in a tiny house and pushing the reset button on our lives.  (Unfortunately, that also meant some good people had to find other employment, and that was really difficult for us.)  And that’s why I’m so passionate about helping people do intentional self care now… so that we need to less healthcare later… and so that we can continue to do the work we love for the long haul… and so that we can be there for the people who depend on us.

Finally, no conversation about hair, skin, and makeup would be complete without practicing what I call radical self acceptance.  All of marketing is based on the idea that they are going to reveal our problem and then they’re going to offer you the solution for $19.95.  That’s what marketing is and there are billions of dollars of marketing money aimed at your eyes every single day to sell you products, to sell you makeup, to sell you skincare, to sell you all kinds of products based on the idea that you have a problem and they have the solution. Well, guess what? If we reject that idea that first of all we have a problem and some external source can be the solution?  It’s going to save us so much money!  And I would rather your money be in your pocket because that’s where it belongs.

When we are insecure and unsure and lack confidence, that’s when it’s really easy for companies to come in and fleece us. It’s bad enough that there are toxins in the products. Sometimes the marketing approach itself is toxic, and I want to help you be impervious to that.  When we practice radical self acceptance, we just aren’t as easily manipulated by those messages anymore. We just say: “No! I’m not buying it!”  That is a vibrant place to be because that means we’re free. And that kind of confidence and freedom makes us absolutely gorgeous!

Stay tuned. We’re going to talk about hair, skin, hands, face, makeup… all of that. We’re going to talk about self-acceptance because it’s all about living our true vibrant selves!  It is important to take good care of ourselves and be the beautiful people that we were created to be, so that we release beauty in the earth.  Because that’s what it really comes down to, to not just express beauty and wear beauty, but to BE beauty.

So come along on the journey with me. This will be a great adventure! Thank you so much for listening, I really appreciate it.

Join my email list so that you can see what happens when simple intentional self care, and empowering spirituality get together and have anointed lip balm babies! LOL! I am so excited to share this brand new series with you!