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You can minimize the appearance of your pores, but because pore sizes are genetically determined, you can’t really shrink them. Your pores can get stretched out when they’re consistently clogged, which makes them appear bigger. Aging and exposure to UV rays and pollution can lead to loss of collagen which can in turn increase your pore size. Instead of shrinking pores you can move to making them less visible. Pores are genetically determined, depending on how your glands are structured. People with dry skin and fair skin tend to have smaller pores while oily skin and darker, more olive skin tones, tend to have more visible pores. The best way to prevent pores from getting larger is to exfoliate and to wear sunscreen. Salicylic acid exfoliates differently than alpha hydroxy acids like glycolic acid and lactic acid. Salicylic acid is oil soluble, meaning it’s able to get inside pores to gently push out dead skin, bacteria, sebum, and any other pore-clogging debris. By removing that debris from your pores, your pores will appear smaller. Retinoids help increase cellular turnover and stimulate collagen production. By increasing cellular turnover, it effectively exfoliates dead skin cells, dirt and oil. Collagen also helps your skin look firmer, minimises the appearance of pores. Microdermabrasion is also recommended for most skin types. Avoid pore-clogging ingredients, like heavy oils, and look for non-comedogenic makeup and skincare brands that are specially formulated, so they don’t clog pores, cause irritation, or lead to breakouts.

I had a burnout of epic proportions. Although I had a few serious contributing factors ending in an extreme outcome, the cause of it is a textbook case of pushing yourself too hard, not showing selflove and not listening to the warning signs. But before I get into my story, and the mess that I found myself in, lets take a look at what a ‘burn out’ actually is. BURN OUT; It has been described as a syndrome of physical and emotional exhaustion due to long-term, unresolvable job stress, working under difficult or demanding conditions. Some people develop negative job attitudes, a loss of concern and feeling for either yourself or those with whom you work or are close to. The final stage of burnout is dangerous. The person has no reserves left to cope with any added pressure and the slightest, additional stress can send the person into a severe mental or physical breakdown. It would probably be much quicker to answer the question ‘Where did I go right’. At the time I couldn't see it but now that I am out the other side as it were, and have a new understanding of the major body systems, it seems glaringly obvious that things were never going to end well for me. I used to work for a large house builder in the City of London. It was extremely pressured, and stressful with lots of overseas travel and loooong hours. Granted the long hours were my choice but you cant hold a Head of Department position down in a high achieving business without putting in 150% right? At this point I would like to state that I put 40% of that pressure on myself, I was a workaholic and had hunger and drive, but it was to the detriment of my health and my relationship with my family. When I wasn't at work, I was thinking about work. I never actually switched off and was always on call. My family repeatedly asked me over the course of about 18 months to slow down, to take my foot off the gas, take a break, change careers - Did I listen? I enjoyed my job. I was good at it, it came naturally to me and I thrived off the buzz and the ‘stress’. Or so I thought. I was doing myself so much damage and my lifestyle, nutrition, work life balance and my general attitude towards my own health and wellbeing was all wrong. I was so wired to the job that I had trouble sleeping at night. I got into the habit of putting my earphones in and listening to an audio book to get me off to sleep and by the time morning came I’d usually had unbroken sleep amounting to 4.5 hours. I used to have 16 cups of coffee a day (4 of those before 8am) and I never ate breakfast - unless I was hungover and then ‘The Queens Head’ egg and hash brown bap with half a bottle of ketchup was a life saver! Lunch was a ‘just add water’ diet packet meal of 150 calories and dinner would most likely be after 9pm and either a take away or some delight that Sainbusy’s had produced that you could stick in the oven with some veg. - There's nothing wrong with that is there? Oh! and I smoked! My medical history over the last 7 years has been shocking, complicated and damn right frustrating at best. For my full story check out ‘My illness and surgeries - an honest account’. So if you have just popped over to that article and came back - I did warn you eh? I am going to fast forward 6 years and summarize (spoiler alert) that I had multiple brain and spine surgeries and was 3 years recovered and back to living a very normal and active life. . . Well that was until over the course of a couple of weeks in July 2018 I lost the feeling from my chest down and was not able to walk normally. I was hospitalised and after 15 days of intense therapy and a whole load of soul searching and digging deep for courage and strength, I was released... Wheelchair bound... My body had crashed. This is a severe case of a burn out and there were other factors that contributed to this physical breakdown but the warning signs were there and I just didn't take it seriously. Stress is singularly the greatest cause of ill health in our society. Severe and chronic stress releases a flood of toxins which circulate throughout our bodies and this is a powerful suppressor of the human immune system and this is where Reflexology will play a vital part in the reduction of stress related illnesses. Managing Stress levels Stress can be controlled. Excessive stress can be reduced and you can manage your stress reaction or be taught how to do it. You can learn specific skills that will help you identify potential stressors and modify harmful stress reactions without the use of pills, cigarettes, alcohol or other drugs. Once these skills are acquired, stress can be managed when it occurs and excessive stress can be prevented from developing in the first place. Stress management begins with a positive attitude. You need not adapt, adjust, fit-in or change yourself to suit others. Rather, in stress management, you are the control figure - you are the focus of change which you yourself engineer. You should also not make light of any stressors affecting you - if these stressors are placing you under pressure, they are real and should be seen as such. If something is affecting you, it needs attention no matter how trivial it may appear to others. Therefore, it is very important that you do not underrate yourself. Don't feel inadequate because you seem to react more to stress than others around you. It may simply be that they respond in less apparent ways. Create and nurture a positive approach. With it, stress can be managed and your health and well-being are worth the effort. First, you must be aware of levels of stress, indications that stress is present, attributes in your character and behavioural patterns that are stress-related, causes of stress and ways of managing it. The second step to positive change is self-acceptance. What you are today is the result of all your life's experience. Change is always possible, but important changes don't happen in an instant. Don't judge yourself harshly, be kind to yourself. Accepting what you are and who you are is an essential step. Lastly, it is important that you acknowledge that responsibility for change begins with you - whatever your stressors, you can instigate the necessary change. Here are four basic strategies that helped me: *Build up general health through proper nutrition, rest, exercise and other positive health practices. *Change the situation, or the sources of stress. *Change your mind set, i.e. your perception of, or thoughts about the stressors affecting you. *Change your body reaction to stress. Learn to substitute relaxation responses for stress responses. If I can help just one person with my story, my discoveries, my experiences, then I have succeeded. I have gone on a massive journey and come out a better, healthier and happier person. I honestly wouldn't change it for the world. That being said, I wish someone was able to impart their knowledge at the time for me. If any of this resonates with you, even just a little, I’d love to hear from you. It doesn't have to be a catastrophic melt down, a physical or mental breakdown. You may just be in a ‘funk’. I’d still love to hear form you and if I can help... Even better.

Stress related disorders have become increasingly common, and the wear and tear caused by chronic stress can contribute to a physical and/or mental breakdown. Some disorders such as hypertension (high blood pressure), have reached almost epidemic proportions. Because of these increases, stress and ways of dealing with it, are a major target of medical and psychological researchers. Of course, it is not possible or advisable to attribute all disease to stress. A person's health is, after all, the result of complex environmental, biological, behavioural and health care factors. In the quest for improved personal health, stress deserves our attention in the treatment of disease and consideration of lifestyle. What is stress? Stress can be defined as the experience of unpleasant over (or under)-stimulation which potentially leads to ill-health. No human being can function without stimulation and challenge. It is part of life and provides excitement, impetus and motivation, as well as, unfortunately distress and anxiety. As long as you feel in control, challenge can be invigorating. However, with some of the challenges you meet, the more disabling, feelings and actions associated with stress, can take hold. Stress is the result of a mismatch between the challenges you experience and your belief in your ability to cope. The challenges may come from sources external to you and may be the result of too much or too little pressure. Pressures may also come from within you, and be a product of your own value systems, needs and expectations. Everyone perceives and interprets stress in different ways. The physical effects of stress One of the first areas to consider is the chemical burden from our modern and affluent lifestyle. Pesticides, fertilisers, additives, sprays and other chemicals which we are constantly in contact with initiate stress reactions within our bodies. The ingestion of allergenic foods is highly stressful. Most people are considered intolerant to something. The detrimental effects of tea, coffee and alcohol; other than being nutritionally valueless, is that they create a direct physical stress on the internal organs responsible for detoxifying them (mainly the liver) and further unbalance our emotional state because they are stimulating drugs. There can also be physical stress from over exertion leaving you feeling exhausted and energy levels totally depleted. Consider someone who works long hours or shift-hours where the natural rhythm of bodily function and internal energy exchanges are either inhibited or thrown out of balance. The proverbial 'workaholic' very often suffers, primarily from physical and mental exhaustion. The emotional effects of stress These create tension and irritability which is very often manifested as disease or illness as ways of dealing with emotions that cannot be expressed. When a person finds themselves in a circumstance which they feel is beyond their control and with seemingly no resolve, they will often subconsciously transfer their feelings to the physical, as its form of expression. A common example here is headache; the feeling of hopelessness that results from being locked into a particular role or circumstance often results in a headache. Of course, the more organic causes of headache could include eyestrain, constipation or neck problems, however, no amount of physical therapy will solve the problem if there is a strong emotional "cause" behind it. Skin problems usually have an identifiable emotional basis. An irritating skin complaint can often be the result of irritating life circumstances. It might be irritation with your job for example. If such stresses are not dealt within the right way at the emotional level, they will most likely manifest as an irritating rash or similar condition until the problem is resolved. Another example is constipation; If chronic cases do not respond to the physical priorities of more water and fibre in diet, the cause may be retention in the mind, for example, holding on tenaciously to old ideas or relationships that no longer serve our best interests. These mental retentions can manifest as the physical retention of rubbish that we would best be well rid of. Physical therapies like drugs, vitamins, herbs and diet will be useful in all cases, however to use only physical therapies would not acknowledge the all powerful role that the mind and the subconscious, in particular, play in our state of well being and this shows what an important part massage is in the treatment of stress related disorders. The mental effects of stress These impair logical thinking and can occur for many reasons. There may be a conflict at work or at home; worry about your appearance, abilities or relationships, children, career or finances. Indeed anything! A problem which does not bear a second thought for one person, may be a catastrophe for another. These stresses and conflicts are very real for those who are experiencing them. In this sense, stress is highly subjective and here in lies a major key to correcting it. To change your thinking about a problem is often enough to correct that problem. The very existence of worrying stress is confirmation that better ways of approaching and handling the situation need to be found. Stressful problems must be rectified or they will make us miserable emotionally and will very likely manifest physically. The vehicles for this physical manifestation being our nervous and endocrine systems (hormones), which form the link between thought and the physical. Suppressed emotions can result in physical disease as well as mental disease. Two of the more common conditions which are easily related to stress are ulcers and hypochlorhydria (digestion issues). These are often the direct result of emotional and physical stress. You will recognise that these complaints result in pain and poor digestion and will eventually have an effect on every cell within our body. The behavioural effects of stress From a purely physical point of view our body reacts the same way, no matter what the stress is. Be it an argument with your employer or flight from a wild animal; the physical response will be basically the same; only the degree of response will vary according to the intensity of the stress. The advantages of the latter example is that you are either going to be eaten by that wild animal or you will escape! Either way the stress will be resolved. It is often not possible to resolve stresses in our modern and complex framework of social interaction. Intense emotions may have to be buried with no opportunity for immediate or short term resolve. These feelings of anger, futility, resentment and hurt are left to eat away at our very core. It is important to acknowledge that all stresses are not bad. Some stress is necessary and is a great motivator. Indeed stress reactions are very necessary for our survival. They are our body's way of preparing for and dealing with crises. This is both necessary and healthy. What is not healthy is excessive or chronic (ongoing, long term) stress. When we are chronically stressed all of these physical reactions (fight or flight mode) remain active. Everything is thrown out of balance. It is hardly conducive to the digestion if, through a stress reaction, your blood has been directed away from the digestive area and gastric secretion has been inhibited. Two examples of this would be arguing at the dinner table or maintaining intense mental activity at work whilst eating lunch. In conclusion, it is important to realise that however well you appear to cope with everyday life, you will experience stress to some degree. Moderate amounts are good for you, and can improve your performance, your efficiency and productivity. But too much may generate disabling emotions such as overwhelming anxiety and tension, difficulty in thinking clearly, and a wide range of behavioural responses.