“You deserve to glow
And you always do!
At times it hides behind the sweat
Or remain untendered, giving way to other priorities.
But, now it’s time to woo it back,
Bring it on!
The pristine glow of your inner core…
Flaunt it on your apple cheeks,
Bear it on your hair strands,
And on your flawless skin…
Let the glow manifest in your contented mind…
That is always in complete peace with itself.
Head-to-toe, inside-out,
Brace yourself…
It’s time to show your inner glow!”
How To Glow Up Naturally?
A pertinent query that lingers our mind, a phrase that never evades our eyes whether it is on a billboard, TVC or social media post.
But before we get into that, here are a few words of self-assurance.
We all are blessed with good health that reflects on our skin and hair. We are also blessed with a blissful soul that can spread joy far and wide. Yet, seldom do we choose to acknowledge these or feel grateful for these priceless virtues.
Today, we are here for a month-long glow up challenge. When life happens, the first thing that we start neglecting is our skin, hair, and overall health.
However, it makes sense to halt for a moment and re-orient ourselves to a healthy regime that will not only bring back the glow on our face but will also show up in all aspects of your life.
What Is Glow Up?
Before accepting this challenge, we should first know what it means to glow up.
Going by the literal meaning of the word ‘glow up,’ it is essentially the radiance that shows on our skin.
We are used to hearing and reading the two words – glowing and skin together. However, as suggested by beauty therapists and dermatologists, the glow is not all that skin deep. It involves a lot more than that.
The real beauty starts from within.
It is in a peaceful mental state, and in all the internal organs that work round the clock to keep us healthy and hearty.
The real glow is when we are in the pink of our health. And it is this robust internal structure and mental equilibrium that reflects on our skin, hair, and nails.
It is how our body make us feel. The glow of our skin also depends on the quality of sleep we get and whether or not we feel hungry before each meal.
The glow of our health reflects on our productiveness, alertness, and responsiveness in every situation.
Why Take This Glow Up Challenge?
The objective behind this glow up challenge is to make you so much at peace with the way you look and feel during this tenure, that you would never want to neglect yourself.
This glow up challenge aims at making self-love justified for each one of us. At the end of this challenge, you will realize how you love to see yourself.
It will help you to discover yourself. While you scrub and massage your body, face and hair, while you choose the right food, while you push the limit of your body and mind, with each passing day, you reveal a new and more confident persona that care less about what other people think or talk about them.
You should take this glow up challenge and also inspire every other woman or teenage girl you know to take this challenge.
Let the glow up breed rise and shine together. Let’s get started…
How To Glow Up Step By Step
The second innings of the novel coronavirus has once again made us quarantined. The news media is flooded with threatening figures and social media, with obituaries. The only way to deal with this stress is to turn towards self-improvement.
Now, how to glow up during quarantine? Let see what you need for this glow up challenge?
Well, not much! Most of it is there in your house.
It would include some skin and hair care products (could be DIY or store-bought), a healthy meal plan, and some basic fitness and exercise tools to begin with.
We will elaborate on the list as you go along the various stages.
5-Point Agenda Before We Start This Glow Up Challenge
- We would try to integrate healthy eating, skin, and hair-care habits into our daily lives that will stay with us forever.
- We do not intend to get into any elaborate beauty regime that tends to get discontinued simply because of the time it takes.
- We will use easily available ingredients for our skin and hair care, and seasonal fruits and vegetables for our diet.
- We will incorporate some form of physical exercise, but keep it open for everyone to choose as per their endurance level and preferences.
- We will incorporate meditation, keeping the duration flexible (between 10-20 minutes).
Your Feelings After Finishing This Glow Up Challenge
On the other side of this glow up challenge, you will have –
- A glowing skin, healthy hair, and a peaceful mind.
- Self-care will become a part of your daily routine. It will become as effortless as brushing your teeth twice every day and clipping your overgrown nails and every other daily habit that we go about day in and day out.
- You’ll feel physically stronger and healthier.
- You’ll start developing new healthy habits.
To make this easy and doable, we will pilot it with a week-long challenge. First, we will see how to glow up in a week. Thereafter, we will proceed week by week to complete the month-long challenge.
Glow Up Challenge 2021
The year 2021 will be etched in our hearts till our last waking moment. This year was supposed to be the year of revival. Yet, it brought along more challenges than we ever expected.
The only thing that we can do is to focus on self-improvement so that when we tide over this situation, we will emerge to be stronger, more graceful, and confident than ever before.
So, lets prepare ourself to take this glow up challenge 2021 for your face, hair, body, and mind.
Part 1: How to glow up your face?
Part 2: How to glow up your hair?
Part 3: How to glow up your body?
Part 4: How to glow up your nails?
Part 5: How to glow up from inside?
Here’s how you can glow up of your life – for beauty, health, and ultimate wellness!
How To Glow Up Your Face?
Our face is the most exposed part of our body – not just to UV rays of the sun, rain, and wind, but it is also exposed to harsh chemicals that are used in the makeup we use.
It also mirrors your internal health. As teenagers, we are always on the watch out for ways to make our face the prettiest of all.
‘How to glow up as a teenage girl’ is one of the most searched queries on Google. That is the age when we feel our beauty lies in having perfect facial features. And why not?
Our face is the first thing people notice about us. And not only the teenagers, but this also holds for every age. So, let’s start our glow up challenge with our face.
1. Cleansing, Toning, and Moisturizing (CTM)
It is one thing that we should do every day. Yet most of us fail to stick to a basic CTM regime. So, the first step to our glow up challenge would include a developing CTM regime for yourself.
- Cleansing
Use any store-bought cleansing milk or face wash of your choice or opt for some DIY stuff such as mixing an equal quantity of raw milk and rose water. Dip cotton into this concoction. Wipe your face and neck with it. Leave it on for 10-15 minutes and wash it off with normal tap water.
- Toning
A toner helps to keep the secretions from your sebaceous glands in check. It also removes any residual trace of cleansing liquid or face wash. You could go for a store-bought variant or pick up a bottle of rose water.
- Moisturizing
Moisturizer helps to hydrate the facial skin. It makes your skin soft and supple. Pick up a mild moisturizer that suits your facial skin.
2. Scrubbing
Scrubbing is essential once or twice a week depending on the kind of sun exposure you get. It helps to remove to top dead cells of the skin.
Pick up a good exfoliator from the store or whisk up some kitchen ingredients. Some of the best exfoliates include lemon or orange peel powder, coffee, salt, and granulated sugar.
Mix them with a generous amount of oil of your choice or honey and work up on your skin.
3. Facial Message
Getting a facial massage once a week is relaxing and it also helps to rejuvenate your facial skin.
If you can’t trust the store brought brands or don’t like to spend so much for a once-a-week beauty regime, you can alternate between curd, mashed banana, egg whites, homemade flaxseed, or fenugreek gel.
Add a dash of oil of your choice, a few drops of your favorite essential oil, a pinch of turmeric. And you are good to go.
4. Face pack
Face pack provides the ultimate nourishment to your facial skin.
Choose a face pack of your choice or whip up some from the ingredients available on the kitchen counter.
How To Glow Up Your Hair?
Good hair is a product of good blood circulation and intestinal health. Hence, if you want thick and lustrous hair, pay attention to your eating habits and exercise regime.
The second factor that impacts your hair quality is a clean scalp.
Do you take a lot of stress? If yes, be prepared to deal with premature greys and hair fall.
What we apply to our hair hardly ever impacts the quality of our hair. However, if we are healthy internally, it will surely bear its mark on our hair. Yet a basic hair care regime is mentioned below –
- Wash your hair with a mild shampoo.
- Use a good conditioner.
- Go for a deep oil massage at least once a week.
- Apply a hair pack once a week.
- Take necessary care for colored and treated hair as directed by your hairstylist.
How To Glow Up Your Body?
As mentioned, several times before, your external beauty mirrors good internal health. Tending to our body should be a significant part of the glow up challenge. So, let’s see, how should we go about it.
1. Proper Hydration
The significance of proper water intake can never be emphasized enough. The recommended quantity of water intake is at least eight glasses.
It would be easy if you space out the time and also set a quantity for water intake throughout the day.
Here is how you plan your water intake…
- Sip one glass of lukewarm water right after you wake up in the morning.
- Take two glasses of water before each meal.
- Take a glass of water before taking a shower.
- Drink water before, in between, and after the workout.
- Drink at least half a glass of water one hour before you hit the sack at night.
Have you ever thought to try some beauty water recipes? Get some!!
2. Move Your Body
Our body is not meant to sit in one place. We were made to climb trees, toil in the sun and feel the wind and dust brush over our skin.
However, the sedentary work culture has made most of us sit and stay glued to the computer screen.
It has taken us away from the sun and natural air and locked us up inside the cubicles of air-conditioned office rooms. Hence, we should incorporate physical movement as much as possible throughout the day.
The best way is to take up a sport or join a dance or yoga class. Make sure you sweat it out for an hour at least five days a week.
Why not to try this 20-minute yoga workout session, if you’re a yoga lover.
More Ways To Use Your Limbs –
- If you are working from home, refrain from keeping your mobile right next to your laptop. You can access all your meeting or chat applications from your laptop. Hence, keep your phone away so that you have to take a few steps to attend the call.
- Take the stairs instead of lifts.
- Wash your dish every time you finish your meal.
- Try to wash at least one set of your clothes every day.
- Take up gardening.
3. Proper Nutrition
The true glow of our body comes from the food we eat. If you love your body, make sure you pick the kind of food that nourishes your body mostly.
Rujuta Diwekar, in her book,‘Indian Super Foods: Change the Way You Eat,’ writes that our body communicated with us. She says the only way to control overeating is to sit for the meal with our legs folded, eat slowly and be conscious while eating. Our bodies tell us when to stop.
Similarly, our body also tells us about the food it embraces and the ones that it rejects. Hence, learn to listen to your body when it comes to your food intake.
4. Bathing Ritual
Bathing is as much a part of the body care regime as much food, water, and exercise. It has a tranquilizing impact on both body and mind.
Make sure you never miss a shower and also try to make it a very relaxing time.
You can use a good body scrub, a fragrant shower get, light some incense and aromatic candle, and play some soft music to enjoy your bath.
How To Glow Up Your Nails?
As much as we spend time glowing up our face and body, if we have brittle or discolored nails, the glow-up mission will not be complete.
Here is how you should glow up your nails –
- Keep your hands clean.
- Clip, clean, and buff your nails regularly.
- Your nails should essentially be healthy. The length does not matter as much.
- Once a week, indulge yourself in a pampering manicure session.
- Apply oil to your nails every day before going to bed.
How To Glow Up From Inside?
The external glow will show only when your inner glow manifests itself. As we mentioned before that our body is meant to move around, but our mind is meant to be still.
However, in reality, our entire physiology is working exactly the other way round. And that is exactly the root cause of all our problems. This glow up challenge will soothe your soul and bring your inner glow out.
There are several ways to tend to your mind –
- You could listen to some soothing music or even take up instrumental music classes depending on your interest level and willingness to learn. It will help you to calm your mind.
- The best way to calm your mind is to practice meditation. There are several forms of meditation.
Ideally, you would need to get initiated into the process of meditation. The only key to it is to stay put and keep practicing at a set time of the day, without failing.
Conclusion:
Glowing up should be a habit rather than a week-long or a month-long challenge.
Let’s treat this glow-up challenge as a process of initiation and make a commitment to ourselves that we will continue this for the rest of our lives.
With that, it’s time for me to sign off. Share your experience with this glow-up challenge in the comment section below.
Featured Image: Freepik