Dirt is dead.

And because dirt is dead you are going to be sick and get acne.

Confused? Allow me to explain.

One of the most persistent scare stories of the natural health movement is the story of soil depletion. The evil and greedy agricultural practices have killed the soil. The use of industrial agriculture and synthetic fertilizers has left the soil barren of minerals and nutrients. Dead soil grows dead plants, so the food grown in the soil lacks the essential nutrients we require.

Apparently we even have scientific studies to ‘prove’ this. And those studies paint a scary picture. The average mineral content of fruits and vegetables has declined by 15 to 50% in the last 50 years. Some nutrients have suffered even greater losses. Vitamin A has completely disappeared from potatoes and copper levels have dropped by 80%.

At this point you should be sufficiently scared so that they can pitch you the supplement that will save the day. The supplement contains everything you need and is grown with love, care and daily prayers in lush and fertile soil. By the way, why is it that these supplements, cleanses and other non-sense has to be sold using fear?

Let’s see if there’s any truth to this.

What’s the evidence?

A couple of studies attempted to compare nutritional value of vegetables grown in the 50s and 60s with vegetables grown today. The studies did find differences and for the most part the produce grown in the 50s and 60s was more nutritious that the produce grown today. The average declines ranged from 5 to 40% on many minerals. Some nutrients showed more dramatic drops. For example copper levels plummeted staggering 80%.

These studies have been widely, but very selectively, highlighted in books and websites promoting nutritional supplements. Many authors have taken the liberty of translating this to mean that fruits and vegetables have lost 80% of their nutritional value.

However these numbers tell only a part of the story. For example, nobody bothers to mention that the levels of some nutrients have actually increased during the last 50 years. That wouldn’t scare you into buying supplements – would it?

But the fact remains that the studies show decline in most nutrients. Why our fruits and vegetables are less nutritious today than they were 50 years ago?

First I have to mention that making such comparison studies is very difficult. There are too many unknown and random factors. The study authors offer the following reasons to explain the differences in nutrient levels. Funny that the studies never mention soil depletion, but that’s the only thing the articles referring to these studies mention.

Changes in geography

50 years ago a higher proportion of the fruits and vegetables were grown in home gardens. Today most are grown industrially and often come from overseas. Naturally tomatoes grown in different parts of the world have different nutritional values.

Changes in sampling and measuring techniques

This accounts for most of the big changes in nutrient levels. For example, the dramatic drop in chromium levels has a simple explanation.

Anderson and colleagues found only about 15 years ago [12,13] that earlier measurements of chromium in foods were often several-fold too high, because of contamination from stainless steel laboratory equipment (personal communication, R.A. Anderson).

Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999

Many articles refer to a similar drop in iron levels. The soil contains 10’000 times more iron than plants. So tiny amounts of unremoved soil can raise the values for iron.

Random variation between samples

Take two tomatoes that are grown at slightly different locations or different time of year and you’ll find differences in nutrient levels. These differences are more than most people realize and can be up to 40% for many nutrients.

Genetic variations and trade-offs

Genetic variation is perhaps the most important reason behind the decline in nutrient levels. For decades farmers have selected cultivars (A variety of a plant developed from a natural species and maintained under cultivation) for higher yield.

In many cases there are trade-offs between yield and nutrient content. Higher yielding cultivars often contain fewer nutrients. It makes sense that if one cultivar yields 2 kg of tomatoes and another one yields 1 kg from the same soil at the same time that the cultivar that yields 2 kg would have fewer nutrients.

Farmers are compensated by weight and volume of their produce – not nutritional content. This compensation system naturally leads to produce with lower nutritional value.

On the positive side, this trend can be reversed, and it’s already happening. As people become more aware of the nutritional quality and taste of the produce (nutritionally dense produce often tastes better), farmers shift to breeding fruits and vegetables with higher nutritional content.

What about soil depletion?

It’s possible that soil depletion plays a role in the decline in nutritional value. However the authors of these studies don’t see it as an important factor. Also keep in mind that demineralization of the soil can be corrected fairly easily by applying rock dust on the soil.

Take away

Fruits and vegetables are still healthy. They are still densely packed with minerals, vitamins and other micro-nutrients. The fact remains that almost all studies show measurable health improvements when fruit and vegetable consumption goes up.

If you don’t get all the nutrients you require it’s mainly because you are not eating enough fresh, whole foods – not because food today contains fewer nutrients.

If anything these studies highlight the importance of knowing where your food comes from. Local farmers often take better care of their soil and crops than large industrial farms do. As a result they produce food that not only tastes better but is also more nutritious and healthier.

If at all possible, shop at local farmers’ market. Something magical happens when you shake the hand of the person that grows your food. You re-establish the connection to the soil (at least metaphorically) and when the farmer looks you into eyes he/she has more of an incentive to produce high quality food for you.

Sources:

Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999

Declining Fruit and Vegetable Nutrient Composition: What Is the Evidence? (PDF)

The Ten Commandments provide the moral foundation for Christian people.

These Five Commandments for Clear Skin provide the foundation for healthy skin. Though not coming directly from God, we can call them divinely inspired.

Thou shall eat whole foods

Whole foods provide the dietary and nutritional foundation for health and clear skin. Processing is perhaps the greatest ‘evil’ man has caused to visit upon foods. Processing destroys the nutritional and health value of foods and creates harmful substances in them.

Sticking to whole foods solves 80% of your dietary problems. The rest is eating variety of foods, selecting the right foods for your body and avoiding foods that you are sensitive to. In Clear for Life I explain a few easy ways to test which foods fit your body and which foods cause acne.

Thou shall be happy in your skin

This is by far the biggest stumbling block for acne victims. Being happy in your skin doesn’t necessarily mean being happy with the way your skin looks now. Being happy in your skin means being ok with and accepting yourself as you are.

The mind has a powerful effect on the body. Every thought you think about yourself sends a commandment to the cells in your body. If you have any doubt about this, try this little experiment. Relax yourself deeply, and once you are relaxed say ‘I love you’ to yourself and see how your body reacts to that. Then say, or better yet, shout ‘I hate you’ and see what happens. The shock this causes feels almost like someone punches on the stomach. You have to be in a state of deep relaxation and calmness to really experience this.

What kind of messages you broadcast to your cells? For many acne victims these messages are harsh and critical. They speak of disgust, hate and shame.

Stopping these negative messages and learning to be happy in your skin affects your skin far more than diet ever could. Unfortunately many acne victims don’t realize the importance of positive self-image. They try in vain to eat healthier and healthier. This can help, but you cannot fix emotional problems with a fork and knife. You have to address them directly.

Meditation is one of the best things you could do to start improving your emotional health.

Also see these discussions at the forums: Is emotional freedom possible? and Emotional Healing for Clear Skin.

Thou shall be active and fit

Inactivity is a health ‘sin’. Your body needs movement to be active. Without being active you grow weak and sick and your skin reflects that.

Along with meditation exercise is one of the few true magic pills. Done correctly exercise improves almost every aspect of your health. It attacks acne at its roots by improving your blood sugar controls and reducing inflammation in the body. It lifts your mood better than Prozac does. It makes you feel better about yourself.

Exercise makes your body work better. Being active means you eat more, and that means you’ll get more nutrients your body needs. Exercise also improves your digestions. So you’ll get even more out of the foods you eat.

But of course you already know all this. So now just go do it.

Thou shall give your mind and body enough rest

Being active must be balanced with adequate rest. Rest means more than just sleep. It means rest on many different levels, such as digestive, mental, physical and sensory rest.

• Digestive stress giving your digestive system rest by periodically eating lighter foods, or even faster
• Mental rest means rest from work and other mental demands
• Physical rest means sleep and relaxation
• Sensory stress means giving your senses rest from the everyday activity, perhaps by going out to nature or to other peaceful environment

Thou shall spend time outdoors

Have you ever stopped to think how refreshing just getting out of the house and going out to nature can be?

That’s almost enough said of this. Humans weren’t made to spend all days confined within 4 walls. And being outdoors gives you two of the six elements of health: fresh air and sunshine.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
– Leonardo DaVinci

Getting clear doesn’t have to be complicated. Not when you remember the basic ingredients of healthy and happy life and ignore all the noise.

Let these Five Commandments for Clear Skin serve as a reminder of the basics.

Every so often someone asks me this question.

Why my friends who eat all the junk they want have perfect skin?

First, yeah, I understand how you feel. It seems unfair that you have to eat healthy and still suffer from acne when your friends can eat what they want and never suffer over it.

So doesn’t this prove that diet and healthy living doesn’t have anything to do with acne?

No. Not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer, but it would be foolish to point to those people and say that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer.

Each of us is a unique mix of genetics and environmental influences. So it’s only normal that our bodies react differently to unhealthy influences.

The fact is that not everyone is prone to getting acne. Just like some people don’t get lung cancer no matter how much they smoke. Or some people don’t get diabetes no matter how much sugar they eat.

Nobody really knows how acne develops. We know that certain hormones (such as insulin, insulin-like growth factor 1 and male sex hormones) are involved. If you are prone to getting acne the levels of these hormones often correlate with the severity of acne. On the other hand people with and without acne have similar levels of these hormones. So it comes down to how your body reacts to these hormones.

Acne is also an emotional condition

Then there are the emotional causes. Like all skin conditions acne has a significant emotional component. It’s highly reactive to stress and negative emotions.

I notice that people with acne often have a victim mentality. They almost believe that they have been cursed, and that it’s unfair that they have to bear this burden.

On the surface this sounds reasonable. After all, they have acne despite their best efforts to clear it. But you have to keep in mind that it’s very likely that this victim mentality formed before you got acne. Often these things are rooted in painful childhood experiences. Experiences that happened before you even knew what acne is.

This victim mentality is a sign of less than ideal self-image. Perhaps your friends who don’t get acne are more comfortable in their skin and have a more empowering self-image.

And do you know the holiday clear skin effect (just a term I made up)? Stories of people getting clear during holidays pop up regularly at acne forums. The person got clear while on holidays despite eating nothing but junk and drinking every night. Hardly a recipe for a healthy life, but still they got clear. And when they got back home and to healthy diet, they started breaking out again.

It just goes to show that there’s a lot more to clear skin than just diet.

Since you got it, make the best of acne

Look, the fact is that you have acne. So might just make the best out of it – right?

Instead of looking at acne as a curse of an unfair burden, try to see it positively. Here’s one way to do it. Consider acne as an early warning signal. It warns you that there’s something wrong in your body, and that you need to take action to correct the situation.

Would you rather deal with acne now or 30 years later get surprised when doctor tells you that the routine medical checkup revealed an advanced form of cancer?

It’s a rhetorical question because you don’t have a choice in the matter. But it shows that acne has a positive side to it also. It gives you an early warning; something that your friends who have clear skin don’t get. Because the fact is that whether you get acne or no we all have to pay for our ‘health sins’. Nobody can abuse their bodies and get away with it.

Acne might also be your best chance to create a truly fantastic life. It forces you to change your physical health. And it forces you to confront your fears and limitations. If you take the opportunity to do that, you can create the life you’ve always dreamed of.

And that’s not too shabby for a few pimples, eh?

We all know it, or do we really? Microwaves are evil. Nuking your food destroys everything good in it. Microwaves are the ultimate ‘curse of convenience’.

Invented by Nazis and banned by Russians after their heroic researchers discovered the horrifying effect microwaving has on foods. Microwaves destroy 97% of the goodness in broccoli.

All that is common knowledge in the natural health field. Unfortunately nobody bothered to check if it’s actually true.

Welcome to the wonderful world of natural health myths, distortions and nonsense.

According to studies the reality is quite opposite. Every type of cooking can damage nutrients in foods. What really kills the nutrients is how much heat you apply, how long you cook the food and how much water you use in cooking.

Research clearly points that microwaving is no worse than other cooking methods, and in many cases results in less nutritional losses than some other cooking methods.

For example consider these studies from The U.S. Natural Library of Medicine database.

According to the method of analysis chosen, griddling, microwave cooking, and baking alternately produce the lowest losses, while pressure-cooking and boiling lead to the greatest losses; frying occupies an intermediate position. In short, water is not the cook’s best friend when it comes to preparing vegetables.

Influence of cooking methods on antioxidant activity of vegetables.

This study shows no significant differences between microwaving and other cooking methods. Steaming is the best though.

Effects of different cooking methods on health-promoting compounds of broccoli

Based on the information available in the literature, nutrient content and retention of microwave-cooked or reheated foods is equal to or better than the same product prepared conventionally or held hot in a foodservice operation. Using recommended procedures for microwave cooking and reheating should result in products that are satisfying from both a sensory and nutritional standpoint.

Retention of nutrients in microwave-cooked foods.

In conclusion, no significant nutritional differences exist between foods prepared by conventional and microwave methods. Any differences reported in the literature are minimal.

The effect of microwaves on nutrient value of foods.

But what about the study all the microwave haters love to point to? You know the one that says microwaving destroys 97% of antioxidants in broccoli. In that study the broccoli was immersed in water. And we already know that cooking, regardless of the method, vegetables in water leads to huge nutritional losses. Vitamins and antioxidants are destroyed and mineral leak into the cooking water (that’s why it’s good to reuse the cooking water).

It’s the water that caused the damage – not the microwave.

Is it possibly microwaving destroys foods in some other way, such as the “microwave effect”? Anything is possible, but so far we’ve seen very little evidence of it. My point is that if microwaving doesn’t harm the delicate vitamins and anti-oxidants it’s hard to believe microwaved food would somehow harm the people eating it.

Blaming microwaves is a great example of what’s wrong with the natural health field. Some ‘expert’ writes about this new evil in his book/website and refers to obscure sources (Russian research nobody can find and a 6^th grader’s science project, I kid you not). Then this discovery is picked up by several other alternative health websites. Before the original author can gets his next colonic, it’s repeated in tens of thousands of websites. And a person searching for the dangers of microwave ovens is confronted with mountains of ‘evidence’ of how dangerous nuking your food is.

It’s like a giant Xerox machine, and nobody bothers to check the claims. It took me about 30 minutes to find out this is yet another piece of alternative health fear mongering. But I digress.

Don’t believe everything you read on natural health books and websites. You’ll just become paranoid and make your life very inconvenient.

More sanity restoring information about microwaves:

• The Myths About The Dangers Of Microwave Ovens
• 11 Surprising Facts and Myths About Microwave Ovens
• Microwave Dangers: Urban Myth Or Frightening Reality?

No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.
- Aristotele

I don’t know if loneliness can cause acne, but I do know that being lonely can cause serious harm to your health.

I just started reading a book called Loneliness by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick. Based on several decades of scientific research the authors (who are scientists themselves and have done these studies) say:

Social isolation has an impact on health comparable to the effect of high blood pressure, lack of exercise, obesity, or smoking. Our research in the past decade or so demonstrates that the culprit behind these dire statistics is not usually being literally alone, but the subjective experience known as loneliness.

Loneliness

This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective; when you think that survival often dependent on people sticking together – there is safety in numbers.

So what does this have to do with acne and getting clear?

Perhaps nothing, or perhaps a lot. I can’t say for now. But if you take the Clear for Life approach that improved physical and emotional health leads to clear skin, it’s not that far-fetched to think that loneliness could contribute to acne. At least it’s something to think about. Of course just getting rid of the feeling of loneliness is probably enough of a reason to do something about it.

I want to stress that the subjective feeling of loneliness is what matters more than whether you actually are alone or not. Perhaps you’ve sometimes felt alone in company? The authors point out that being who feel alone are on average spending no more time alone than people who don’t feel alone. And whether you feel lonely largely depends on how comfortable you are in your own skin. As Wayne Dryer points out:

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.
- Wayne Dyer

And here comes the product pitch. Meditation is one of the best ways to get comfortable being in your own skin. So check out my meditation product: Clear for Life Meditations.

Smoking kills, it says so in the box. But can it also make your acne worse?

Both scientific and anecdotal evidence is at best inconclusive. Looking through acne forums you’ll see both yea and nay votes; some people say smoking gives them more pimples while some say it has no effect on their skin.

Published research does little to clear the confusion.

Scientific research on smoking and acne

Some studies report that smoking causes acne. Researchers at the San Gallicano Dermatological Institute in Rome, Italy, found that smoking causes non-inflammatory adult acne in women, source: Acne and smoking. Another study suggested that smoking and obesity are linked to acne inversa, source: Smoking and obesity are associated factors in acne inversa: results of a retrospective investigation in 100 patients.

Just so that getting clear wouldn’t become too simple, some studies suggest that smoking has a protective effect on acne; that is, that smoking decreases acne. A study done at the Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Antwerp, Edegem, Belgium, found that girls who smoked has significantly less acne than girls who didn’t smoke. The study found no relationship between smoking and acne for boys. The subjects in the study were school-going adolescents. The researchers are quick to point out that smoking shouldn’t be considered as a therapeutic option for acne, source: Cigarette smoking and acne in adolescents: results from a cross-sectional study. Another study done is Israel found  that active smokers had significantly less severe  acne than non-smokers, source: Severe acne vulgaris and tobacco smoking in young men. A UK study came up with a similar conclusion, source: Does smoking influence acne?

So what can you make of all this?

First, there is no black and white connection between smoking and acne. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as acne is a complicated condition. In trying to understand acne you have to take a holistic outlook. Trying to isolate and study a single factor is bound to bring confusing results. Aside from stress and negative emotions, there are very few factors that are clearly connected with acne.

Second, even if smoking wouldn’t directly cause acne, you are still better off quitting. Several studies have linked smoking to skin problems, such as these:

• Tobacco and the skin
• Smoking and the skin
• Cutaneous effects of smoking
• Dermatological manifestations of smoking

Smoking has been shown to:

• Causes premature aging on the skin
• Contributes to several inflammatory skin conditions, such as psoriasis and eczema
• Slows down wound healing
• Causes wrinkles, especially for women

There also exists little doubt that smoking is bad for your overall health. The SMOKING KILLS label in front of a cigarette box leaves little room for doubt.

Smoking makes it harder to follow a proven program that gets you clear

Given one wish most acne victims would hope to never see another pimple on their face. Experience with Clear for Life has shown that a holistic approach that takes into account diet, lifestyle and emotional health is the best way to achieve permanently clear skin.

Not all the factors in Clear for Life program are directly linked to acne. However they are all connected to your overall health, and your health is only as strong as your weakest link is. Furthermore all aspects of health reinforce one another; it’s easier to eat healthy when you exercise, and it’s easier to exercise when you sleep well. In this light smoking clearly doesn’t help you to get clear.

When you feel good, you look good. But when you’re stressed out, your skin is often the first place to show it.

Why do you get a horrible breakout just before an important job interview? And what is it in dating people who make your toes curl that causes acne? Does it almost seem like acne could read your calendar and decides to show up right before important events?

Until the time research proves that acne actually can read, I’m going to settle for a more mundane explanation.

Stress.

Not only is stress bad for your health, but it also shows up on your skin. Studies show that 50 to 70% of acne cases have emotional triggers; stress and negative emotions make acne worse. Studies consistently rate stress among the most important risk factors for acne and other skin conditions.

Question. Do you pay more attention to diet or stress?

Not only is emotional healing and stress management important, but I would go as far as to say that it’s the biggest missed opportunity for adult acne victims. Failing to actively manage stress and negative emotions is tantamount to failing to eat healthy foods and exercising when you want to lose weight.

Here’s why.

Stress and acne

The American Academy of Dermatology Stress and Skin Factsheet says:

When dermatologists treat both the skin and stress, the skin often clears more quickly and completely as the influences of stress are diminished.

Stress and Skin

One can only wonder how derms would treat stress – given that they often cause more stress and relive, but I digress.

Most acne victims pay much more attention to their diet than stress and negative emotions. This is unfortunate. Yes, diet affects your skin, but not nearly as much as stress and negative emotions do.

I did a quick search on the US National Library of Medicine database. Here are just few studies linking stress to acne and other skin conditions.

• Stress is the second highest risk factor for acne among Chinese adolescents
• Stress highly correlated with acne among Norwegian teens – with no help from diet
• Another study says mental stress risk factor in acne
• Several common skin diseases linked to psychological stress
• The brain-skin connection explains why stress triggers and aggravates inflammatory skin diseases (including acne)
• Research finds new ways stress can cause inflammatory skin conditions, another study
• Increased levels of acne found in women in fast paced, stressful jobs
• A study finds significant association between stress and acne breakouts; the more stress, the more severe the breakout
• Stress hinders wound healing.
• Positive attitude protects against stress induced impairment in wound healing

Heck, there’s even a term called psychodermatology:

Psychodermatology is an approach to treating skin conditions that addresses the connection between mind and body and, in doing so, examines disorders that are exacerbated by psychological or emotional stress. The field’s practitioners study the external stressors that often trigger skin conditions or inhibit the body’s healing process…

In spite of these criticisms of psychodermatology, some research has shown clear links between skin diseases and psychological factors. In one study, 50 to 90 percent of patients with chronic conditions, like psoriasis, acne, eczema and rosacea, had emotional triggers [source: Jafferany]. This evidence is one of psychodermatologists’ major arguments. They believe that these emotional stressors can make traditional medicines less effective, so removing the stressors has to be part of a patient’s treatment.

How Psychodermatology Works
from How Stuff Works

There’s an interesting article at msnbc.com about this: Does your skin need a shrink?

I know this is a completely new perspective on acne, and I don’t expect you to just accept it blindly. I’m offering it to you as something to ‘chew on’, and as something new to try if you are at your wits end. This certainly has much more hard science behind it than many of the things acne victims try in their desperation.

Balancing physical and emotional

I want to make the point that of course not all acne is emotional. There’s a significant physical component too. What you eat does matter. The point of this post is not to dismiss that. The point is to balance the physical and emotional sides of the story. The reality is that most people with acne put 70% of their efforts on diet, 20% on exercise, 8% on the other physical elements of health, and pay lip service to stress and negative emotions (disclaimer: percentages sourced from my imagination and only for illustrative purposes). Saying that acne is all physical is as wrong as saying acne is all emotional.

So what can you do about this?

And here comes the pitch you’ve been waiting for. Meditate.

A non-recommended method to reduce stress

Meditation is perhaps the most effective way to deal with stress and negative emotions. There are other ways to relieve stress also, such as relaxation, venting, talking with friends, exercise, biofeedback, etc. However, meditation has few things going for it that the other methods don’t.

First , meditation produces long term results. While relaxation (and other methods) can help to release stress and make you feel better at that moment, the effect wears out quickly. Practicing relaxation today won’t make you any less stressed tomorrow. Meditation on the other hand helps you to get rid of stress for good. This won’t be a 30-day miracle, but it will happen over time.

You get stressed when you think you can’t cope with the challenges you face. Your mind imagines all sorts of scary scenarios that could happen in the future, and this causes stress and worry. Meditation helps you to calm your mind so it won’t run amok all the time. Yes, you will still face stressful situations, but can respond to them calmly and confidently.

Clear for Life Meditations takes this a step further. As part of the package you’ll get a Stress Buster meditation. Research shows that people who are stressed have a certain brainwave pattern (deficiency in alpha and theta wavelengths). The Stress Buster meditation helps to correct this (by stimulating alpha and theta brainwaves). This not only decreases stress, but also gives you the ability to deal with stress easily in the future. It’s safe and the only thing you have to do is to plug in your headphones and enjoy the ride.

The link between emotions and acne goes beyond stress. For example, some people get more acne when they have less stress in their life. Sounds crazy! I know, but psychologists and many dermatologists know this, and there’s actually a logical explanation for it. But we’ll talk about that in a later post. For now know that meditation helps you to deal with that other component also.

So what are you waiting for?

Clear for Life Meditations – Stress is a factor in 70% of acne cases. Meditation kills stress. CFL Meditations makes meditating easy, simple and fun.

What’s one of the worst things one can do to a person?

Subject them into pain, physical or emotional, that they have no control over. Does it feel like acne does that to you? That your life just revolves around acne?

If so, this post is for you. Because I’m going to explain how to take control of your skin and boot acne out of your life.

But first a brief lesson.

The American psychologist Martin Seligman did a series of interesting experiments in the late sixties. He took two group of dogs and exposed them into harmless electric shocks. Both groups had a lever in their cage. Group 1 had a lever that stopped the electric shocks. Group 2 had a lever that did nothing. The electric shocks were administered randomly and there was nothing the dogs in group 2 could do about it.

Dr. Seligman, who you may now think is a cruel man, followed this up with another experiment. This time the dogs were in a cage that was divided by a short fence. The dogs could easily see and jump over the fence. The other side of the cage was connected to electricity, that side which the dogs were on initially, but the other side was free from electricity. The dogs could escape the electric shocks by jumping over the fence.

Here’s what happened. 95% of the dogs in group 1 (the group that had the lever that did something) escaped the electric shocks. But only 1/3rd of the dogs in group 2 did that; 2/3rds simply lay down passively and whined. Even though the dogs could have easily escaped the shocks, they didn’t even try. The dogs learned to be helpless.

This phenomenon has since been named learned helplessness, and it’s used to explain depression in humans.

So why am I telling you about these cruel experiments.

Has acne conditioned you to be helpless?

Because acne has conditioned many people similarly. Perhaps over the years you’ve learned there’s little you can do about your skin. Nothing you do seems to make a difference – at least not long term.

Also, for most acne victims their emotional state and confidence depends on their skin. On a good skin day they feel happy, outgoing and confident. On a bad skin day they feel shattered and don’t want to leave the room.

Put those two together, and you’ll get a group of people who don’t feel like they are in control of their lives.

This is why Clear for Life can make such a huge difference on your life. I often get emails from new customers saying that they feel like they are in control of their skin. They say that Clear for Life makes so much sense and is so simple and logical they finally feel they are back in control.

There’s a lot you can do about your skin

I make this point for two reasons. First, learned helplessness is a very dangerous condition. It robs you of your power to change; if it feels like nothing you do matters, why do anything?

Second, it’s utter nonsense. There’s a lot you can do to your acne. Clear for Life is chock-a-block of helpful information. Acne often responds very well to healthy diet and lifestyle. And if it doesn’t, it means there’s an emotional component. In that case it responds to stress management and emotional healing techniques. Nobody is doomed to helplessly live with acne.

There’s also a lot you can do to your emotional state. As unbelievable as this sounds, it’s possible to feel happy and confident even on bad skin days.

All emotions are created in the mind. They don’t come from outside events. They are how you are conditioned to respond to outside events. I explain how this happens in the emotional chapters in Clear for Life. You can read it for free here:

http://www.clear-for-life.com/emotional-health-acne/

Having been in a similar situation I can say that it doesn’t feel like you have any control over your emotions. They just seem to happen.

However, from experience I can also say that, all your emotions are under your control. Your mind is just playing tricks on you. If you don’t believe me, do the exercise on the following page and you’ll see it for yourself:

http://www.clear-for-life.com/emotional-health-acne/internal-map-of-reality/internal-map-of-reality-example/

The point of all this is that it’s all in your hands. Your skin, how you feel, and ultimately your life; it’s all in your hands.

I’ve made the knowledge and the tools freely available for you. It’s up to you to put them into use.

So just go do it.

If you have any questions or comment, feel free to post a comment.

Imagine for a moment that a year from now all this is true:

• You are really happy about your life
• You believe in yourself and know you can achieve anything you set your mind on
• You are happy in your skin and face people with confidence
• You have athletic and toned body (if that’s what you want)
• [insert your own wish]

There’s one thing that can give you all that and more.

Acne

That’s right. The old nemesis. Luckily acne can easily turn from a burden to an asset – but only on one condition.

You stop treating acne as a curse and start treating it as a challenge. If this is a bit confusing, please allow me to explain.

Learn to see acne as a challenge

I think of acne as a challenge because it puts you face to face with your own limitations. It puts you face to face with the fact that your self-esteem might not be as strong as you think it is. It forces you to face that fact that what other people think of you affects how you feel. It exposes possible flaws in your diet and lifestyle

Overcome those challenges and you’ll come out as a better and stronger person. I can guarantee you that you will

• Have more energy
• Be happier
• Become more confident around people
• Your life stops revolving around your skin – even during the days it doesn’t look so good
• You’ll become fitter

And most importantly, beating acne gives you confidence to face any challenges life throws at you.

Clear for Life gives you the knowledge and the tools you need to face acne – and then beat the living daylight out of it. I know that because I’ve done it, and I’ve helped thousands of other people to do it.

I’ve made most of Clear for Life available for you for free. So you have nothing to lose here. Just go read the book and take action on what you learned. It’s not difficult and it can be a lot of fun.

Today is what it is. There’s nothing you can do about it. But how tomorrow shapes (that is, the future) is wide open, which reminds me of my favorite quote:

“How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to?”
– Anthony Robbins

I’m offering you a way to turn acne from a curse into a blessing. But whether that turns into reality depends on you.

I suggest that you just go do it.

http://www.clear-for-life.com

If you have any questions or comment, feel free to post a comment.