Is Botox Safe Long Term? Why Contentment is Better than Botox Treatment
Is botox safe? Botox, a popular cosmetic treatment, raises concerns about its long-term safety. However, current research suggests that when used correctly, Botox is generally considered safe over extended periods. After all, having glowing skin is every woman’s first wish. But, why not be content with the lovely skin you have and go for more natural products instead?
Asides from having a beautiful physique, every woman strives to have the kinda skin that announces its presence before actual words are released. Still, it is this strong desire to look beautiful that leads to stress and discontent among many women.
Discontentment can make you appear older and cause your skin to shrivel up. Then you’ll start looking for medical measures to treat your face. However, staying happy and content will release hormones in your system that will make your skin glow. You won’t need a botox treatment to get rid of those wrinkles!
Keep reading to find out how to practice contentment, and how it can lead to physiological changes in your system that will make your skin glow!
Is Botox Safe Long Term?
Botox, derived from botulinum toxin, temporarily paralyzes muscles to reduce wrinkles and fine lines. It’s commonly used in cosmetic procedures to achieve a youthful appearance. In the short term, Botox is generally safe. Common side effects, such as bruising, swelling, or headaches, are typically mild and temporary. These side effects usually resolve within a few days. But what of long term?
The long-term safety of Botox is still a topic of ongoing research. Studies so far suggest that using Botox over several years does not lead to significant health issues for most users. However, repeated treatments could potentially lead to muscle atrophy or a decrease in muscle mass due to prolonged inactivity of the treated muscles.
This is one of the major reasons medical professionals emphasize the importance of administering Botox by trained professionals in approved settings to minimize risks. It is to ensure proper dosage and application. So, is botox treatment really safe long term?
Why Contentment is Better than Botox Treatment
According to Vocabulary.com, “contentment is the state of being happy and satisfied. Contentment isn’t an excited kind of happiness, it’s more like a peaceful ease of mind.”
On the other hand, Dictionary.com goes a little further with defining contentment by describing it as “the neurophysiological experience of satisfaction and being at ease in one’s situation, body, and/or mind.”
From these two definitions, you can see that there is a repetition of the word “satisfaction”. Contentment is a state of being satisfied. Not feeling satisfied – being satisfied. If it’s a feeling then you would call it emotion and emotions are unstable.
Contentment is a knowing, a reality that you create for yourself, that irrespective of whatever situation you find yourself in, you will be at peace in your body and mind. You will neither look down on yourself nor despise your circumstances.
To reiterate the point earlier, botox is a drug that is prepared from botulinum. It is used by cosmetologists to remove wrinkles and to treat certain muscular conditions by temporarily paralyzing facial muscles.
Now, instead of using botox treatment to get wrinkle-free skin, why not try keeping a positive outlook on life to achieve glowing skin?
Dark spots, dark circles and wrinkles are every woman’s mortal enemies but science has shown that happiness and contentment are the secrets to glowing skin. This is because when you are happy and satisfied, your body releases certain hormones that improve skin health. Here’s how.
“Happy Hormones” and Their Effects on Your Skin
It’s no secret that hormones play a major role in our skin. An example is the “period breakout” you sometimes experience when it’s close to your period. The hormonal changes your body experiences right before your periods start sometimes affect your skin and cause those “breakouts”.
Four hormones are popularly referred to as the “happy hormones”. These chemicals are released when you are happy/satisfied. They include:
- Serotonin
- Endorphins
- Dopamine
- Oxytocin
These happy hormones have a positive influence on your skin as they increase anti-inflammatory responses, improve microcirculation and repair the skin barrier. When all these effects combine, it makes your skin glow up! Not just your face– botox can only treat your face– but your entire body!
These hormones are regarded as anti-ageing treatments and all your body needs for it to produce them freely is for you to be content and happy. Isn’t that amazing?!
Serotonin helps to balance your moods and it promotes feelings of reward or well-being. When you engage in recreational activities, exercise, eat balanced meals and practice kindness (not just to others but to yourself), your body will naturally produce serotonin.
Dopamine is often referred to as the “feel good” hormone. It promotes feelings of happiness, reward and pleasure. When you spend time outdoors, meditate, laugh, and exercise, your body produces dopamine. Dopamine greatly improves skin health.
Oxytocin is released when you spend time with your loved ones, shower yourself with love and affection, laugh and listen to good music.
Endorphins help you overcome stress and discomfort. They are your body’s natural painkillers. Contentment and happiness produce endorphins in your body.
You can see that self-love, contentment and happiness are all the skincare treatments your body needs. You don’t need to be swimming in dollars to have glowing skin. You just need to eat well, exercise, love, be loved, laugh and play to glow. Surely, you can do that.
Various Attributes of Contentment
Contentment is not hard to obtain if you know the positive traits that it entails. Exercising these characteristics improve not just your physical health but also your mental and behavioural health. You only stand to gain from knowing and practising them. These attributes are:
- Satisfaction
- Discipline
- Distaste for greed/corruption
- Lack of envy
- Humility
1. Satisfaction
Satisfaction refers to the pleasure or fulfillment you experience after achieving a goal, need, or wish. When your expectations are met you feel satisfied and it becomes easy to stay content.
2. Discipline
Contentment should not be mistaken for complacency. Satisfaction should not be mistaken for being easygoing. Contentment is not an excuse for laxity. If anything, contentment enforces discipline.
3. Distaste for Greed and Corruption
One of the big-time enemies of contentment is greed. Greed pushes people to be envious of others and ultimately leads to corruption. If you must live contentedly, you must abhor and have a strong distaste for greed and corruption.
4. Lack of Envy
Merriam-Webster defines envy as “discontented longing for someone else’s advantages”.
Envy brings out the monster in people. Many people have ended up confessing to crimes they never imagined they would be able to commit because they did not nip envy in the bud when it started rearing its ugly head. Envy robs you of healthy, positive relationships.
5. Humility
Humility is a trait that reflects modesty. It is an attitude that shows that you don’t regard yourself with special importance over others in any way. It means that you don’t think of yourself as better than others. Humility is a lack of pride.
When you are not boastful or proud, it is very easy to live a life of contentment. You will be happy and satisfied with what you have. You won’t hate or despise yourself because of the things others have that you don’t. Humility is a character everyone should work on.
How to Practice Contentment In Place of Botox
While Botox offers quick fixes for aging signs, contentment and self-acceptance play a vital role in overall well-being. Embracing natural aging can foster a deeper sense of self-worth and confidence that cosmetic treatments cannot replace.
In case you’re still wondering how you can practice this beautiful trait called contentment, here’s how:
- Be grateful
- Accept yourself as you are
- Accept your reality
- Discover your purpose
- Quit buying unnecessary things
- Keep an optimistic outlook on life
1. Be Grateful
Gratitude is one sure way to practice living a content life. Counting your blessings will help you realize all the beautiful things and people you have in your corner. It will also help you realize how far you’ve come and how much you achieve.
When you practice this every day, you’ll realize that those small wins and big wins are pointers to how beautiful your life is and has been. It will help you live contentedly.
“Life becomes very beautiful when you learn to enjoy the little things that don’t cost a dime.”
Things like spending time in nature, late-night drives with your s/o, meaningful conversations with loved ones, reading a book, etc. Most times, these things have a more lasting, positive impact on you than expensive outings and shopping.
2. Accept Yourself as You Are
Accepting your flaws and weaknesses as much as you accept your strengths is the best skin care treatment you can give your body. When you accept your flaws, dark spots, colouration, inadequacies, and everything in between, you become less frustrated with yourself and more at ease in your mind.
You are a masterpiece. Just the way you are.
It’s the same way someone might appraise a work of art and consider it insignificant but another person would deem it a treasure. This is why it is important to live your life according to your opinions, not others because people’s opinions will always vary.
Never compare yourself with others. What might be inadequacies for them might end up being your strengths but because you’re too focused on your flaws you see yourself as subpar.
3. Accept Your Reality
If you will enjoy a satisfying life you need to accept your “here and now”. Accept where you’ve come from and where you are right now. Everyone might seem to be going faster than you but it’ll do you no good to start hating them or yourself. Accept your current reality and look to your future.
Enjoy living in the moment. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the now. Don’t wait for tomorrow to be happy. Choose to be happy today.
Appreciate the little things in your life right now and accept that you might not have all your wants or be in the position you desire yet. However, with a positive outlook on life, you’ll be able to achieve and acquire all the things you desire when the time comes.
Recognize where you are in life. In farming, there is the preparation stage, the planting stage, the growing stage, and finally, the harvesting stage. You can’t be hard on yourself for not bearing fruits when you are still in the preparation or planting stage. Life is in stages. Recognize the state you are currently in and accept it.
4. Discover Your Purpose
There is nothing more fulfilling than having a vision for your life and working towards achieving it. When you figure out what you’re supposed to do with your life and start taking baby steps towards them, each day becomes a little bit more fulfilling than the previous one.
While you are doing what you love and serving others, your body releases oxytocin and dopamine (remember). These hormones not only help you look good but also feel good. When you impact other people’s lives in your little way., it gives you a sense of worth, value, and accomplishment. This will help you feel more satisfied with yourself.
Devote time to your loved ones and learn to appreciate what other people have instead of getting envious of them.
5. Quit Buying Unnecessary Things
Buying unnecessary things doesn’t add to your value. In fact, you will most likely not appreciate those things because you don’t have use for them at that particular time.
Contentment is differentiating your needs from your wants and prioritizing the things you give yourself sleepless nights over. Let your goals and actions align with your values.
Before you buy that dress or shoe you saw on your Instagram feed, pause. Ask yourself if you really need it and if it is really worth the headache you have started giving yourself because you can’t afford it. And even if you can afford it, remember that contentment also means discipline. If you don’t really need it, then you don’t really need to buy it.
6. Keep an Optimistic Outlook on Life
At times, you have to learn to look at the bright side of everything. There’s always a silver lining if you look well enough. And if you don’t see any, it’s fine. Remember the rainbow you saw many years ago and use it to get through this storm.
Be positive. Be your main gee. Be your bestie.
Final Thoughts
Caring for your skin is all nice and healthy but caring about it too much can lead to discontentment. The closer you look at a thing the more blemishes you are likely to find. Contentment is being happy and satisfied with yourself as you are.
Don’t just strive for happiness because happiness comes and goes. Choose to be content. Contentment is more stable. You seek happiness by adding things (shopping, food, outings, etc) but contentment allows you to remain satisfied even when you subtract things.
Contentment is definitely a better drug than botox. Go glow up queen!
All images are sourced from Istockphoto.com
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