What does your morning routine look like?
I'm not a morning person, but a satisfied B-person, so I don't have many expectations of myself on weekday mornings.
I allow myself to have a soft start; sitting up, deep breathing, rolling my neck and stretching my body while I'm still in bed. Sometimes I start the day by welcoming the day with surya namaskar.
The first thing I do when I wake up is make a glass of boiled water. I've been doing this for many years. It is said that drinking boiled water on an empty stomach supports the body's cleansing and maintenance of electrolyte and mineral balance. While it is being prepared for drinking, I splash the skin on my face with cold water, dry brush, massage in my products and put on a quick makeup. I am hungry as soon as I wake up, so breakfast should preferably be light, often it is oatmeal with fruit and some grains, but it can also be crispbread with goat cheese. The rest of the morning is spent getting the whole family out the door on time.
My morning luxury is the coffee I drink on the way to work – I have 45 minutes on the bus to the office, and I spend that time waking up completely and just looking out the window, music in my ears, it's pure pleasure.
How do you best spend an hour in your own company?
The best thing I know is to go for a walk at my own pace in nature - it feels like an adventure.
I need a mission to get me going. It could be picking berries, flowers, or for example a small photo session… What drives me out into nature is what I know I will bring back home. I feel both connected to and inspired by nature - there is high ceilings and room for all kinds of thoughts.
An hour alone in the forest is for me the best self-therapy and I always come home with a new idea, a sense of clarity, a calmness, a richer experience or with something that prolongs the happiness of having been close to nature. For example, berries I can make a pie from or fresh flowers by the bedside table.
What is your best advice for showing self-love and prioritizing yourself in a busy everyday life?
One piece of advice I received many years ago after becoming a mother was to take time to bathe in the evening. It's a practical piece of advice that has done me a lot of good.
I take a shower in the evening, because that gives me plenty of time to enjoy the self-love and luxury of bathing. If I'm alone with the kids, I leave the bathroom door ajar, but otherwise there's no distractions or disturbances – and so I have one less thing to do in the morning.
A calm end to the day with a bath is also said to promote sleep and calm for the body and senses. Personally, I feel like I get to cleanse myself of the day and go to bed with a calmer energy.
Have you made a decision in your life that has been particularly good for you?
Giving myself permission to follow my dreams. I use my intuition to make most decisions.
I'm not interested in doing 'everything right', but I'm interested in finding out what feels right and then going for it, even if it may be borderline.
It is often when it has felt most boring, to take action on something, that I have moved the most, for example. in my work life. But also in my private life, my gut feeling has proven to be particularly good. The last few years, my husband and I have made some wild decisions about our housing situation, which despite the fact that most people have thought we were crazy, have put us quite nicely on the path towards what we only once dared to dream of.
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice on how to create a balanced life, what would it be?
I have no doubt that I would have had a more harmonious relationship with going from being a teenager to becoming a woman if I had known more about the synergy between the inner emotional life and the female cycle. I find it difficult to understand everything that was happening in the body at that time, it made me insecure in many ways.
It was actually only in my 30s that I gained a balanced relationship with my cycle.
Your best tip for a strong and healthy body and a balanced mind?
I think it is very individual what the path to balance, strength and health is. Therefore, my best tip is to feel for it and align your expectations with the one who knows best – you. From a skincare perspective, my best tip is 'Beautiful skin starts in your gut'. A saying that I am repeatedly confirmed to be true, because digestion is undeniably connected to the skin. If the skin is not in balance, there is most likely also something in the body or mind that is not in balance. Skin problems cannot only be treated with creams, it is necessary to look holistically at skincare, to find the cause behind the skin's needs, and from there find the right treatment or lifestyle change. Stressed skin must be cared for like a stressed mind, with calm, patience, care and love.
Maybe it will all end up coming together once you start looking at yourself, your whole self, with loving and curious eyes.
Have you always had a holistic approach to wellness and beauty care? And what does that mean to you?
When I was a child and young adult, my interest in beauty was more a question of appearance and I was preoccupied with the transformation I could make with dressing up, and later with my clothing style and makeup.
I've always had problem-free skin and therefore didn't take special care of it or my body. My interest in beauty was playful and superficial.
I was curious about life in completely different ways, and wasn't aware of wellness and didn't have a holistic approach or understanding of what it meant before I started my education as a cosmetologist at the age of 20.
The year before, I was in a car accident that could have been fatal for me, but instead it meant life. I felt for the first time how the inside and the outside were connected, how mental health can affect the psychological and vice versa, and how appearance was no longer the most important thing.
Since then, the holistic approach to life has been a part of me, and I have inevitably included that in my interest in wellness and skincare.
I carry it everywhere, right down to the way I have decorated our home; where each room has colors and furniture that support the function of the room, so that the room and those who stay in it become a whole. A living room that grounds, a dining room that uplifts, and a hallway that welcomes.
I have been on many inner journeys over the years that have taught me how to best take care of myself, through motherhood, marriage, career ambitions, and life's bumps and trials.
Today, it means that I am aware of the entirety of my choices and non-choices. But I never become fanatical, I am too curious for that.
Do you have an easy beauty tip that we can share with others?
Dress your skin for the changing seasons, just like you do with your wardrobe; serum like moisturizing lingerie, face cream like a tailored suit, and face oil like your skin's warm sweater.
If you could freely choose an activity that would give you lots of energy, what would it be?
One of my own promises to myself this year has been to accept the naturalness of needing rest and relaxation. To be rather than do. To use rest as an active source of new energy.
I believe that we can reflect ourselves in nature. And just as our own inner winter; the days we menstruate, is designed by nature to help us slow down and take precious time to regenerate, I see the season, winter and the dark days we have now, as an opportunity and invitation to do the same.
If I had to choose one more, it would be a laugh riot - there is nothing more energizing than crying with laughter.
Follow Christina's beautiful and poetic universe at @chrisduster where you will quickly be sucked into a world filled with self-loving everyday potpourri, holistic beauty care and dreamy glimpses of fine homes.
Smørslottet - Dreamers live here
In addition to being Head of Creative at the holistic beauty brand Karmameju Skincare, Christina spends her energy renovating a beautiful older villa aka Smørslottet on Langeland, which will become the family's sanctuary.
Christina and Casper are drawn to bringing the best of the past into the future, and have an extraordinary eye for detail.
Follow the project and be inspired by the fine, dreamy and poetic glimpses on the profile @dreamers_live_here - we enjoy it to the fullest here at the CARE BY ME office.
