A psychotherapist once told me during a session in which I whinged about facing challenges time and again that despite having invested a hell of a lot of energy in trying to swerve stress, it would always crop up in one form or another. In their view, being human means a lamentable side effect of repeatedly encountering hurdles, and no amount of introspection can act as a get out of jail free card for me on that one. They posited instead that the sign of being in good fettle mentally lay in course-correcting more quickly when things go awry.
The same is true when it comes to skin; as someone who’s accrued scores of knowledge on it over the years thanks to endless hours in the company of experts, you may think my skin is forever clear and calm, but no, it is very keen on getting spotty and furious and no wisdom has ever changed that. That is not to suggest for one minute that those experts don’t know their stuff, just that skin will wobble, and for most of us getting it back on track is speedily is the thing rather than expecting unblemished perfection.
