Starting Weight: 134kg
Previous Weight 119.8kg
Current Weight: 113kg
As I write this latest episode, I am officially 21 kg down on my starting weight. This is a major milestone in my wellness journey, absolutely – but it is also not central to my feeling of progressive accomplishment.
Certainly, weight loss, changes in clothing size, and any physical manifestation of the positive impact of better food and lifestyle decisions is a good indication that whatever one is doing is working. However, wellness, as we are continuing to discover on this journey, is holistic, and the body is only one part of this.
I try really hard not to go all “Eat, Pray, Love” when I document the journey here on BTG, because I do believe that the feeling of being well is such an individual and inward experience for each of us as human beings. Which is probably what brings me to this episode’s central theme – cosmetic procedures, specifically Botox in this instance, and whether it can be a part of your wellness routine.
What does social media say?
A quick flick through Instagram and TikTok, clicking through hashtags like “wellness”, “holistic living”, “health”, “inner peace”, and the like all lead us to the same place – eat well, exercise, sleep, meditate, repeat. As I documented in Episode 4 of this column, there are five primary pillars that form the foundation of wellness. However, from that foundation, we often build up to create a more individually motivated sense of wellness.
Many of those things that we build on those foundations are, from an opposing perspective, frivolous, however, we can all testify to the fact that there are just some things that we build into our routines that may not contribute to our physical health per se, but certainly contribute positively to our mental and/or emotional health. I must reiterate and repeat with great emphasis that wellness is holistic – it is the sum of all the parts of you.
Think about the little things you might do as routine (or on special occasions) that just make you feel good, that sit on the foundation of the five things we discussed last time but are not necessarily directly a result of those things.
For example, grabbing a Rivareno mandarin sorbet with a friend on Sunday evening, or going to a fashion sample sale (full disclosure, this is my idea of hell, but I have friends who I love who would not miss a sample sale if the world was ending), or catching the ferry for a cruise around Sydney harbour. These are just things we do but aren’t often acknowledged as things that contribute to our overall wellness – none of us can deny that they absolutely do.
So where does Botox fit in this conversation?
I live in Sydney, where cosmetic procedures are a way of life. I would suggest that 90% of our city’s population has had at least minor renovations to their appearance, the most common procedure being Botox and fillers.
These procedures are often derided as a means to escape reality, or as a manifestation of dissatisfaction, but I wondered – what if they aren’t? Prior to the pandemic, I had had experience with Botox, it was preventative I had told myself at the time, then when the events of 2020 struck, my face returned to its natural state.
I perhaps in that time also adopted the world view that cosmetic procedures were anti-wellness, but have since some to consider that, like anything, there is an opposite side to that coin. Surely, if casual cosmetic procedures make a human being feel good, then they could have the potential to improve wellness, and be part of a holistic wellness routine.
I certainly found more than I was looking for in researching whether there was any evidence linking Botox specifically to wellness. A particular medical journal documenting studies that propose that Botox could aid in the treatment of minor depression was of particular interest, as it also spoke to the idea of mind-body connection.
The essential premise is that if one feels a negative emotion, the thought is communicated to the face which reacts with a physical expression of the internal sentiment. Think about when you’re angry, or anxious – the first thing you do is furrow your brow. The research paper suggests that if your face does not react to your brain’s prompting, then it cannot reinforce the sentiment, which does not take away the feeling completely, but inhibits it from overwhelming the person.
I am not in any way suggesting that Botox is a cure for mental illness, I am simply suggesting that there is something to be said about conducting further research to understand whether an emotionally and mentally healthy human being can utilise the procedure to alleviate some of the pressure of the more pressing seasons of life.
Contour Clinics
My research took me to Contour Clinics in Newtown, where I was introduced to Dr Josh Wall, who is regularly quoted by Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar as an expert in the field. Josh is one of the founders of the doctor-led clinic and is super knowledgeable in all things skin.
In discussing the mind-body/face connection of cosmetic procedures, Josh could neither confirm nor deny the effectiveness of Botox as a therapeutic option but did note that his patients did report an overall sense of happiness after the results of a procedure were fully realised.
Now this could be purely cosmetic (pardon the pun), but it did have me wondering whether some people may find therapeutic benefits in cosmetic procedures, when administered by trained and seasoned professionals that put medicine first, such as those that I found at Contour Clinics.
So, I went, trusting my 37-year-old face to Dr Josh Wall.
The Result
As you may or may not know, it takes about 7 days for the results of Botox to become apparent, and my results were excellent. There is a misconception that one may end up with a frozen face, devoid of expression, but this is simply not true. Well, it can be true if that’s your jam, but that is the benefit of seeking the expertise of expert medical practitioners, and in my case, I was happy with the amount of movement I had, and how relaxed my facial muscles were after treatment.
Beyond that, I measured my responses to ordinary circumstances to figure out whether this could be light therapy for everyday levels of anxiety or stress. Before I share my results, I must note that I am not clinically diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and my recorded experiences are purely anecdotal.
In my experience, I did find that my emotional reaction to situations that may cause a sense of anxiety were lighter than they usually would be. I also found myself not being able to confirm stress, because quite frankly, I could not express stress through my forehead (which is ordinarily where I first physically manifest reactions to stressful situations). I also just liked the way my skin looked, which I feel boosted my confidence, for a more generalised sense of wellbeing.
I concluded that basic cosmetic procedures could be helpful for some human beings’ sense of overall wellness, provided that there are no pre-existing mental health considerations. At the heart of wellness is the desire to feel good in your body, your mind, and your spirit, and achieving that feeling is a combination of various activities and therapies. For me personally, I will be back to see Josh and his fabulous team for the occasional top up every couple of months.
