Shaving reduces stress?
These days life for most is very stressful, pressures of work, pressures of finance and the general rush, rush society that we live in.
I am a Social Worker, working in Child Protection, in all of my 40 years I have never known a more stressful, yet more rewarding job. I don't mean that to sound pithy, I am aware that there are jobs out there more stressful than mine and that, on occasion, everyone's life can threaten to break the strongest person.
However I am talking about things as I see them. I deal with hostility, heartbreak and tragedy on a daily basis, but when you get those small breakthroughs and make those differences to a child's life then my vocation is a joy.
A big focus of Social Work these days is emotional resilience, how to deal with all the stress, how to ensure you can carry not only your own stresses and emotions but, to a degree those of the families and children you work with. When discussing this in training or when filling out application forms there is always the question about how you manage stress. I always used to put the traditional, I listen to music, or I exercise. These days I put down wet shaving.
I am an evening shaver, at the end of a busy day I get home and shower and shave. The whole process is therapeutic from start to finish. I wash away the stress and dirt of the day, some of the places I visit are none too sanitary to say the least.
This section of my day is my favourite. I focus on me, on the job at hand. I think about my shave, I don't worry about the severe abuse case I am working on or the court appearance I have to make. I focus on my face, the water, the badger and the blade as it were.
From the first face soak, to the final pass I can feel the tension leaving my body, each scrape of the blade removing the stress I feel, each time I lather up I feel it invigorating me , body and soul. At the end of it i splash on my aftershave and I genuinely feel like a new man, I can rest as I have purged that days demons.
The people I meet through shaving groups on social media and the friends I am making go a long way to extend that feeling, as it extends the shaving experience. So thank you all for that. I sleep like a baby most nights now that I have developed a routine. This is why I shave like this, shaving in a way has saved me a lot of stress and sleepless nights.
Get a kit for yourself HERE!
By Jonno E Clark
