Then and Now

I found this picture ( on the left ) of myself which was taken back in 2005 and a bit shock to realize that my under eyes bags were so big.
It almost like I have extra eyelids but they were under my eyes.
Funny that I thought this was a great portrait of myself at the time. Now, the recent ME on the right, shot from my recent trip May 2011, still I have an under eyes bags but looks smaller, especially the right eye looks nearly smooth out. So, I thought of what could have caused this improvement?
Then, here is my answer... At least I think it is relevant.
Back to 2007, I met my female soulmate who is German, Marie Becker. She was nearly fifty and looked just great for her age. She always take care of herself and of course I learnt a lot of her secret on how to live beauty and healthy. One of her tip is about "beauty sleep" she told me not to sleep on the pillow and I should lay down flat right on the mattress. I thought it was funny and she must have been joking. Then, she gave me lecture about how the water got trapped under your eyes and packed as a bag if your forehead stay higher than your cheeks long hours like when sleeping on the pillow. Besides, the pillow fabric would scratch on you skin and left the lines, aged lines. I did not buy it at first but she showed me one of her wooden pillow ( yes, she carried this beauty block with her when traveling)
It was a small block of wood got carved in to this foldable structure.



the size of small back pillow. It looks old but all the edges are so smooth but certainly it did not suggest comfy in any angle.to me, it was more a head rest, or neck rest piece. I told her that I better lay flat without anything under my head than put my head on that wood. That was not enough for her, she told me that it was a monk pillow to train them to detach from the comfort and she even told me that the Chinese Empress had slept on the head rest to kept the face and hair away from the pillow. For the same reason, beauty sleep. She insisted me to try it because if this was actually working and help improving my under eyes bags, she wanted me to find the factory to produce it and export back to Europe and we would all gonna get richhhh.

So, I took that beauty pillow home and told her that I would give it a try.
But really I could not put my head in the position, it felt all wrong.and my husband would not enjoy having me and this pillow in the same bed? I did not try it. I was careless about that experiment and gave the beauty block back to her when she was leaving. Three years later, I went to the national art museum in Taipei and I saw the real Beauty Pillow displayed next to other personal things of the Chinese Empress!



Then, It got me thinking about this "beauty sleeping" I came back home and since then, I have been sleeping without pillow under my head. I use only small soft pillow (the small one they put on the chair and when you sit it support the lower part of your back) to support my neck. I still could not go far to use the wood one.

Now it is already two years sleeping like that. From my recent pictures, I begin to see the sign of improvement and it may actually working.

If you read this and would like to try, please do.....
And let me know how it works on you.

Beauty wisdom from Marie Becker
Experimented by KanJANA