MEDITATION AND SKIN BEAUTY

MEDITATION AND SKIN BEAUTY

There are already many reasons to send stress packages, but did you know that their toxic effects can also be bad for your skin? Your skin is a perfect reflection of what's going on inside your body, so when you're stressed, it shows on your face. In the current climate, it's hard to imagine living a stress-free life, but now it's also easier to try activities like meditation to keep yourself and your skin calm. So how can meditation benefit your skin? First, it's important to understand how stress impacts skin health.

You may notice that when you are stressed, your skin loses some of its vitality. The effects of stress are multiplied on your skin. In addition to slowing digestion, which can cause inflammation, when you feel stressed, your body produces more cortisol, the hormone responsible for the “fight-or-flight response.” Elevated cortisol causes an inflammatory response that can worsen oil production and skin conditions such as acne, eczema, and psoriasis.

But stress doesn't just affect your skin on a molecular level. One of the worst things about stress is its ability to make us throw away all our healthy habits. While this is a normal response to feeling overwhelmed, changes in diet, sleep patterns, and exercise habits can cause acne, excess oil, dryness, and redness. Although stress can sometimes feel like a snowball rolling down a hill, getting out of your tired mind and evaluating stress-causing patterns can help keep your skin more radiant.

BENEFITS OF MEDITATION FOR SKIN

Taking time to focus on your breath when you're stressed may feel completely unrealistic, but the benefits are worth it. Meditation helps reduce the amount of cortisol produced when you feel stressed, thereby reducing the body's inflammatory response. Giving yourself time to breathe can also bring awareness to some unhealthy patterns you may be engaging in when stress strikes. While it's not easy to break this habit, being aware of it is the first step toward more impactful changes that will benefit your skin, body, and mind.

So, next time you're feeling stressed, pay attention to your skin and try meditation. While this may seem scary, it doesn't have to be. Today, there are many opportunities to design your practice in such a way that it fits into your life. Meditation apps like Headspace and Calm offer a variety of different guided meditation styles and durations to help you customize your practice to your liking.