We all want to look and feel our best, but too often we pay too much attention to what we can do on the outside, thinking that it will make us feel good on the inside; the new dress, the latest serum, even Botox and fillers. But science is fast proving that our internal environment has an enormous impact on how we look on the outside.
For too long the beauty industry has claimed to have the answer to ALL your skincare problems. Whilst a well balanced skincare routine can, without a doubt, help your skin to look good, it is only one of three elements that will help your skin to look its absolute best.
So what is it that the beauty industry is failing to mention?
Quite simply: Stress. A 2017 article for the Laboratory of Stress Medicine defines stress as a 'state of threatened homeostasis provoked by a psychological, environmental, or physiological stressors.'
Any eczema sufferer will tell you that they will have a flare up when stressed and tired. Any acne sufferer can draw a correlation between eating greasy foods, or their shifting hormones and a severe breakout. Anyone in their 40s will tell you the effect that that bottle of wine has on their face the next day.
In other words, anything that stresses our system will put it out of whack and when our system is out of whack, it will give us an array of symptoms so that we sit up and take notice. The problem is that more often than not we aren't interested in why we have the symptom, we just want it gone. Enter the skincare industry with the 'answers to all your dermal issues'. For those of you who have battled the uncomfortable road of unruly skin, you will know that it is never that straight forward....
So let's take a look at how we can take a three-pronged approach and go beyond 'skin deep' to find long term relief.
The three pillars of skincare
2. Nutrition and gut health
3. A regular natural skincare routine
When out of balance, all three of these pillars cause stress on the body.
We all know that if you are a mega stressed out insomniac smoker of 40 a day you are going to end up looking a little grey around the gills and are likely to have deeper wrinkles than your green smoothy-drinking Yogi who spends their life on retreat. It seems obvious and yet we often pay little attention to pillars one and two and just head straight for the latest well marketed skincare fad hoping that it will somehow fix your internal world as well... or at least help you ignore it for a little longer.
I'm the first to say that the right skincare can help enormously but it is only the tip of the ice-burg when it comes to skin conditions and aging well.
So what do I do?!
I am not suggesting that we all have to drink green smoothies and live a life devoid of all stress - that would be wonderful, but life just isn't like that. We all have things to do, bills to pay, children to keep alive, cake to eat.
Today, let's take a look at our emotional well being and how it can help heal our skin from within.
1. Healing the skin from within. Emotional well-being.
Okay, so this is a biggy, but something we often sweep under the carpet in the face of getting that 'to do' list done.
Without knowing how to safely process the myriad emotions that flow through you in a single day, your body is going to respond by churning out stress hormones left right and centre. When that stress isn't processed, it hangs around in the body. Even at a low level, these stress hormones start a domino effect throughout or bodies, knocking all systems out of balance.
Constant low level stress leads our bodies to become inflamed and that inflammation will show up in our bodies in various ways. One of these ways is through our skin. When our systems are in high alert, or at 'dis-ease', they produce high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can interfere with nutrient absorption, the elimination of toxins, oxygen flow, cell regeneration, sebum production, sleep, and so the cycle continues. This disruption leaves the door open for uneven skin-tone, dark circles, psoriasis, rosacea, eczema, acne, dry skin, oily skin and pimples. These symptoms are your body's way of saying - "Euston, we have a problem".
The whole system is dis-regulated and is essentially screaming at you to take notice.
If we keep swallowing down our emotions without listening to them they will come to haunt us in whichever way our bodies choose. For me, this was always migraines, psoriasis, mild acne and neck and shoulder pain. I used to see it as a massive inconvenience, thinking that my body was malfunctioning and that I needed to take or apply something to make it go away so I could just get on with living my damn life, thank you very much! Whilst this may occasionally have had a temporary effect, it didn't make the problems go away, it just masked them for a while. In reality, the only thing that had changed was the weight of my wallet and my diminishing sense of hope.
What did work was very surprising: learning how to acknowledge, process and release emotions as they inevitably come up.
In the world of skin, this link between our psychological world and the health of our skin has been researched and coined psychodermatology.
The main thing to takeaway is that a calm system = a system that will not sound the alarm and produce unwanted symptoms on your skin.
How can you take care of your Emotional Well-being?
Here are five of the ways I like keep myself emotionally healthy.
1. Nature and movement- preferably outside. For me, being in nature is immediately calming. Sometimes just sitting in the garden is enough to bring things into perspective, but often it is forms of movement that will get me out of fight or flight mode. Walking, gardening, riding a bike, or even a cold dip.... We all know that exercise elevates mood, but the increased blood flow also helps flush out toxins from our bodies, all of which helps relieve the body of stressors which can aggravate the skin.
2. Meditation and Breath-work.
I can't lie - sitting for hours on end cross legged definitely does not happen in my life, but I have found short moments of breathwork and small 10 minute meditations invaluable for lowering my stress levels during the day.
Taking even 2-5 minute breathing and mindfulness breaks throughout your day reminds your body that it is safe. It has been proven that breathing as few as four slow extended breaths can activate the parasympathetic nervous system. (Read more about this process here.) Breathwork, like exercise, has the added benefit of circulating oxygen to the skin which helps your cells to regenerate. Try breathing in for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four. Do this four times in a row and compare how you feel before and after.
3. Self compassion and taming the inner critic. This has been a BIG one for me. I had no idea I was being so mean to myself until I started observing my thoughts. Turns out I was HORRIBLE! When we berate ourselves our cortisol levels respond as if we are being told off by someone. Our internal world experiences its own 'headmistresses office ' moment.
Self compassion means being kind to yourself even when things don't seem to be going your way. All too easily we can beat ourselves up for not being a good enough parent, partner, friend, employee, or we feel frustrated, shameful or angry that our skin is having a flare up. This is the time where being compassionate to ourselves and our emotions can turn off those inflammatory stress hormones and help us to be kind, rational and make more positive decisions.
Practicing self compassion has been shown to release similar hormones to being given a hug; hormones like Oxytocin and Seratonin that will help to counterbalance all the stress hormones that are wreaking havoc with your skin.
Kristin Neff is a leading practitioner and researcher of self-compassion and has many free exercises on her website. She's a brilliant person to get you going.
4. Social interaction. When I'm feeling down or stressed, my tendency is to shut myself away until I am fit for human consumption. I know I'm not alone in this and yet we know that seeing people always lifts the spirits. If you experience skin flare-ups, this tendency to hide away can be even greater; it can feel 'safer' somehow. But getting out and seeing some friends can help to calm our oversensitive nervous system and actually help our skin in the long-term. If going to a party seems too much, even getting out to your corner shop and having a nice chat at the counter has been shown to improve mood and release a cocktail of feel-good hormones that will help to calm your body's inflammation. Staying at home and ruminating can increase stress and may turn into a viscous cycle*.
* having a skin condition can really affect our mental health. It is always recommended to seek professional advice and therapy if you are feeling over-anxious or depressed.
5. Turning towards emotions.
Turning towards my emotions rather than wishing them away has been pretty life changing for me. I didn't believe it til I tried it, but there is some sort of magic that happens when we calmly listen and acknowledge how we are really feeling. Like a child who is screaming to be heard, if we tell them to be quiet, or 'in a minute', they will continue to scream, maybe even louder. But when we take a moment to hear them out, they calm down, they have been heard. That is all they needed. Our internal emotional system is exactly the same. Whilst the emotion might temporarily expand, what happens after a moment or two is that it will dissipate.
Some people do this with journaling, with somatic experiencing, with EFT and other therapies. If it's something you find hard to do I recommend seeing a therapist who can guide you through until you know what you are doing*.
*It is always recommended to seek professional advice and therapy if you are feeling over-anxious or depressed.
My list is just the tip of the ice-burg when it comes to ways to calm the nervous system. I'd be interested to hear your ways of taking care of your emotional wellbeing in the comments.
If you go to your doctor with bad skin, the likelihood is that they will give you a prescription for steroids, antibiotics or emollient creams, but won't tell you about all the reasons you may be suffering in the first place. If they do, then keep them!
Next week I will talk about the next pillar of good skincare: Nutrition and gut health.
If you found this useful please leave a comment and let me know. I would also love to hear from you about your experiences of emotions effecting your skin or physical health.
With love
Polly