Skin Gratitude: The Power of Mindful
Self-Care
What Is Skin Gratitude?
When you hear the term “skin gratitude,” what are your first thoughts? Does this sound like a peaceful experience or like a dreadful time waste? Take a moment to look deeper and approach this subject with an open mind.
Applying thankfulness and gratitude to your skin and skincare practices may have legitimate long term benefits. Research supports that gratitude is a powerful tool for countering depression, anxiety, and a negative mindset.
Implementing Skin Gratitude isn’t just looking into a mirror and saying that you look good (even worse, it’s not about criticizing your appearance). If you think beyond the surface and really look at the purpose of skin gratitude, you’ll find some tried and true benefits.
First, let’s take a closer look at how stress can affect our skin.
Effects of Stress
Stress was meant for short term survival purposes, triggering your fight or flight response as a call to action. It gets your body wired and alert. However when you’re in a constant state of stress, whether consciously or not, it can have major adverse effects on almost every system in your body. The things that can directly affect the skin are:
- High blood pressure can cause inflammation.
- Overexposure to cortisol (stress hormone) interferes with healing, increases oil production that causes breakouts, worsens skin conditions like psoriasis, rosacea, and eczema.
- Weakens the immune system which can lead to an imbalance of bacteria on your skin known as dysbiosis, a cause of rashes or inflamed skin.
- Changes the proteins in your skin that may lead to wrinkle development from a loss of elasticity.
All of that sounds...well, pretty stressful, right?
Certain skin conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis, may react from specific life stressors. If you have these types of skin conditions, you may notice some flare ups occur during times of trial. As the stress and anxiety passes, your skin may show signs of healing and clearing up.
But, instead of waiting passively for time to pass or living perpetually wounded, how can we fight back and prevent stress from taking over every aspect of our lives, including the very skin we live in?
Taking a more holistic approach to skincare, and being more mindful about how you treat and care for your skin may be the key.
You can take small, simple steps towards implementing a daily practice of gratitude.
Don’t neglect your skin, always take a few minutes to care for yourself. You’re worth it! Be mindful and use clean beauty products.
- Take note of any improvements or progress keep a journal. There’s always something to be grateful for. Being grateful increases self esteem.
- Start or maintain good lifestyle habits, eat healthier, get plenty of sleep.
- Stay active, exercising takes your mind off the cause of your stress. Not to mention counteracting the effects of it. When your body is healthy, your skin is healthy!
- Don’t be afraid to talk about it, it could be someone else has struggles too or could help you manage your stress. It’s ok to ask for help! #normalizementalhealth
- Practice meditations either independently, in a class setting, or using an app such as Calm or Headspace
Always Pure, Always Natural.
#watercressglow
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