Stress! It’s everywhere!
Its how we react to the things that are going on in our lives. Some of us react differently to others but the one thing that is the same is that all of our cells in our body are affected by it.
Every system of the body is affected by it.
And every system of the body is linked back to the appearance of your skin!
Stress Affects:
Our mental health
Our sleep patterns
Our heart and circulatory system
Causes Headaches
Causes Skin Problems and exacerbates existing ones
Affects our Metabolic System and weight control
It affects our digestive system and compromises our immune system
When any of these systems are affected, there’s a direct ‘knock-on’ effect that happens to your skin cells!
Ever noticed that when you’re stressed that your eczema flares up or that rash around your mouth goes nuts??
Ever noticed that your skin is sensitive to things you’ve never had a problem with in the past?
Does your skin now sting when you apply your moisturiser but it never has before?
Or this time when you went to the salon your skin reacted differently got the wax/the facial/the tint??
This is all because your skin is on high alert with internal stress raging on inside your cells and it cannot cope with the overload of things from the outside. This doesn’t mean that you’re now allergic to whatever you used on your skin … it just is your body’s way of telling you to STOP! CALM DOWN and TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!!!
When stress affects our metabolic system, digestions, circulation and sleep, vital nutrients from our diet is not absorbed into our bodies resulting in your skin being unable to process information, it is lacking in vital ingredients it needs to make a healthy cells and therefore your skin will look and feel less than lovely!
This is because your skin is designed to do just that… CREATE SKIN… a covering for your body.
It is THAT clever that it will do it regardless of what ingredients we provide for it to make it, it is pre-programmed to continue to make skin out of whatever it has been given to work with.
So the look of your skin is linked right back to what you are putting in! Stress automatically deprives your cells of nutrients, your cells will make skin depleted of nutrients.
When you make a lasagne but forget to put in the pasta sheets, the lasagne is a sloppy, mixed up mess…. Same goes for your skin!
Stress on your cells is just like making a lasagne without the pasta sheets… Your cells don’t have the essential building blocks to give you a beautiful, smooth, plump skin.
I know we all can’t quit our jobs and live on a mountain doing salutations to the sun every day… BUT I reckon if we can counterbalance the stress by adding things in our lives that really FLOAT OUR BOAT, we are one step closer to reducing the stress on our cells!
This post this morning was inspired by my “de-stress ritual” Making a pot of Chai tea. No, it’s not a weekend getaway or an expensive retreat.. this kind of de-stress is a little unrealistic. It’s about finding the little things in life that give us 10 minutes of peace, 5 minutes to ourselves to just unwind some of the tension that builds up every day!
See for me, making my Bon Chai Tea is in the making, even before drinking. I take a saucepan out of the cupboard, add some water, add some teaspoons of the tea blend and stir until it’s steaming. Add my soy milk and stir. It comes to steaming point, turn off the heat and add some raw honey…. It’s my 15 minutes of zoning out!
Then… I make sure I drink it from a pretty teacup.
I’m sitting here, sipping tea, writing to you…
Making tea not your….cuppa tea??? (Pun intended!!) FIND SOMETHING THAT FLOATS YOUR BOAT!!
Take a bath
Walk the dog
Phone a friend
Read an awesome blog like this one! (Cheeky, shameless plug!)
Leave the office in your lunch break and sit on the grass
This weekend do that thing, whatever it is you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t made the time!
Do whatever it is that makes you feel connected, grounded, YOU!
Counter balance that stress in your life!!! Your skin will thank you for it!!
Love Robyn xx Skin Therapist. Skin Lover. BS Hater
