Three reasons to add meditation to your beauty regime
Meditation is most often thought of as something that concerns our introspective lives. There’s lots of emotional and (if you are so inclined) spiritual benefits to meditation, and of course it’s sensible to prioritise our inner selves over what’s superficial. But while better sleep, less stress and greater well-being are all brilliant reasons to take up this habit, it turns out that meditation can make us look better too.
This is a happy side effect of something that’s good for you anyway, so if you are in need of an extra nudge to take up meditation, take a look at the ways meditation can make you your glow-iest, healthiest and most attractive self.
Ageing Well
Staying young is something of a human obsession, and while it’s certainly not a modern one (an ancient Chinese emperor went so far as to eat mercury in order to achieve eternal life – which, needless to say, hastened his end) it can be argued that there’s never been as much pressure to stay perpetually young as there is now. While embracing the advantages that getting older brings is probably the best way to grow old happily, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look your best.
Luckily, this is something that meditation can help with. Collagen is the magic ingredient as far as keeping youthful skin goes, but the stress hormone cortisol down-regulates the synthesis of collagen. As collagen is an important part of connective tissue and offers structural support, keeping skin looking young pretty much relies on it. A less superficial issue is that cortisol also reduces bone formation and contributes to osteoporosis – something that effects lots of women as they get older.
Another reason why meditation can help you age well is that the practise is a great foundation for a generally healthy lifestyle, as it’s far easier to make the right choices when you are calm and happy. Often, if you try to pursue a healthy lifestyle when you are stressed and discontented you are more likely to take up destructive diets and punishing exercise regimes. These may work in the short term, but aren’t sustainable or conducive to further happiness. Using meditation to cultivate a calmer and more positive outlook can make becoming healthier something that comes naturally, rather than a stick to beat yourself with.
Less Bloating
Not only does bloating make it difficult to do up the top button of your jeans, it’s uncomfortable and distracting. So how can meditation help when it looks and feels like you’ve swallowed a watermelon whole? Once again it comes down to reducing stress. When we go into “fight or flight” mode, which can happen to more or lesser extent in response to all sorts of everyday stresses, bodily processes which aren’t immediately useful are neglected in favour of emergency functioning – and this includes digestion.
You may have noticed when you are under pressure that your stomach feels strange, and as digestion is inessential in flight or fight mode it’s one of the areas that is starved of energy when you are stressed out. This means that problems like IBS and bloating can get worse, which is both painful and irritating when a dress that fit perfectly before now looks all wrong. Meditation can resolve this stress by providing a rest that is even deeper than sleep, allowing the body to rebalance itself and perform as it should.
Great Skin
Having good skin is an elusive thing. Whether you have spots making an appearance whenever they can sense they’ll be least welcome, cold sores emerging and crusting over every few months, permanent dark circles under your eyes or flaking skin that moisturiser doesn’t seem to touch, you aren’t alone. Add to this anxiety over fine lines and it’s no wonder that we spent £1.06 billion on skincare in 2014. But while we all know that hitting the sunbeds and chain smoking is pretty disastrous for our skin, many of us underestimate just how much stress can be a determining factor.
While avoiding stress entirely is probably unrealistic, meditation can go long way in making sure it stays at manageable levels. This is important for our skin because when we become too stressed we release the hormone cortisol which in high levels can trigger a partial shut- down of your immune system. With compromised health and lack of sleep too much stress can leave you looking and feeling washed out, and even (as was discussed above) contribute to premature aging.
If you have to put up with acne and have always suspected that it gets worse when you are stressed out, you are probably right. When we are stressed out less blood is directed to our skin in order to power our muscles and organs, meaning that our skin receives less oxygen and nutrients and is more prone to flare-ups. With meditation calming down the stress centres in your brain and reducing the amount of cortisol in your body by a third, maintaining clear and healthy skin will be much easier.
By: Holly Ashby
This post was written by Holly Ashby, a writer who’s interested in health, happiness and corporate wellbeing. She currently works for the meditation centre Will Williams Meditation, who help people tackle a range of issues and experience the benefits of meditation.
