I had big hopes about my skin during quarantine - I was going to go makeup free, workout every day, eat wholesome nutritious food, take amazing care of my skin routine, and meditate daily, and therefor my skin was going to glow. Well, I did most of these things! I've been eating well (save for the first week of isolation when I went a little off the rails with Whole Foods vegan chocolate chip cookies), working out almost every day, haven't worn makeup in weeks coupled with regular face masks and massage, and legit meditating every day. I've never before been able to stick to all of these things all at once and I am so proud! However, my skin is NOT glowing! So seriously what gives - why have I been doing everything "right" but still experiencing breakouts!?
This is where my biggest first-hand lesson comes in - stress affects your skin SO much more than you think. So much so, that even though I was doing all of the self care rituals above, literally treating body and skin like a temple, and still experienced more breakouts than usual because of the crippling amount of stress brought on by the uncertainty surrounding a global health pandemic. I lost my job at the end of March, when the pandemic was really gaining speed. I was obviously extremely distraught by losing my job, but was very positive that this would be a good thing. I thought "how can I be stressed when I'm not working? I have all the free time to meditate and workout while looking for a new opportunity". However, what I didn't realize is how extreme my underlying stress was.
Constantly being surrounded by the news reporting rising cases, death tolls skyrocketing, no one is safe, protect your loved ones, no one can get a test, etc. took an extreme toll on my subconscious. I was so overwhelmingly nervous for my family, specifically my parents, that it consumed most of my thoughts. I wondered (and still wonder to this day, we're not out of the woods yet) when will this end, will we ever go back to normal, and how can I ever NOT worry about the health of my family from this point on? Frankly, it was out of control, and I still struggle with keeping my fear and stress under control. Work in progress.
So you're probably wondering how all of this can affect the skin? Well, it's actually
pretty simple. Stress raises your cortisol (literally called the stress hormone) which in turn creates more oil within your skin. Now excess oil in itself does not necessarily create breakouts, but oil plus bacteria and friction cause breakouts. So as I was stressing hard core, excess oil was building up in my skin (I'm already oily skin type and acne prone) and likely touching my face more regularly out of nervousness (picking is not reserved to the non-professionals! Estheticians are human too), and wearing a face mask when out in public. This all in combination created quite a few more breakouts than I would ever want on my skin.
Now, of course, acne is the least of our concerns right now, however, I do believe that it can really add to emotional upset in a time like this. So my point being, that no matter how good your skin ritual is, how much you are doing things "right" if your stress levels are sky high your skin won't be looking its best.
So be gentle with yourself - try to really take control of your emotions and your stress, for the sake of every aspect of your life, not just your skin. It's easier said than done, but absolutely worth the effort.
Some of the ways I am working to lower my stress levels:
Meditating every single day. Even if just for 10 minutes. I'm loving the Headspace app for this.
Eating well - I have found that constantly eating 'comfort' foods only leads me to feeling worse. So keeping indulgences to a minimum helps.
Deep breaths. Whenever you catch yourself tensing up, release with 3 big breaths.
Take time in nature - even if it's just a walk through the park. The sunshine and fresh air will do wonders.
How do you de-stress when you're feeling wound up?
Xoxo, Lauren
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