The beauty industry pours a lot of resources into figuring out what to put on our skin and hair, but believe it or not, one of the most critical components of a healthy beauty regimen isn't something you put on at all. It begins inside—with your nervous system.
I've been hearing a lot about "resetting my nervous system" these days—on social media, podcasts, and even in my therapist's office! It sounds like a new therapeutic device, but, in actuality, it's just a specific way of saying "manage one's stress." And, as we've talked about before, stress management—whether acute or chronic—plays a large role in maintaining healthy skin and hair.
The nervous system has two main gears: the sympathetic and the parasympathetic systems.
The sympathetic manages your fight or flight response. I trust you're familiar with this analogy from the caveman times! When the bear attacks, your body makes a snap decision on whether to fight the bear or run like hell! But the underlying cause of that response is the same: stress, fear, urgency, anxiety. These emotions fill the body with cortisol, which leads to inflammation. Inflammation—too much of it, at least—is not a good thing for your skin and hair health. The parasympathetic system manages your "rest and repair" mode. It governs your digestion, healing, skin repair, and hormone balance.
Now, if your body spends a lot of time in fight or flight mode, it will start to de-prioritize the parasympathetic system. Your immune system will suffer, your sleep quality will degrade, and yes, your skin barrier will not repair itself the way it should. Not only that, the constant presence of excess cortisol will increase oil production, slow wound healing (like acne scabs), and may even result in an increase of eczema flares, rosacea, or stress breakouts.
So, here are a few helpful ways to reset that nervous system, so that it isn't spending all of your body's finite resources in a constant "fight or flight" mode!
Breathe for 2 minutes straight.
Ok, this seems a little redundant since we are all breathing all the time already, but I mean breathe deeply: breathe in over 4 beats and breathe out over 4 beats. Do this for at least 2 minutes, straight. I've been doing this before bed with Lulu sitting on my chest right before sleeping and it's been great. I do have to put my timer on for 2 minutes, because it's a lot longer than you might think. And the body really needs the full 2 minutes for this to work.
Take a warm shower.
The reason a warm shower feels so good (assuming you don't stay in it forever) is because the warm water signals to your body "you're safe now." Even washing your face with warm water can have a calming effect, by activating the temperature sensitive nerve receptors on your skin. Those receptors send signals to the brain that help shift the nervous system out of fight or flight mode and toward the parasympathetic state (i.e., the "rest and repair" mode).
Move--NOT punish--your body.
Light movement and exercise can also help to reset that nervous system. It's important that the movement be light enough so as not to trigger another release of cortisol. Think walking, yoga, stretching, etc. I've been doing some light stretching after my runs and it not only feels good, I can literally feel my body settling down after the more intense exertion.
Get some sun.
I feel like this is something old people used to say to cranky kids—"go outside and get some sun on ya!" It's even more relevant these days, given how much of our daily lives keeps us indoors. But the sunlight—particularly in the morning—helps to regulate your circadian rhythm, which, in turn, manages your cortisol cycles, your sleep hormones, and your energy levels. Even just 10 minutes outdoors in the morning (before 10 am) can do your body a WORLD of good.
Go to BED!!
I've talked about this ad nauseam, I know, but sleep is SO important to your health!! It's when all the magic happens—when your skin repairs itself, when your collagen production increases, and inflammation decreases. When you are sleeping less than 7 hours a night, the magic isn't given enough time and your body stays in stress mode.
You see how much work your body is already doing to make sure you're healthy? It's pretty miraculous if you think about it. It's one of the reasons Korean beauty and Korean Vegan Beauty, in particular, takes "gentleness" seriously (as we discussed last week). Your body is already doing most of the amazing work to heal itself. We're just here to support it!
