Reducing stress is critical to clearing acne and to ward off signs of premature aging. Stress directly affects how your skin looks – cortisol increases during stress and damages the skin in multitudes of ways by weakening the skin’s natural barrier, making it more prone to dehydration, increasing oil production, and slowing down cell turnover.

Slower cell turnover can often lead clogged pores and duller looking skin. Worrying also increases expression lines around the mouth and forehead that can become more pronounced and even permanent over time. Anxiety increases inflammation in the body, hormonal imbalances, and increases the proliferation of bad bacteria in the gut.

While it’s impossible to eliminate all sources of anxiety, we can increase our mental and physical resilience to the inevitable stressors in life. The beauty of skin depends on how well we deal with stress! Here are ten ways that will help increase our resilience:

Cut the negative talk

Stop the negative self-talk and self-deprecation. Negative self-talk causes our bodies to tense up and wears us out, as if it is in real danger. For those of us with acne, it’s easy to be consumed with negative thoughts that do not help us – so the first thing we must do is to replace these thoughts.

We must learn to speak to ourselves how we want others to speak to us; it is part of practicing self-compassion and self-kindness. Our thought life is important – as negative thoughts impact our emotions and can cause us distress. Before dwelling on a thought – first ask yourself if it’s true, and then ask if it’s helpful to you.  Instead of telling yourself to ‘stop dwelling on a thought’, which usually causes you to think of it more, replace that thought with another that is kinder, more loving towards yourself.

Having the power of gratitude

Forming the habit of gratitude will help decrease stress levels. When we perceive life in an appreciative way, it recruits other positive emotions that can benefit us physically. When we’re grateful, it triggers the calming part of the nervous system that can decrease cortisol levels and increase oxytocin, which is the bonding hormone released in loving relationships that make us feel good. Being grateful allows us to reconnect with ourselves and surroundings, which is the exact opposite of what stress does.

Some clinical trials have shown that gratitude can reduce inflammation, improve immune function, and heart health. If you’re not feeling grateful, it’s a habit that can be developed. When you notice yourself getting stressed over a negative event, try to think of 3-4 things (related or unrelated) that you are grateful for. The more you remind yourself of the positives in your life, the more easily the powerful habit of gratitude can be cultivated.

Practice forgiveness

Holding grudges and resentment can increase levels of stress and inflammation in the body. Learning to forgive can be difficult but is rather critical to your health. Think of forgiveness as a form of self-care, something you do for you because it ultimately benefits you in the end, regardless if the other person actually apologies.

According to John Hopkins Medicine, “Chronic anger puts you into a fight-or-flight mode, which results in numerous changes in heart rate, blood pressure and immune response. Those changes, then, increase the risk of depression, heart disease and diabetes, among other conditions. Forgiveness, however, calms stress levels, leading to improved health.” Our health depends on our ability to let grudges go. Though, I’m not afraid to admit I’ve asked for God’s divine intervention to do that. When you forgive, you forgive for you.

Keep personal ambitions in check

Avoid over-striving, and be ready to rein in your personal ambitions if necessary. Over-striving is the ugly side of wanting “to have it all”. Money, accomplishments, influence and public approval aren’t everything. We live in a consumer-oriented society surrounded by aggressive advertising, but what many of us really need is more time with those we love, because love is what lasts in the end.

Be aware of the lure of professional “advancement”, because it may not be worth that promotion if you have to sacrifice your health and personal time to get there. Your health and time cannot be replaced. Especially in the U.S., we assume more is better when we can really do with less. The rat-race is a dangerous thing, and the winner just gets awarded with even more expectations than before. While there is nothing wrong with wanting a degree of financial success, be aware that with greater compensation comes greater pressures and responsibility. The best thing to do is to ask yourself if it’s really worth it to you.   

Be accountable to yourself

While externally-imposed deadlines from our jobs will keep work-related procrastination in check, it’s easy to allow ourselves to slip away from our own heart-felt goals. We do a disservice to ourselves when we don’t prioritize growing in areas of life we truly care about, when it’s within our power to do so. Having self-accountability will prevent you from feeling anxious and frustrated in the future. It’s the regret over lost opportunities for fulfilling our personal goals (the really important stuff in life) that can cause distress later down the road. Carve out personal time for reflection and write out what will bring you the most satisfaction out of life. Be completely honest with yourself and don’t include measures of “success” as determined by others. What society defines as “success” rarely aligns to what our hearts truly desire.  

Surround yourself with community

Cultivating a community that supports you emotionally can help stop stress in its tracks. There’s no denial human beings are social creatures, so it’s very natural to need community. Having a trusted friend or family member listen to you during times of distress can help alleviate the emotional burdens.

It’s easy to feel alone in our digital age, so it’s more important now than ever to surround yourself with people who truly care about you. No one is truly “independent”, as we all have had to depend on others to some degree to get to where we are right now. There’s no shame in admitting you need help from an emphatic friend or family member who has your best interest in mind. Our emotional health depends on knowing we have others who are here to support us.

Surrounding yourself with community doesn’t mean you should accept the presence of toxic people. The proverb “bad company corrupts good character” is true.  Sometimes, we must let go of those who take away value from our lives more than they add to it. We become like those who are closest to us, so don’t hesitate to be choosy on who you allow to become part of your inner circle. 

Let go of catastrophizing

Learn to let go of catastrophizing. When we catastrophize, we assume the worst case scenario as the most likely scenario. Not catastrophizing can be tricky, since sometimes our emotions can get the best of us. While anything is possible, not everything is probable – this means that the worst possible outcome usually does not come to pass. By not jumping to conclusions in situations where you feel emotionally-charged, you can re-frame the situation that brings you back to a calm, rational state of mind. Being mindful of the present can also help you not go down into a spiral of worry into the future, which is, in all reality, out of our control.

Do you really need to do it?

Realize that what is urgent is usually not that important, and what is important is mostly not urgent. Situations that are both urgent and important may be rarer than you think. An urgent task means that it requires immediate attention – anything that shouts “now!” and puts us on the defensive mode. An important task means that it contributes to our long-term well-being and sense of personal mission. When we do important activities, it makes us feel proactive, calm, and fulfilled. Popular business and self-help author, Stephen Covey, created a decision matrix in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that helped his readers to understand what is important vs. not important and what is urgent vs. not urgent. The decision matrix consists of the four squares below:

Do your best to minimize crisis work that fits into square one, such as pressing problems, “fire-fighting”, and life threatening events that are truly urgent and important. Focus spending more of your time in activities that fit into square two, such as relationship building, finding new opportunities, and investing in personal development that are important but not urgent. Avoid spending time on activities that are deceptively important (but they aren’t really) in square three like attending to some “urgent” phone calls, meetings, and emails that ultimately make no long-term impact. And last but not least, do your best to avoid distractions, like mindless activities, excessive social media consumption, and busy work. Being busy is NOT a badge of honor, but being intentional with your time IS.

Use the “death-bed” test

Morbid as this may sound, it’s psychologically helpful to come to terms with the fact that life is short. Imagine right now you are 90-something years old, and laying on your death-bed surrounded by loved ones. Are you going to fret-over that presentation you wished you had spent more time on to impress your boss years ago? Or what about that awkward situation at your 20-something birthday party you had created? If you’re not going to be concerned about it, or even be thinking about it, during your last hours on earth, it’s not anything of true substance to be worth worrying about now.  

Take deep breaths through your belly

Stress causes us to take short, shallow breaths through our chest. This kind of breathing lowers our energy levels and can make anxiety worse. Try taking in big breaths, all the way into your belly. Breathe in through your nose and allow your belly to fill with air and then breathe out of your nose. As you breathe in, you should feel your belly rise. As you breathe out, you should feel your belly lower. Deep breathing is a powerful tool that can zap stress away immediately by invoking our body’s natural relaxation response. Studies have shown it can lower cortisol levels. Try deep breathing for at least 10-20 minutes a day in a quiet place where you can sit or lie down comfortably. This is one technique that is fast, effective, and easy! 

Why it’s so critical to reduce stress

Chronic stress not only affects how fast your skin ages and looks but it also shortens your lifespan! Stress and inflammation affects you on such a fundamental level that it can cause flaws in your DNA. Your body obviously does not want this, so in order to cope, individual cells will shut down to prevent genetic damage. Cells dying or shutting down is part of the natural aging process. While this cannot be prevented entirely, the lifestyle we lead can greatly reduce the damage that our cells are exposed to every day.

Photo by Birgith Roosipuu on Unsplash