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A life
filled with beauty from the inside out begins with eating healthfully,
including my Top 10 Beauty Foods in your diet, and adding exercise to
your daily routine. There’s just one more part of your life that needs
attention. You’ll also need to decrease your stress—an inevitable factor in
life that detracts from your beautiful appearance and ruins your calm demeanor.
In addition to exercise, R & R (rest and relaxation) are key to looking and
feeling your best. The more relaxed you are, the better you feel and the more
beautiful you look.
Tension Is the Enemy of Beauty
We all
know that stress exacerbates skin conditions like acne and that
being constantly tired and worried makes people look old. But for many years
there was no scientific explanation for this mind/body connection. When a 2004
study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed
a connection between life stress and looking old, this seemed like a blinding
flash of the obvious, but it was a big deal in scientific circles. The study
compared biological markers between a group of women who cared for a
chronically ill child and a control group of women with healthy children. The
study found that the more years of caregiving a woman had experienced, the
shorter the length of her telomeres (the caps of DNA protein on chromosomes that
are reduced every time a cell divides), the lower her telomerase activity (an
enzyme that protects telomeres), and the greater her oxidative stress.
Additionally, the telomeres of women with the highest perceived psychological
stress—across both groups—had undergone the equivalent of approximately 10
years of additional aging, compared with the women across both groups who had
the lowest perception of being stressed.
Stress
can contribute to wrinkles and may aggravate skin conditions including
eczema and acne. The effects of stress not only can show up in your face, but
also around your middle! If you’ve ever gone through half a bag of Hershey’s Kisses
without realizing it, you know there is a link between anxiety and eating.
Adding Relaxing Moments to Your Life
Busy
lives don’t lend themselves to long periods of relaxation on a daily, weekly,
or even monthly basis. But the key is not the length of time you incorporate
relaxation into your daily life. The most important thing is that you make some
time for it, even if it’s very small, on a regular basis. Anything that allows
your mind to escape the stresses of life can be helpful in making you feel calm
and at peace. In addition to dancing and Pilates, here are some of my favorite stress-reducing
activities.
CREATE A RELAXATION ROOM AT HOME. Many spas
have relaxation rooms to sit in before and after treatments. It’s great to
create a relaxation space at home too. It doesn’t have to be a “room” per se—it
can be a space in your bedroom, for example—but the key is having an area at
home that is devoted solely to relaxing. You may want to add a really
comfortable chair or daybed, put a dimmer on the lights, or have candles on hand—whatever
it is that you enjoy and find relaxing. This will give you an opportunity to
decompress. The key is not to have too many outside stimuli. Forget the
BlackBerry, cell phone, and laptop; this is a time to unwind and clear your mind
of distractions and stressors.
MEDITATE. Meditation is a great way to relax, especially if you are
under a lot of stress. Research has shown that meditation can lower heart rate
and blood pressure and even improve cognitive performance. Important factors to
consider when meditating include finding a comfortable place, relaxing your muscles,
and focusing on one thing, whether it’s your breathing, an object (a flower or
a painting), or even a picture in your mind. You might visualize a peaceful
place, like a secret garden. Or you might imagine sitting on a beach in the
Caribbean or standing on the summit of a mountain. Meditating for as little as
10 minutes is enough to have a beneficial effect on your stress level. The key
is staying focused and not letting any distractions or thoughts enter your
mind. This may be difficult at first and may take a lot of time and practice. Being
mindful is key.
LISTEN TO YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC. Listening to
soothing music can be very relaxing—and slow tempos in particular can induce a
calm state of mind. Calming music can slow your breathing and heart rate, lower
your blood pressure, and relax tense muscles too. This can be particularly
beneficial when you’re getting ready for a tough day at work, if you’re in your
car stuck in traffic, or if you’re lying in bed trying to free your mind of
stressful thoughts. Music therapy has been shown to be helpful in decreasing
anxiety associated with medical procedures: one recent study from Temple
University found that individuals who listened to music during a colonoscopy
required less sedation during the procedure than those who didn’t listen to
their favorite tunes.
GET A MASSAGE. Having a massage is a great
way to free yourself of tension, and adding aromatherapy oils such as chamomile
or lavender can be particularly beneficial. One recent study found that
emergency-room nurses experienced reduced stress levels with aromatherapy
massage. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, found
that at least 50 percent of the emergency-room staff suffered moderate to extreme
anxiety. However, this figure fell to 8 percent once staff received 15-minute
aromatherapy massages while listening to music. While it may be preferable, you
don’t necessarily need a full hour to experience benefits!
TAKE A HOT BATH. Heat relaxes muscles—and
taking a long bath can be soothing to the mind as well. Stock up on your favorite
bath salts and soaps, get a bath pillow, and decorate the room with candles.
You can even create an in-home spa by incorporating treatments like facials
into your routine.
TAKE A VACATION. Even when you have a day
off, it’s hard to relax if you’re surrounded by all the usual stressors—piles
of bills, home repair jobs that need to be done, shopping to do, and all the
other obligations of daily life that make your “to do” list go on for two
pages. To escape your day-to-day worries, you need to escape your surroundings!
For most people, a vacation to a warm climate, preferably on a sandy beach, is ideal.
On the other hand, you may have always wanted to go to Alaska. Whether you
prefer a no-frills campout or a luxury hotel, do whatever you find
rejuvenating. If you can possibly swing it, get away to relax.
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