Your Skincare Saboteur explained
Skincare is more than the products you use.
It’s the embodiment of your moment to moment experience.
Skincare is about connection and relationship.
Your connection and relationship with YOURSELF.
The connection and relationship between your BRAIN, your BODY and your beliefs about BEAUTY.
When those relationships are ignored, neglected or rejected it activates your stress response.
Activation of your stress response creates patterns, reactions and responses that inform and influence how your skin looks, feels and how you FEEL in it.
It impacts how you show up in the world. In your career, in love, in health, in your bank account.
In short, It impacts your self-concept, your self-esteem and your self-confidence.
Did you know: the state of your stress response is directly connected to the state of your skin health?
Yep. That’s right.
I’m not just talking acne or eczema here either, though elevated stress levels can certainly trigger or exacerbate those conditions too.
Your stress level has an influence on every single system in your body. Your stress status can either lead you closer to or further away from living, looking and feeling your best (you know, that energetic, fun-loving, resilient, badass with the glowing complexion version of you).
Stress can be a good thing to keep us out of danger, but when it’s regularly high — and that can happen for many reasons — it can negatively impact our overall well-being.
Here’s why: Your stress response influences your immune system to help to fight off infection and inflammation; your cardiovascular system, your endocrine system impacting your libido & hormones, your reproductive system (hello wonky periods & fertility woes), detoxification and lymphatic systems (swelling, puffiness, toxins oh my!)
You get the picture.
But what most people don’t know is that your stress levels have the most significant impact on your skin.
Your skin is your window to and reflection of what’s happening beneath the surface mind, body and soul.
What shows up on your skin tells a lot about how you are showing up in it and what facets of your life may need more of your attention. While serums, lotions and potions can help, the real healing happens when we address what’s happening beneath the surface.
You see your skin and your brain are intimately connected as they are derived from the same embryologic tissue. There’s a bi-directional communication between the two which creates the “brain-beauty” connection.
This means that when your brain senses stress, whether real or perceived, it sends signals and chemicals throughout your body that are received by your skin. It also means that your skin itself has the same mechanisms to generate these signals and chemicals.
Your skin is both a source and target for stress which translates to a double whammy for your complexion (skin, hair and nails) as well as self-image.
So knowing how to manage your mind and keep your stress levels in check is a skill for a lifetime of creating the life you crave and more importantly, a life with more ease, calm and confidence that you deserve.
Your Skincare Saboteur
We ALL have a “Sabateur” be it issues, regrets, grief, or self-doubt, all of which activates your stress response. The disconnect between your brain and body not only fuels your insecurities, emotional pain and fears, but also contributes to inflammation, autoimmunity, chronic illness and cancer.
My guess is that you landed here because managing your stress response could use some help.
High Stress
When you experience stress, your sympathetic nervous system switches on. Your body prepares itself for attack. Dating back to prehistoric times, that attack was likely to be by something like a saber-toothed tiger; in order to survive, you would have had to either fight it, flee as fast as you could or freeze where you were. Fast forward to the modern day and though that tiger may not be chasing you, your response to a threat remains the same.
Here’s why: your body doesn’t distinguish between a real or perceived threat, all it senses is that you are in danger and it is going to spring into action to keep you alive.
Stress comes in many forms. For example, there are physical stressors like over-exercising, environmental stressors like air pollution or stress linked to financial, occupational, or relationship-related issues to name a few. We call all of these factors in your environment that contribute to stress in your life as the “exposome.” And while some of these may resonate, some may not and yet you still may be under stress for one reason or another and not feel it.
Top Causes of Stress
Depending on a person’s thinking patterns and coping skills, almost anything can cause stress. Some of the most frequently cited sources of stress include:
- Money
- Work
- The economy
- Family responsibilities
- Relationships
- Personal health issues
- Housing costs
- Job stability
- Family health problems
- Personal safety
Other factors contributing to turning up the stress response:
Most often, stress hormone imbalance occurs for various reasons, not just one. Some of these reasons could be:
- Poor or inadequate diet for our body or activity level
- Too much or not enough exercise for our body or activity level
- Poor digestion or digestive issues
- Food allergies or intolerances
- Pain, infection, inflammation, injury or illness
- High blood sugar, or highs and lows
- Stressful thoughts or worry
- Alcohol, caffeine, or cigarette smoke (even low or moderate amounts can add stress)
- Overusing medications or recreational drugs
- Environmental toxins in our household, products, food or water
- Toxic environments, relationships or thoughts
- Rapid, shallow breathing patterns
- Trauma of any type
- Lack of adequate or quality sleep
- Lack of rest, recovery or downtime
- Lack of support or community
- Lack of self care or love
- And many more
High Stress might look like:
- A sense of overwhelm or constant worry
- Worsening of menopause symptoms like hot flashes
- Feeling out of control
- Easily catching colds or other illnesses
- Muscle aches and tension
- Impaired digestion or IBS
- Feeling sad, lonely or depressed
- Sleepless nights or insomnia
- Anxiety, nervouness or irritability
- Appetite changes
- Racing heart
- Headaches
- Weight gain, especially in the midsection
- Feeling wired but tired
- Loss of libido, sexual desire or other sexual issues
- Autoimmune conditions
- Ndigestion, acid reflux or upset stomach
- Feeling burnout or emotionally exhausted
- Energy crashing in the afternoon
- Low blood pressure
- Lack of motivation or interest in things
- Forgetfulness and lack of attention
- Feeling tired even after a full night’s sleep
- Reduced exercise tolerance
- Feeling dizzy when standing up too quickly
- Slow recovery from exercise or illness
- Diarrhea or constipation
- Low energy and fatigue
- Feeling confused or unable to make decisions
- Increase in fine lines, wrinkles and skin sag
- Hair thinning or hair loss
- Worsening or new onset acne
- Worsening or new skin rashes
- Dry, itchy or irritated skin
- And more
What’s happening physiologically when stress levels are high?
When stress levels soar, your hypothalamus, a small gland in your brain, triggers your pituitary gland to sound off an alarm system in your body. This triggers a series of events in your nerve and hormone signaling, which prompts your adrenal glands, located on top of your kidneys, to release a surge of hormones including cortisol and adrenaline. Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and amps up your energy supplies.
Cortisol, your primary stress hormone, increases sugar in the bloodstream and creates imbalances in your other hormones including progesterone, testosterone and thyroid, leading to suppression of the reproductive and growth processes (hello worsening PMS, low libido, constipation, dry skin, hair loss and weight gain around the middle)
Increased cortisol levels also alter your immune system responses producing increased levels of inflammation. Chronic inflammation has been discovered to be the root cause of many diseases, including heart disease, autoimmune disorders and cancer, not to mention skin conditions like acne, eczema, psoriasis, alopecia and vitiligo.
This activation, otherwise known as “fight or flight”, sets off a chain of reactions generating surges in stress hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and chemical messengers which not only breakdown tissues like collagen and elastin, they also contribute to inflammation, oxidation and prevention of new production resulting in fine lines, wrinkles and skin sag.
The result is that your skin not only looks older but is less equipped to handle the trauma and oxidative damage from environmental stressors like UV exposure and air pollution.
What’s more is that cortisol also directly stimulates your oil glands while simultaneously making your skin more leaky leaving your skin not only oily, but also dehydrated and more vulnerable to redness, irritation and inflammation. A seriously frustrating skin scenario that can create or exacerbate conditions like acne, rosacea, psoriasis and eczema.
At the level of the brain, first the hypothalamus and then the pituitary gland signal your adrenal glands to make cortisol.
At the nutritional level, the body needs certain nutrients to make and break down these hormones, namely protein and cholesterol.
Cholesterol is the backbone of all of our sex and stress hormones and plays a critical role in controlling and supporting a number of the body’s functions. Also important are vitamin E and C, the Bs and magnesium, to name a few.
The more hormones we make, the more these needs increase. In addition to making hormones, we need supportive nutrients to break down and move these hormones out of our system after use — otherwise they remain circulating, causing more issues.
Not only that, when one hormone gets elevated, another often tanks. Our stress hormones are created from the same building blocks as our sex hormones. When the body is under stress it prioritizes using these building blocks to create our stress hormones before our sex hormones.
Translation: stress can make your libido plummet, pile on period and fertility woes and worsen your menopause symptoms as your already declining hormones are now at even lower levels.
In addition, there are many other ways in which high cortisol impacts other hormones.
How high stress affects other hormones
Stress can be a good thing to keep us out of danger, but when it’s regularly high — and that can happen for many reasons — it can take a toll on our other hormones too.
Here’s why: the building blocks for your stress hormones are the same as your other hormones. When the body is under stress it prioritizes using these building blocks to create our stress hormones before other hormones like your sex hormones.
When it comes to your health, estrogen plays a big role in how you feel and how you look. Consider this: there are estrogen receptors essentially everywhere — from your brain, to your heart, to your hair, skin, bones, uterus, gut, breast tissue and pretty much every organ in the body. Estrogen is a chemical messenger that helps the cells in all these different organs function in a particular way.
For example, estrogen plays a significant role in supporting the growth cycle of your hair and the production of collagen and hyaluronic acid. When estrogen levels decline, hair appears finer, thinner, wound healing is impeded, fine lines, wrinkles and skin sag increases and skin becomes dry…including in your intimate bits which can make sex painful.
As cortisol rises, progesterone drops. Given that progesterone is known as a calming hormone and can act as a natural antidepressant, lower levels can contribute to anxiety and mood swings, not to mention the adverse effect it has on hair growth.
Translation: stress can make your libido plummet, pile on period and fertility woes and worsen your menopause symptoms as your already declining hormones are now at even lower levels.
And with the rise in cortisol comes the rise in blood sugar, insulin, and if elevated unchecked, the onset of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is associated with skin tags, hirsuitism, and thickening and darkening of skin folds called acanthosis nigricans.
If your cortisol levels are unnaturally high in the evenings — when they are supposed to go low as melatonin rises in preparation for sleep — this will disrupt melatonin production, influencing sleep and causing disruption of other key hormones.
Although the key role for melatonin is to initiate sleep, it’s also one of the most potent antioxidants your body produces that helps repair DNA damage to your skin and plays a role in hair growth. Without it your skin can’t fully recover, repair and rejuvenate.
What we can do about it
If you want to feel something different then you have to do something different… And taking action is the key to getting the results you want
We ALL have a “Sabateur” be it beliefs, fears, anxiety or self-doubt. The real question is, “Are you going to do something about it?”
If you’re anything me, you’ve tried it all, from therapy to self-help books, to gurus to try and “fix” that sh*t. And sometimes it actually worked, for a little while. But eventually I was right back where I started because I didn’t get to the root of the problem. Embodiment is the single most effective practice I’ve ever discovered to clear the clutter once and for all. Our struggles are beneath the surface, so it makes sense that the solutions are found there too.
Embodiment is the connection between our bodies and our minds. It is the moment to moment experience of bringing awareness to the felt sense of our feelings, thoughts, sensations, and energy.
Understanding this connection isn’t always easy, especially in the Western world where we’re accustomed to and often encouraged to ignore our bodies’ needs or alternatively, suppress and control them in the name of productivity and upholding the patriarchal status quo.
The precedent for disembodiment was set centuries ago by French philosopher Rene Descartes who was credited with the creation of mind-body dualism which is the belief that our minds and bodies exist separate from one another. The truth is that mind-body dualism has influenced our entire lives—from how we process stress and anxiety, to how we practice modern medicine, to how we distract ourselves with technology.
Embodiment is the antidote. Embodiment teaches us that our bodies are not simply a vessel for our organs, rather our minds and bodies work together in harmony to help us find balance, ground us and create safety from within.
We can come home to ourselves — our whole selves – and see our bodies as an extension of who we are, regardless of how they look or function.
I know it can be hard to feel good about ourselves if we don’t like what we see in the mirror, but there are ways to feel better that don’t require a boatload of lotions, potions, pills or procedures that I can teach you.
Your brain, body and beauty are intimately connected, so learning how to cultivate those connections through embodiment is how we keep your stress response in balance, or what we call “homeostasis.”
Managing your mind to keep your stress levels in check is a skill for a lifetime of living, looking and feeling your best, and more importantly, a lifetime with more ease, calm and confidence that you deserve.
How To Practice Embodiment As Skin Care
How then do we reclaim our bodies and practice embodiment, especially as a form of skin care?
You may already have some tools in your toolbox that could be a good place to start. But if you need some suggestions, check out the ones below
1. Befriend Your Body: Your body is strong, beautiful and the home in which you live. How you think about and talk about your body influences how you feel about it, so why not talk about her like she’s your best friend. Shifting your language to talk about your body as part of who you are, rather than how hard, fast or far you can exert or push it increases your capacity for connection to it. When you shift your lens to your body being part of you, it’s easier to accept it as it is, even if it functions or looks different than you expect it to.
2. Tune in and Listen: Our bodies are constantly sending us messages. Sometimes they whisper, sometimes they shout about pain, illness or trauma, but they are always communicating and can teach us how to take better care of ourselves. Listening to your body means working with your body, not against it. This means approaching signs and symptoms from your body from a place of curiousity rather than criticism or contempt and ask questions like: “What is my body saying to me in this moment?” “What is here for me? Is there a lesson I need to learn?”
3. Tapping Into Your Senses: You can reconnect to your body by tapping into your senses. Washing your face or applying your serum with a gentle touch, noticing the sensations of your fingertips on your skin, the temperature of the water, the scent of the product and the sounds suds are a simple yet potent way to experience embodiment.
Still not sure where to start?
Here are 3 simple and free ways you can get started right now:
1) Listen to my podcast The Skinny Dipping Rx: Through no B.S. conversations, straight-up truths and tangible, actionable advice, each episode will give you a prescription for how to strip it down and experience pleasure on a whole new level.
2) Join the free 5 Day Mindset Reset Revolution: Jumpstart your journey in less than 10 minutes a day to experience more ease, calm and relaxation.
3) Book a free Somatic Skincare Connection Call with me: and see if joining our flagship Somatic Skincare program is a good fit so we can uncover the layers weighing you down and get you on the fast track to peace with your mind, trust in your body, yourself, your life: all of it.
(Disclaimer)
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, manage, or treat disease or serious conditions. Always check with your doctor before making any changes. It’s important to consult a well-informed health practitioner for personal advice about your situation before relying on general information.
Keira Barr, MD
Hi, I’m Dr. Keira, a somatic stress release practitioner and embodiment coach, a dual-board certified integrative dermatologist, best-selling author and coffee-lover. After having struggled for years to find lasting solutions for my own debilitating stress-related symptoms, I created my online practice to begin helping other ambitious women get the support they need. I now help women around the world heal their relationship with themselves by reclaiming a sense of safety, trust, pleasure and power through their body — which in turns cultivates self-acceptance, self-compassion, self-love, self-confidence and resilience — and creates sustainable habits that align with their authentic truth.
My method is an evidence-based step by step process to finding comfort in your skin, peace with your mind and empowerment in your life, that will be a constant companion you can build upon for the rest of your life.
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