”You look stressed” Here’s why and what to do about it

Ever wondered why you start looking like a walking dead when you stressed? Our skin is a reflection of what is happening on the inside of our bodies. To understand why it shows on our skin, we first need to take a deep dive into the nerd corner of stress and it’s effect on our bodies.

What is stress and how does it affect the body functions?

Stress is a primal respons to danger – you know, the much talked about fight or flight mode. When this respons is triggered all things secondary in our bodies are put aside until your brain is signaling that you are safe again. Stress is a vital survival mechanism and is made to be shortlived.

When we are stressed, the bodys bloodflow will be concentrated on the larger musclegroups, heart rate and blood preassure – because you need to be able to fight or run away as fast as possibe. While our larger muscles are getting the most of the bloodflow, the bloodflow around the gut gets slower. This means that our body can’t absorb enough nutritions from the food we eat. So while we’re out there stressing, our body is using a lot of vital minerals and antioxidants, which would be important nutritions for all body functions (and ofcourse skin and hair too) but the amount needed to keep up this supply chain is not functioning properly. And when the body is in stress mode, your skin and hair defineatley won’t be prioritized when minerals and antioxidants are being distributed.

Stresshormones are keeping us more alert, meaning we might find it hard to rest and recover. What this means for our cells, is that the renewal process and other vital functions that needs to be done during our sleep, is not happening – or, at least not in the amount needed.

How does stress show on skin?

Familiar with the stress breakouts? Cortisol affects skin by lowering skin cells ability to retain water, which causes skin to dry. Luckily our skin is a clever organ and will try to fix itself by producing more oil to compensate for the dryness. This delicious mix of dry skincells and sebum may result in clogged pores.

Stresshormones also lowers the insuline function and causes bloodsugar to rise, which is linked to breaking down collagen (and the craving for sugary foods when we are stress isn’t really helping either – our brains apparently need 12% more energy during stress, and the quickest way to energy is ofcourse carbohydrates).

All this are causes why we might experience pimples, eczema – and in the long run, decreased plumpness in skin, during and after stress.

Preventing stress

Our brains are not able to ’catch up’ on rest nor sleep. That one free weekend we planned after weeks of stressing aorund, won’t really be enough to recharge, our brains will demand an equally long, if not longer, period of time to recharge.That is why the most important thing we must learn, is to take small breaks troughout the day, no matter how busy we feel or tell ourselves to be. When we learn to take small breaks throughout the day, it gets much faster for our brain.and body to recharge after a stressful timeperiod. 

The easiest and most efficient way to lower stress:

Deep breathing

And before you sigh or laugh that you’ll leave this technique for the yogis, hear me out.When we breathe deeply, the suppy of oxgyen to our brain is increased which stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system and gives a sense of calmness. This mechanism is the most efficient, its free and always accessable, plus it’s discreet if that is something you need.

To practice deep breathing you can either just let your outbreath be longer than the inbreath, and just do that for a few breaths. You can also try boxbreathing: breathe in to the count of four, hold your breath to the count of four, and breathe out for the count of six.

There are a lot of other relaxation techniques such as walks in nature, excersie, meditation, touch, scent etc and I will share more in an other article. This post is already monstrous for our modern six second attention span. I shared one tip over at my instagram page already, if you’re curious go check it out here.

What relaxation techniques do you use to unwind?

Transparency note: the lavendel scented hand cream visible in the pictures are kindly gifted by Moi Forest, and plays part in the easy relaxation tip over at my instagram post.