I talk a lot about the mind-skin connection. It’s well-established that stress and anxiety can have a huge impact on your skin. In fact, research has shown that stress can impact the symptoms of most chronic skin conditions, including eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, alopecia, and acne.
Taking steps to reduce stress in your life is an important part of taking care of your skin. There’s often a lot you can do to make your life less stressful and to create more space for relaxation and fun – that’s a topic for a different day. But the reality is that we can’t completely get rid of stress in our lives. Everyone goes through stressful situations from time to time. Sometimes we simply can’t avoid it.
This is why it’s important to cultivate resilience – the ability to bounce back from adversity. When something challenging happens, it’s up to us how we respond. We can let it crush us, or we can overcome it and use it to become even stronger. No matter what happens to us, we have this choice.
Of course, it’s not always easy. Becoming more resilient definitely takes work and practice. If you’re looking to increase your resilience, there are some steps you can take that will help. Here are three ways to help cultivate more resilience in your life.
Tend to your physical health
Your physical health will influence your ability to be emotionally resilient. Just think about what happens when you’re hungry. It’s so easy to get “hangry” – to blow up at a small provocation, when the real problem is that your body and brain just don’t have the energy to deal with the situation. (It’s not always anger – most people feel sad more easily when they’re hungry as well.)
The more we feel good in our bodies, the more energy we’ll have available for helping us cope with stressful situations. Getting enough exercise and sleep, and eating a healthy diet that offers our body all of the nutrients that we need, are crucial. If you’re having trouble dealing with a stressful situation, try having a snack, taking a nap, or going for a walk. It might be that meeting your body’s needs will give you the boost you need to handle the situation better.
Nurture close relationships
Although many of us have been socialized to try to “go it alone,” the truth is that people who have others to lean on are much better able to weather the storms of life. Trying to cope with everything by yourself is a sure recipe for falling apart at some point. Having a few close relationships can help you to get perspective on your challenges, and to gain some confidence when you’re feeling low.
Make sure to put time into cultivating authentic relationships. Remember, it’s not the size of your network – people can have hundreds of “friends” and still feel lonely, because none of the relationships are truly authentic or deep. Instead of focusing on having more friends, it’s better to have a few relationships that you really invest your time and energy into. Having these people to lean on – and letting them lean on you when they need to – will go a long way towards helping both of you become more resilient.
Pay attention to your thought patterns
A variety of mental elements also come into play when you’re trying to become more resilient. Self-esteem and self-confidence are very important – the more you feel good about yourself, the more you can avoid getting sucked into feeling negative when something challenging happens. You also need the ability to think about and reframe your problems as opportunities for growth, and to be able to change your focus and pay attention to what’s good in your life rather than becoming obsessed with what’s going wrong.
It takes time to shift thought patterns that have become deeply ingrained habits over many years. It’s important to be gentle with yourself as you go through this process. However, it’s also important to stay consistent. If you notice yourself getting sucked into a negative thought loop – or if you realize that you’ve been in one for a while – make sure that you pause and do whatever you can to shift your thinking. This is crucial to developing resilience.
Seek Support In Helping You Become More Resilient
Developing resilience is hugely important for your skin health as well as your overall health and longevity. Although these tips for increasing resilience may sound simple, they’re definitely not always easy. It’s helpful to have a community to support you as you go through this process. This is why Mind Gut Skin Academy puts such a huge priority on our online communities. By connecting with others on a similar journey of transformation and wellness, you can get the support you need along your way.
The information inside my signature MGS Academy course will also help you along your journey. I’m committed to sharing everything I’ve learned along my journey to becoming a truly authentic and deeply happy Skin Warrior, and I’ve spent countless hours developing this course to help women just like you. The brand-new version of the course launches soon – head here to learn more or to get on the waitlist.
Your journey to becoming more resilient starts here!
Journal Prompts
As you may know, I find journaling to be an extremely effective tool for growth and transformation. Here are a few journal prompts that you can try. For each of these questions, simply write whatever comes to mind until you feel that you’ve thoroughly explored the topic. Keep in mind that this is for your eyes only. Try to be as honest with yourself as you can, even if it’s challenging – we can only transform once we deeply understand where we’re currently at.
What are your eating habits like? Are there times of the day when you tend to feel hungry? How can you address this in a healthy way?
Are you consistently getting 8 hours of sleep each night? If not, what would you need to help you go to sleep earlier at night, so you’ll be able to be well-rested?
Which specific relationships would you like to deepen? What is one action you can take this week to deepen each of these relationships? (You could call the person, invite them to have coffee or go for a walk with you, send a small gift, text them to let them know you’re thinking of them, commit to giving them one compliment each day…)
Have you found yourself in a negative thought loop at any point in the past week, where you could only think about what was going wrong? How could you reframe that challenging situation as an opportunity for growth?