How does your mental health stops you from getting clear skin?

First, we need to understand more about the human body, but since I'm no biology student (thankfully for you and I), I'm just gonna keep things simple and straight-forward. There are essentially 2 modes that we can put our body into, "Fight or Flight", or "Rest and Digest".

When we identify and determine something as a threat or a stressor, e.g, in our caveman days it would be a tiger lurking around the bushes, and in our present day, it would be something stupid and insignificant like a blemish, or a clogged pore... Or deadlines, or a low battery phone, or getting negative comments on your social media page. Once that happens, your body goes into Fight or Flight mode as a way to respond to this particular threat. Getting into Fight or Flight mode changes how everything work in your body. It messes with our emotions, our digestive system, our health. Since we're talking about skincare here, I'm gonna focus on how Fight or Flight mode can sabotage our path to clear skin.

The most obvious symptom of your body getting into Fight or Flight mode is the increased in stress levels since this is something we can identify and feel easily. The other less obvious symptom is your body shutting down. Therefore, you stop digesting food properly, you stop absorbing nutrients into your body, and you stop healing. This happens because your body is attempting to conserve energy so you can outrun the tiger... Or fight it. But in our present day... There isn't any tiger chasing us, so we're literally shutting down our body, and conversing energy for... Nothing, really. So... How do all these symptoms of Fight of Flight mode affects the clearing of our skin?

1. You're stressed, and guess what stress cause? Surprise surprise, acne. Hormonal fluctuation causes stress, and stress causes hormonal fluctuation. That's how you get hormonal acne even if you're not on your period. 

2. Healing is something that is natural. When you get a cut on your finger, you don't even need to put a plaster over it or do anything to it. Your body will heal it even without you telling it to. Of course, placing a plaster over it and disinfecting the wound helps it heal quicker, but even without any action on your part, your body heals it. I'm sure you know some people who don't even wash their face and yet their pimples come and go within a couple of days. That's their body healing the skin on its own. So when your body tries to conserve energy by halting its ability to heal, a pimple that can be healed within 3 days might take 3 weeks if you're constantly in Fight or Flight mode. 

3. As mentioned, clear skin is made up of 3 components, including diet. You can be eating wholesome food everyday, food that is high in vitamins and minerals, but when you go into Fight or Flight mode, your body stop absorbing in the nutrients. In other words, you're as good as eating junk food for all 3 meals a day.

When you are mentally healthy, chances are you'd also stop being obsessed with your pores.

A watched pot never boils.

The proverbial expression 'a watched pot never boils' refers to the feeling time seems to go slower when you are anxiously waiting for something to happen (credit). When you put all your focus and energy on a spot, chances are, it's not gonna go away. A watched pot never boils. A watched pimple never heals. When I had clear skin in 2017 - 2018, it's not like I never had any pimples on my skin. I did have a few spots here and there but I was never bothered by it. If you watched my makeup tutorials, you'd know that I don't even bother concealing them and the only places I conceal are my under eyes. Seemingly, because of that, my pimples come and go even without me begging for it to go away. I've experienced this countless of times. The only time I'd focus on a pimple is when it's at an annoying spot like the middle of my brows or something and whenever that happens, that particular spot takes forever to go away!

Getting over my obsession of having clear skin wasn't particularly easy, but I learnt that the only way to do so was to have determination. Self-love is a step that has to be taken deliberately and it's a path where you have to continuously push yourself to take. Just like how losing weight means you gotta force yourself to hit the gym for as long as it takes until you reach your ultimate goal. I think it is important to keep in mind that the path to self-love isn't something that is achievable within a day, or a two. It's definitely possible for some people, but if you find yourself struggling even after weeks or months of trying, know that it's okay and all you need to do is to be stay determined and focused.

There were many things I had to change in my life to enable self-love and more self-awareness. I might share those in a future blog post or video if you are interested, but for today's post, I simply wanted to raise the awareness of the importance of mental health in relation to clearing up your skin.