Why Wellness Is the New Beauty Filter: 7 ways to Get the Glow That Comes Only from Rest

Wellness, or rather ‘being well’, is really about being beautiful on the inside and out.
Fact: We are all overthinking, overworking, over-stressed, over-exhausted or over-stimulated.
The Simple truth: The minute you decide to dial down, you will return to equilibrium, and this will only be restored when you actually dismantle that hustle mode. I hope by the end of this read, you are convinced that the glow that comes from timely rest is what will make you wellness-radiant. After all, if beauty is skin-deep, then wellness is cell-deep!

Let’s dive into 7 ways you can ensure rest and recovery in a wellness way:

1. Ventral Vagal Calm is yours to claim
The calm that begins in the mind will carry forward to your body. As you learn to breathe better and remind yourself that you are safe, your vagus nerve is stimulated. This triggers the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest-and-digest mode. Whether it be Pranayamas, cold water plunges, humming or gentle movement through Yoga, dancing or therapies, all these will effectively wind you down to a more stable heart rate, enhancing recovery from stress, anxiety or overload.
End Result: You feel calmer and well, with reduced inflammation and more glow!

2. Sleep is your Beauty Elixir
A lack of sleep doesn’t just affect your immune system but also directly hampers your skin (the largest organ in your body). During sleep, our skin experiences its highest levels of blood flow, which enables the damaged sections to repair themselves. Getting a full night’s sleep has countless benefits, as even the best skin recovery is researched to happen early in the morning. Sleep is when the body is at rest, and this is when the lowered cortisol levels contribute towards healthier skin, hair, mood and metabolism. No shortcut around this, as sleep literally needs your attention, time, and hours. Embracing a sleep hygiene ritual, ensuring you stay away from heavy foods, drinking, and caffeine a few hours before bedtime, and saying goodbye to endless late nights will all propel you towards the wellness glow you are seeking.
End Result: Instead of a quick-fix serum, you learn to depend on beauty sleep. 

Downshift on purpose (Aumming)
You know that those wrinkles and lines are both age-related and stress-induced – Cortisol, the stress hormone, spikes when you are stressed, and this, in turn, breaks down collagen (a protein that, along with elastin, gives your skin its youthful plumpness). This stress also leads to our worst enemy – inflammation. To avoid a state of chronic stress, you must learn to downshift on purpose, with timely rest, pranayamas, Yoga, guided meditations, laughter therapy, working out, etc. All these activities, especially meditation, instantly break the stress cycle within us. I also heard someone calling this “Aumming” or getting your ‘Aum’ on!
End Result: You learn to control your escalating stress parameters as and when they happen, as opposed to letting them control you!

4. Fall into self-love
As you get back on your side, ensure you luxuriate and enhance your energetic sovereignty. Start with protecting your energy field and engaging in areas that serve you while also maintaining boundaries against those that don’t. Affirming your unique traits, putting out gratitude into the universe, indulging in aura cleansing salt baths, meditating as you manifest a happier self, journaling love letters to yourself, will all send massaged of love and wholeness to not just your mind, but to the whole of you.
End result: Your aura gets stronger, and you create a self-loving glow around yourself, which is instinctively felt by those around you!

5. Befriend your Gut
Because it all really begins in your gut. The skin is a reflection of what’s happening on the inside. The gut-skin axis clearly defines how the gut microbiome communicates with the skin and produces elements influencing inflammation, barrier strength, and hydration! When a dysbiosis occurs, your skin may literally face issues such as acne, rosacea, eczema, and psoriasis. In fact, a compromised gut also negatively influences the absorption of skin-essential nutrients such as zinc, omega-3s, and vitamins A, C, E, and biotin. Not to mention that stress further amplifies this loop through the gut–brain–skin axis, altering the microbiome composition and increasing cortisol-driven inflammation and sebum activity.

You can start by supporting your gut through fibre-rich foods, fermented foods, prescribed supplementation and specific probiotic strains such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium that help calm inflammation, reduce oxidative stress, and support skin renewal and your mood from the inside out.
End Result: Since almost 90- 95% of serotonin (mood hormone) is produced in your gut, by improving what you eat and how you eat it, you are ensuring the glow that begins in your belly is getting mirrored in your skin and mood throughout the day!

6.  Be Choosy, with people, products and pretty much everything
As you deprioritise toxicity in your life, you will learn to prioritise quality over quantity.
Spending time and effort with those who add to you, rather than obligatory socialising, decluttering from products that add weight but not pleasure, and reassessing the presence of everything in your life will thrust you into a ‘let it go’ gear. As you become choosier, also choose to affirm those that you want in your life, work paths you wish for, or even wishes that you want for yourself, simultaneously blessing the aspects you don’t want anymore; this will help negative elements leave your life harmoniously and effectively.
End result: You live life lighter and brighter, with fewer materialistic attachments and more worthy people.

7.   Habitually Re-align
In an ideal world, everything that helps you must become a habit. Wellness and longevity are a cumulative result of habitually realigning yourself to rituals that impact you positively. As you make space for the macro habits of nutrition, sleep, movement, and stress regulation, remember to also make space for those micro habits of laughter, taking a break every once in a way, decluttering regularly, self-healing retreats, regular blood work, quick me-time slots in the day and whatever else works for you. Ultimately, it is about you returning to a state of ‘being’ instead of a state of constantly ‘doing’.
End result: You inculcate daily habits that keep you away from stress or anxiety loops, all of which are first to hamper your glow!.

(As originally published in Lavender Room)