Zen Meditation: Are there Scientifically Proven Benefits for the Skin?
Our skin is a great communicator of our feelings and mental state. It mirrors extreme emotions such as stress, anxiety, depression, excitement, and happiness, and has a unique way of responding to pressure. For example, our cheeks turn pink as we blush, and our ears feel hot and red when we feel embarrassed and humiliated.
Fear makes the skin look pale, and sadness can often bring dullness and unwanted crinkles in the skin. Together with blood circulation and hormonal ups and downs, the skin is an excellent indicator of our emotions and science has gone an extra mile proving it.
Recent research by Dr. Anthony Bewley, a popular dermatologist, proved that self-healing practices like meditation, breath control, and mindfulness, have profound benefits on skin conditions like eczema, acne, dry skin, and psoriasis.
This branch of study, popularly called psychodermatology, explores how the skin reacts to internal stress and how stress-reduction through meditation impacts it. Some studies revealed that when individuals with psoriasis attended guided meditation sessions or listened to soothing pieces of music, they healed a lot faster than others with the same condition.
Besides the direct impact, meditation also adds glow and youthfulness to the skin by curing allied health conditions. For example, gastric ulcers, insomnia, regular headache or migraine, hypertension or low blood pressure, and chronic pain are common issues that negatively reflect on our skin tone.
Daily meditation helps in reducing these anomalies and subsequently helps in slowing down the aging process of the skin, making us look younger and brighter naturally.
Join our Zen meditation workshops on November 22nd with Buddhist Monk, Myosei Albert. Book here.
Written by Madhuleena Roy Chowdhury, BA
For www.positivepsychology.com
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