Is Deep Breathing The Key To Glowing Skin?

Most people rarely breathe deep, as strange as that sounds. Breathing is natural for everyone, but hardly anyone does it mindfully, which is why sometimes a reminder to "take a deep breath" is needed. Aside from sustaining life, breathing, especially conscious breathing, has more to give.

Small stressors abound in modern life, ranging from deadlines to bus delays. These trigger the human fight or flight response. According to Verywell Mind, the fight or flight response is the brain's way of keeping humans safe from something it perceives as a threat. It then releases hormones to either seek safety or fight for survival. The problems arise when this threat response is constantly triggered by menial situations that are not real threats. A traffic jam isn't innately dangerous, but your brain is insisting on stressing you out regardless.

The constantly activated stressors are causing health havoc in the long run, resulting in more serious problems, from mental to physical. By breathing deeply, the influx of oxygen to the lungs is causing a relaxation response throughout the body, Harvard Health Publishing reports. Deep breathing allows for tuning back into the body and relaxing the mind.

In addition to positively affecting general health, deep breathing also has beauty benefits. Although it doesn't innately seem that breathing can have an effect on the skin, everything in the body is inextricably connected.

Breathwork has long been a part of meditative practices, bringing peace to the mind and healing to the body. For beauty, breathing is cost-free and simple to practice; maybe even capable of replacing elaborate skincare routines. With skincare fads vanishing as quickly as they appear, mindful breathing might be a practice to incorporate for good.

Sumisha Shankar, a meditative dance healer, tells Vogue, "Our body is made up of trillions of cells and every cell contains thousands of strands of mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria turns our food into energy and also produces oxygen free radicals. In absence of proper oxygenation of each cell, the mitochondria is not able to provide enough energy to the cells to regenerate." Meaning, you could literally be breathing the moisture out of your skin.

Deep breathing can also have a positive impact on digestion and gut health, according to L'Officiel. Skin's radiance can be affected by unwanted gut bacteria, and deep breaths help get rid of them by stimulating the digestive process. Less gut bacteria directly correlates with and impacts the state of the skin.

Other than glowing skin, breathing deeply calms our nervous system down, fighting cortisol-induced inflammation — aka acne — according to L'Officiel. Make sure you're breathing into your stomach and filling your lungs with oxygen to the best of your ability. Repeat however many times and wherever you'd like. As you take those conscious breaths, your body truly heals itself on all levels.

Skincare products with super ingredients may do wonders for the skin, but you're breathing regardless. It's innate to every human and completely free, so why not give it a try? There's nothing to lose, you could only feel better and gain glowing skin in the process!