Have you heard of psychodermatology? Most people haven’t. Psychodermatology is a relatively new medical field that studies the psychological effects of emotions on the skin and psychological disorders that have skin manifestations.
How does this relate to meditation for better skin? Well, first it shows the link between emotions and the skin is real. You probably knew this already from experience. Breakouts, eczema, and psoriasis are all made worse with stress. Maybe you’ve noticed someone’s skin looking sallow, dry, rough, or how they seemed to have aged over night after a stressful time. The second connection to meditation and the skin is in the well-documented benefits of meditation on stress reduction. Reduce stress equals better skin.
But, meditation also helps in another way. Manifestation is a meditation technique where you send healing energy to your body/skin to give it what it needs. Using energy in this way is the same as setting intentions, or visualizing something you want or need. It’s a very powerful tool available to everyone.
I hear the groans. “I don’t know how to meditate. I don’t have the time. I can’t sit still.” Meditation scares many people, or at least makes them apprehensive. There’s nothing to fear. Meditation is basically the learned ability (at least for most of us) to sit quietly; that’s all. There’s no hocus pocus, or trying to control your thoughts. Meditation is sitting quietly, allowing the thoughts to come and go without getting involved in them. Meditating will show you just how wily, crafty, and conditioned your mind is. The benefits of meditation most definitely out weigh the apprehension. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose and more to gain in trying. Below are some techniques for meditating and for manifesting.
BEGINNING MEDITATION
- Set A Timer If you are new to meditation, begin with a short amount of time–say 5 minutes. Set a timer; this way your mind will be less fidgety if there is a specific time set. Then each week make the time a little longer.
- Comfortable Seat Find a comfortable sitting position. You don’t have sit cross-legged. You can sit on a chair, kneel on your knees, or even lie down. If you sit on a chair, make sure your feet touch the floor or put something under them so that they are resting on something.
- Hand Placement Place your hands on your thighs or some place comfortable.
- Scan Body Close your eyes. Starting with your feet and working your way up to your head, scan your body. Just observe the different parts of the body; don’t get into a dialogue with your mind about the aches and pains or any other observations.
- Breath Awareness Move your awareness to your breath. Where are you breathing from? What is your breath like; is it shallow, fast, deep, slow, etc? What else can you notice about your breath? Again just observe your breathing without involving the mind in a dialogue. Do this for 5 or 6 complete breaths (inhale/exhale = 1 breath).
- Belly Breathing Take your awareness to your belly–at your belly button or a little below. Begin to breathe from your belly and “watch” the movement of the belly. Inhale the belly rises; exhale the belly deflates. Watch the rise and fall of the belly coordinated with your breath for 5 or 6 complete breaths.
- Lengthen Exhale Begin to slow and deepen your breath, and lengthen your EXHALE (make your exhale a bit longer than your inhale). Counting helps with lengthening the exhale. If your natural inhale is to the count of 4, let your exhale be to the count of 6 or 8. Don’t force your body to do this if it’s not ready.
- Your Meditating So, now as you sit in meditation you can continue to watch the rise and fall of the belly, or you can count as a way to focus. Begin the count with 1 on the exhale and finish with 10 on the inhale; continue to count in the same manner.
- Monkey Brain When thoughts intrude (and they will), notice the thoughts. You can even say, “thinking,” or “thoughts straying” when the mind wanders. Then come back to your breath or back to counting. Don’t worry if your mind strays more than it focuses on counting or on the movement of the breath. That’s normal; the chatter of the mind is affectionately called “monkey brain.” Be patient and keep returning to either watching the breath or counting when the mind conjures up distractions. It’s what your mind was trained to do, but now you are training it to do something new. So, it will rebel, and it will take practice.
- Other Ways to Focus Instead of counting or watching the breath to help stay focused, you can try a simple quiet mantra, such as “breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out….” Another technique is to watch your breath move in an out at the nostrils. Notice how cool the breath is when you inhale and how warm it is on the exhale.
- Regular Practice Have a regular practice. That’s the thing–the most important thing. Have a regular practice even if it’s a short meditation; better to do a short one than none. Try to have a daily practice with 1 day off.
- Patience, Patience, Patience Be very, very patient and consistent. For instance, if you set the timer for a specific time don’t go over that time even if the meditation is going well.
- Body/Mind Prep Work Moving the body before meditating helps to prepare the mind and body for sitting in stillness. That’s what yoga poses and movements are all about, but you can also run, walk, dance, or meditate after your regular workout.
MEDITATION MANIFESTING
After you’ve become comfortable (more or less) with sitting in a quiet meditation for a few minutes, you can use the energy within you to manifest what it is you need or want. In this case, we are working with the skin/body.
- Meditation Begin the meditation as outlined above and meditate a few minutes.
- Count Backwards When you sense relaxation coming over you, very slowly count backwards from ten to zero.
- Stillness Sense the stillness that’s within you and stay with it for a moment or two.
- Visualize Wellness Now sense or visualize wellness coursing through your body. Stay with it for a moment or two. Stay connected to the feeling of well-being; know everything is all right.
- Manifest Now take whatever it is you want to manifest or energize for your skin and sense or visualize it. Take that visualization, “good feeling,” or energy to the area of your body that needs it. You can use your breath to help you take the energy there by breathing in and out at the area. For example, if it’s a more youthful face you want, feel or sense radiant, smooth young skin as you “breathe” in and out at your face. If you have acne, imagine or feel your skin is clear and blemish free.
- Finishing Do the visualization/sending healing energy for at least 2 minutes. Return to noticing your breath and count slowly from 1 to 10 while focusing on the rise and fall of your belly as your breathe.
- Regular Practice Again, it takes regular practice to feel at ease with manifesting, especially in the beginning. Be patient.
Okay for some of you this may feel too new age or weird because it’s something that new to you and new things take us out of our comfort zone and make us apprehensive. That’s normal. I can only say manifesting meditation works, and tell you that many well-known people use manifesting techniques to accomplish or achieve their goals.
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Denise Karson is a yoga, meditation, and spiritual teacher.
