Beauty Energy: inner wellness for outer beauty

Stop. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. How does your body feel? Can you feel energy moving through your body? Or is there stagnation somewhere? If there is stagnation in a particular area or areas, how can you move those and clear that?

Beauty is ultimately energy. True beauty is an energy that is constantly moving and expressing through your body, your eyes, your skin and your being. Cultivating and accessing that energy can take practice, but once you’ve accessed it, you not only will feel beautiful but you will look beautiful and be attractive to everyone around you.

So how do you access this ‘beauty energy’?

As a holistic facialist, nutritionist and wellness expert, I have a few go-to practices that I do myself and that I recommend to all my clients. And now, I’m offering them here to you, too.

• Stay hydrated, and make your hydration count

Water is such an essential part of keeping our beauty energy moving. Our bodies are made up of 75-80% water, and we are continuously losing it through movement, respiration, bodily functions so need to keep topping it up. And what do I mean by ‘making it count’? Make sure your water is clean (so filter it if you’re on city water), mineralised (by adding mineral drops or a dash of himalayan pink salt, a squeeze of lemon and/or a slice of apple).

Minerals enable your body’s cells to actually uptake the water, allowing it to enter them and keep them hydrated. Hydration has the double effect of keeping you feel healthy and energised and making your skin G-L-O-W. Yup, that’s the beauty energy moving, shaking and glowing!

• Dry body brushing

Dry body brushing is a super simple and effective way to move your lymphatic system. Your lymphatic system is in control of removing toxins and waste from your whole body – in short, making space for more beauty energy! Your lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump of it’s own, so it requires our help to keep it moving every day.

Dry body brushing (and, surprise surprise, drinking water) are 2 ways in which we can support our lymphatic systems and keep that beauty energy moving!

• Create space in your mind and regulate your nervous system

A dysregulated nervous system and too-busy mind feels like constant stress, overwhelm, and the inability to think consciously and clearly. You may feel like you could ‘snap’ at any moment, or that the smallest things make you feel overwhelmed and like you can’t handle what life is throwing at you. In today’s modern world, we all live really full (read: busy) lives. If we are mothers, working, running a business, studying, trying to catch up with friends and family, staying connected online, trying to “keep up appearances”… all of these things stretch our nervous systems and dull our beauty energy. If you can regulate your nervous system your beauty energy will be much more accessible.

Yoga is a really great way to regulate and calm your nervous system – the gentle stretching combined with deep breathing allows your body and mind to calm and settle. Getting outside and putting my bare feet on the earth is another way I like to bring calm and nervous system regulation into my day, even for just a few minutes at a time.

Add in a little bit of sunshine on my skin and I am pretty quickly glowing again.

• Sunshine!

I believe the sun is a powerful battery charger (and not just for solar powered houses!) but for us too. We are inherently nature, and the same way that plants get energy and grow from the sun, so do we as humans. This is not to say leave the SPF and get out in the midday sun – no, still be sunsmart please – but I do recommend getting outside first thing in the morning (sans SPF), before 9am, and definitely before getting any blue light on your eyes.

The early morning sun on your eyes and skin will help regulate your circadian rhythm, and tell your body to release cortisol in the appropriate levels throughout the day, meaning your body will be more in tune with rising with the sun and sleeping at night, all of which balance and enhance our beauty energy.

• Lastly (and I could go on and on, but let’s keep it simple), how can I not talk about blue light, sleep hygiene, and sleep.

Good quality sleep is so vital for ensuring our beauty energy is glowing every day. And to ensure you get the best quality sleep, you want to make sure you’re doing a few things every evening to set your circadian rhythm and allow your body to slow down and ultimately stop the production of cortisol and release melatonin (the yummy sleep hormone).

Once the sun sets, turn off all overhead lights and switch to lamps. Put down your phone and turn off the TV or laptop at least an hour before you’re going to sleep, and please, if you can keep these out of your bedroom, do!

Create a yummy evening routine that leaves you feeling nourished and cared for. Even if you’re a busy mama (like me), your evenings can be sacred self-care time once the little ones are tucked up in bed. Whether that’s a shower or bath with added essential oils, followed by dry body brushing (hey, 2 in one!) and possibly a face mask, or just a cup of peppermint tea and a couple of squares of good quality dark chocolate while snuggled up reading a book – all of these things will fill your cup, set you up for a good night’s sleep (yes, even if we are still waking to little ones), and keep that beauty energy in the tank.

- Romy Burgess: in-house holistic facialist, nutritionist and wellness expert.