10 Ways to create beauty from the inside out

I dare say a lot of us want to feel beautiful, even if its not all the time, there’ll be times when we want to feel and look beautiful.  But beauty is so much more than appearance. It’s about the energy that radiates from the inside.

We can use all sorts of potions and lotions to try to create our interpretation of beauty, and it can cost a fortune.  Podcast fave Tonya Leigh suggested that the most radiant beauty comes from focusing attention on tending to our bodies and attitudes with the best care possible.  It boils down to health and wellbeing.   She suggested ten beauty hacks that worked for her whilst acknowledging they may not work for everyone, it’s about finding out what works for you:

1. Start the day with meditation.  When we start to get skin breakouts or bags under our eyes, consider the associated stress levels.  Stress is a dominant emotion, useful in protecting us from danger, but constant stress can lead to wearing you out emotionally.  This then starts to manifest in our physical and mental health.  For some meditation can seem silly and difficult to focus on without distraction, but it has been proven to help improve health, quality of life, creativity and productivity by calming the mind.
2. Consume a scoop of collagen daily.  Collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies and helps with skin elasticity and replaces dead skin cells. TL found that within a week of adding a scoop to her daily smoothie her hair texture improved and crows feet started to fade.
3. Drink a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in water daily.  It’s been known to treat everything from blood pressure to supporting detoxing.
4. Drink lots of water.  Being dehydrated makes us feel sluggish, our skin becomes drier, and we don’t think as clearly, our body aches and eyes look sunken.  Keep a water bottle to hand throughout the day; add a squeeze of lemon juice to liven it up.
5. Sweat it out in a sauna.  Sweating is an ancient Roman, Greek and Native American tradition.  The skin is our largest organ and sweating is the best way to detoxify our bodies.  Sweating can help dissolve harmful substances that accumulate in our bodies and revitalise our cells and metabolism.
6. Eat and lather up with coconut oil.  Hydrating skin is important and coconut oil can be put on your hair to create a mask, mixed with sugar to create a body scrub, used straight after a shower to lock in moisture.  Cooking with coconut oil is also beneficial or adding a tablespoon to a daily smoothie.
7. Soak in a detox bath.  Once a week add two cups of Epson Salts and a few drops of essential oil, like lavender to your bath water to create a luxurious bath.  Essential oils provide antimicrobial, antioxidant and ant inflammatory benefits.  Epson Salts claim to flush out impurities, although there’s little evidence to support this.  However, users claim to feel more relaxed and rejuvenated afterwards.
8. Eat an omega 3 rich diet.  There are lifestyle choices we can make to support our cognitive function; one is to ingest more omega 3.  People who follow this kind of diet claim to suffer less from anxiety and depression.  It can improve eye and heart health, reduce inflammation, fight age related mental decline, improve joint and bone health and enhance skin quality.  This can be achieved either with a daily supplement or eating fresh fish, like salmon, once a week.
9. Get moving.  It improves circulation, lowers stress and creates an overall sense of wellbeing.  Exercise out of love not fear of gaining weight or not being good enough.  It doesn’t have to be radical; a simple walk, yoga or dance class.
10. Celebrate every single day.  The truest form of beauty is your state of being.  Instead of focussing on lack or what’s missing, celebrate your blessings and what’s abundant. Gratitude is a great way to create an inner state of wellbeing.  Even if you’re in a tough place there is always something to celebrate; a sunrise, the aroma of your morning coffee.

To feel beautiful look for beautiful things, the good things, the blessings that are all around us.

I follow no particular beauty regime.  I’m allergic to a lot of things, and I feel that most of it just clogs my skin up even more.  Besides the fact it can be expensive and show little evidence of actually doing anything.  The most I do is use a cleaner, moisturiser and occasionally a deep penetrating face mask.  I do use coconut oil on my legs now as they tend to be the driest, and the focus of my urticarial; it does help a little, but wouldn’t want to eat the stuff.

I’ve heard more and more about the benefits of taking a collagen supplement, presumably as I’m a woman of a certain age now my social media news feeds tend to have something almost daily.  I have started to consider whether this would be beneficial.  I may try it and see. On the other hand, I’ve heard conflicting evidence about apple cider vinegar.  Is it just one of those latest fads?

I do already drink a lot of water. TL suggested that it should be filtered to take out the impurities, but I guess it depends on the quality of water where you live.  Where I am its pretty good and I don’t support spending money on bottled water to feed the corporate fat cats, when what comes out of a tap is perfectly adequate.  I have an 800ml water bottle that I fill up each morning and take to work.  I get through that during the day, then drink a further two or three big glasses of water of an evening.

I used to love the sauna at the gym.  In my younger years when I had time and energy to go to the gym, my favourite part was actually spending ten minutes in the steam room, followed by ten minutes in the sauna.  I felt really cleansed, warm and relaxed afterwards.  Apparently there are infrared saunas that recreate the sweating that can either be a built in thing for a few thousand pounds, or you can get ones that look like little tents, that plug in for a few hundred pounds.

I used to love a Sunday evening soak in the tub but haven’t done this since living in this house; getting on for 26 years.  I didn’t like our bath tub, it was too long and I couldn’t comfortably recline with my feet touching the end.  We’ve since replaced the bath and it’s much shorter but I got out of the habit of taking a soak.  Maybe I should start again.

I have started eating a bit of salmon, not quite every week though as it’s not my favourite.  I have tried to introduce fish into my diet, along with my fruit and veg intake.  We generally have something with fish in it once every couple of weeks. 

I’m not a great fan of taking supplements.  I did try it once, but kept forgetting to take them as I don’t really like taking pills and potions.  However, as I start to get older and things start to seize up, or get a bit saggy, or I get more tired, I’m wondering whether they’re worth it.  Let me know your thoughts if you do take them.  What do you take?  Did you notice a difference, or is it all placebo?

I do try to get out for a walk every day.  It has added benefits of taking a break from the desk.  My recent walk was lovely and autumnal.  It was a bit windy, but not cold. Leaves were falling from the trees and I even managed to capture a slow motion video.  Just being out and about it good.

I never really got into the whole gratitude diary thing but that doesn’t stop me thinking good things.  I have a lot to be grateful for; sometimes that can just be getting through the day.  There are so many little wins, from completing a task, to having a positive interaction with someone, to smelling my morning coffee aroma, to having my dinner made for me, to having a job, a home and a family.

What would be your inner beauty recommendations?