“What is wrong with me?”

“Will this ever go away?”

“Will I ever see myself again?”

Hopelessness, despair, depression and defeat ran through my mind on a daily basis. I felt alone in the world. I found myself avoiding sunshine. I was completely self-conscious at all times. I hated anyone taking my picture. 

Even as my condition was reversing and others barely noticed my skin, I was permanently alienated by my own self-judgment. I was as much a victim of my own thoughts and feelings as I was by my melasma

The truth is having melasma is stressful. Even a quick glimpse in the mirror can induce feelings of anxiety and despair. There’s nothing more dreadful than watching dark spots growing and spreading across your face in the mirror, not recognizing the person looking back at you. 

For years I was obsessed with my skin. Every day I was suffocated by stress. I cried, I spiraled into mental chaos, and I wondered if I would ever be myself again. I could feel the cortisol activating, coursing through my system and filling me with anxiety. I could hear the voices of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. I was trapped in a vicious cycle I couldn’t break. My thoughts, my emotions, my body, and even my skin were all expressions of imbalance and disharmony.

After years of trying to fix the problem, it only got worse, and I realized there was a feedback loop between my thoughts, emotions, hormones, and skin.

Stress-inducing thoughts and their correlated emotions are directly connected to the melanocytes through the hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal axis.

We have to learn to calm and ground our thoughts so that we don’t activate this HPA axis. 

The HPA axis is considered to be the hormone command center, or regulator of the body’s response system. Alpha melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH) is a peptide hormone made in the pituitary gland that is responsible for immune and inflammatory response. MSH is also responsible for the pigmentation in your hair, skin and eyes. MSH shares a pathway with another hormone that controls the production of cortisol in the pituitary gland called adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). 

Cortisol is a hormone that is produced in the adrenal gland and is responsible for responding to stress. When the cortisol blood levels become too high the hypothalamus will shut off the stress response causing a negative feedback loop. The pituitary gland will continue to produce ACTH to stimulate more cortisol in its attempt to save you from whatever is causing the stress. MSH is also involved in the synthesis and production of ACTH. Too much stress can dysregulate the HPA axis causing overproduction of cortisol, ACTH and MSH. ACTH can also turn into MSH and bind to its receptors, stimulating melanogenesis or pigmentation in the skin.

Chronic, stress-induced inflammation is not a friend to your skin. Learning how to manage your mental state is one of the most important things you can do to take control of your mind, body, and beauty. 

The negative feedback loop of TECS is a downward spiral. It attacks you at the level of your mind and thoughts, at the level of feeling and emotional experience, at the level of hormones, and for those unfortunate enough to have melasma, it is expressed through the skin itself.

I have multiple daily practices that I use to break the TECS cycle, so I can keep pushing forward.

Learning how to change thought patterns is essential to Mind-Body Beauty. We must learn to recognize the way thoughts and emotions (the mind itself) constructs a cage to trap us along our healing journey. 

If you tune in with your body you can feel how your thoughts influence biological responses. Pay attention to the thought process when you look at yourself in the mirror.  Notice if you start feeling anxious or frustrated and just recognize those sensations. You don’t have to try and change the feelings. Just be with them. Observe them. Allow them.

This is an important first step when dealing with melasma. 

The great thing is that eventually you can learn to change these feelings on your own, it just takes some support to strengthen your mental resilience. 

Heal the mind, heal the body. Be beautiful.

Meditation.

Meditation in the last few years has made major waves in the scientific community. The fascinating thing is that not only does your brain benefit from meditation but your whole body is influenced by it. 

Some of the most interesting benefits are:

Meditation can influence how fast you age, lower inflammation and reduce oxidative stress, all of which are associated with many skin conditions. Think of it as an anti-aging method. 

The benefits of a regular meditation practice can play a major role in healing your skin because no matter how you got melasma, stress influences whether or not you are able to reverse it. 

Meditation is a crucial part of my daily routine. I wake up before everyone in my house to sit and meditate for 20 minutes. I enjoy the quiet peaceful mornings when nothing is moving. 

I use the Insight timer app here and recommend you use it or something similar. There are guided meditations, music, live instruction and even discussions - it's a whole community.

If you don't know how to start or have never meditated before there are a couple things I would suggest:

Start with just a few minutes to build the habit. At first meditation can be uncomfortable and awkward, or you may just have a hard time staying awake. Start in small sessions and gradually lengthen them, even just 1 minute at a time. 

In the beginning it’s more important to build the habit of sitting and meditating than it is to sit for an extended session. This is how habits are built. Make it easy on yourself. You can always sit for some extra time if you get into a good flow.

Consistency is the most important thing. But don’t be hard on yourself if you miss a session. In meditation we develop both self discipline and self compassion. It’s a beautiful paradox of holding yourself to deeper rigor while opening up to more ability to forgive yourself and others.

A single ten minute session a day is better than one hour a week.

In the beginning, experiment with different types of meditation. There are basic breathing techniques, visualizations, affirmations, and an assortment of ways to meditate. If you choose to use Insight Timer you can access 124,666 free meditations. According to their website they have the largest library of guided meditations on earth. 

Go for a walk, disconnect from social media.

Time to put the screen away and get outside. Get into your body & breathe. 

Disconnecting from social media is so important. We live in a visually narcissistic society where everything appears to be perfect. This is especially anxiety producing and harmful for sufferers of melasma. It seems every day more importance is given to how we look on screen, behind the camera, and on our social media profiles.

Well guess what, it's not perfect, even if it looks perfect. 

Having a mind-body connection is so important. Whether it's a hike or a walk it will help you clear your mind and maybe get your heart rate up. 

Here are some benefits of walking:

I like to go for walks around the lake in my city, it's a 3.4 mile distance around the whole lake. 

It's always nice to get out with friends and connect in person or enjoy some alone time. 

Another benefit of walking is that it induces the creative brain. One study done at Stanford University says that walking can boost brain creativity by 60%. You can read more here. Who doesn't love new insights and ideas? Walking can literally change the way your brain interacts with itself. It changes the way it works and processes information. Some people even say that walking is the only thing that cures writer's block and why so many writers, thinkers and creatives use walking to solve problems. Walking is so simple and has an incredible amount of benefits.

Get out of your head and into your body. Remember, mind over melasma!

At the end of the day, you're not alone.

Having the right mindset when healing melasma is so important. It will be the only thing that keeps you going and striving for ultimate reversal. 

I will be sharing more about my journey and the science behind the real root causes of melasma. I have been through it and I want to help you start your journey or support you if you’re already on it.

Subscribe and leave a comment. Tell me what practices keep you pushing forward on healing your skin.