The kinds of people who keep to a 10-step Korean skincare regimen, otherwise known as those who have time and/or money to burn, have found yet another step to add their routine: being grateful for it.
From the founder of the makeup brand Glossier, Emily Weiss, to Mara Beauty’s Allison McNamara and the influencer Christina Grasso (AKA @thepouf), gratitude is increasingly becoming part of the beauty routines of the skincare-obsessed, according to New York magazine’s website The Cut. The article’s author, Jessica L Yarbrough, says she begins her morning meditation by saying: “Thank you, skin.”
“Practising gratitude” is listing what you are thankful for, to train the mind to focus on the positive over the negative. It is by now an accepted principle of “wellness”, all the more frequently prescribed for being free and relatively straightforward, compared to some of the more wacky and intrusive self-help practices put forward by sites such as Goop.
It is also distinct in having some basis in science. Just three weeks of daily gratitude-journalling has been shown to create a more optimistic mindset that can last for as long as six months.
According to Dr Sweta Rai, a member of the British Association of Dermatologists, there is something in the connection between gratitude and skin – although she doesn’t go as far as thanking her pores every morning. “Gratitude for the things we have in our lives builds a positive mindset and contributes to our daily happiness,” she says.
“When we are happy and positive we deal with stress better and this tends to affect our mindset and skin. We know that stress contributes to worsening of several skin conditions such as acne, eczema and psoriasis, therefore I’m a big advocate of a positive attitude and stress-relieving therapies. Being grateful and documenting the things we are grateful for can definitely add to your happiness and thereby add radiance to your skin.”
Clear, dewy skin has a lot to do with genetics (although beauty influencers have made a lot of money from suggesting that it is something that can be bought and sold). If you are loth to spend money on expensive creams that likely don’t even work, at least gratitude can be the only step in your beauty routine that is free.
