Yoga, Pilates and a Beautiful Skin

Yoga, Pilates and a beautiful skin

What do yoga, Pilates and ‘beautiful skin’ have in common?

Stretching together with breathing.

What is a wrinkle if not an involuntary, mechanical contraction that breaks the skin?

I am not drawing attention to the beautiful expression lines on your face when you smile, but to those you create when you are contracted, stressed and that you unconsciously create slowly, stress after stress like indelible furrows. 

What to do then to avoid wrinkles like furrows?

Breathe…

<<Looking as easy>>…you will say to me. You are right, breathing is the most important and unfortunately most unconscious act we do, 365 days a year, in the 1440 minutes of the day.

Practices such as Yoga and Pilates put you in touch with the breathing muscle: the diaphragm, a dome that divides the lower organs from the upper ones, like a celestial vault that rises upwards, towards our spiritual centres, carrying the energy upwards.

Stretching helps us stay in the breath

In the practice of yoga, we release body tensions with asanas. Asanas are static postures where the breath becomes deep and the diaphragm lengthens to store more air, relaxing the part of the body involved, releasing tension and giving a mental decompression from stress.

In Pilates, a completely opposite breathing pattern is used, but on a physical level it brings the same result; the focus is on keeping the diaphragm in activation through the ‘core’ muscles, the rectus and transverse abdominis to create the base for the lungs to expand and stretch to their full extent and capacity. The muscles work in stretching, rhythmised by the breath, oxygenating the whole body and creating stability and clarity in the mind.

Have you ever tried breathing while spreading your cream?

Can’t your beauty routine become a moment of ‘conscious training’ for your skin? 

I would like to give you a little challenge of 21 days, the time it takes for a moon cycle. You can start taking care of your skin in an even more conscious way: by breathing in your cream! 

How? By applying it with relaxing, stretching movements, feeling that as you apply it all your skin cells are breathing under your hands while you focus on your diaphragm.

At the end of the Moon cycle, of your conscious beauty routine, I ask you to look in the mirror and see for yourself that, stretching and breathing together, as you spread your favourite cream, creates the optimal condition for the principles of your lotion to penetrate best while your own breath carries the components into the optimal condition of your stretched skin.

If you breathe your skin cannot be impermeable and will appear in all its beauty!

Author of article:

Valeria Paglia

Pilates and Yoga teacher experienced in meditation and Ayurveda

IG: valeria.paglia

YT: Valeria Paglia Pilates & Yoga