We earn our wrinkles as we age.

This is both fortunate since aging means we grow wiser, but unfortunate because no one likes to feel like they're getting older.. or that their "wisdom" is showing up on their skin.

Can we prevent wrinkles naturally? Is there anything we can do other than spending mega moolah on expensive creams, treatments and doing our best to never crinkle our face again? Of course!

It is important to remember that "health inside is expressed as health outside." Anything that is going on internally will express itself on your skin, and this not only applies to wrinkles but to your complexion, sun spots, uneven tone, sagging or elasticity, radiance or to that overall glow you get from a great night's rest. Wrinkles show up because of habitual facial expressions, sun damage, poor hydration, smoking, lack of proper sleep, hormonal imbalances, rapid weight loss, menopause, a sedentary lifestyle, when the skin becomes fragile or when the mechanisms behind cell renewal start to wear down. Whatever be the cause, our skin [like every other cell] replicates, so when this new copy shows up a little less vivacious than the previous one, we have to turn to how we are nourishing ALL of our cells for the answer. Skin driness [read: mal-nouishment] is essentially the culprit and it something we can address on many levels.

Health - in every sense of the world - is best experienced through prevention. You can fix a lot of things but the best plan of attack is always to prevent depletion/damage/degeneration from happening, from happening so often or from happening so quidkly. Here are a few tips on helping prevent wrinkles naturally:

1. Stay hydrated. This is on the top of every list but it is by far the most important thing you can do for you skin, even more so than the most expensive treatment or skin cream your hard earned bucks can buy. All these treatments really do is hydrate and exfoliate your skin anyway, so nick the heacache of finding the best anti-wrinkle cream out there first by hydrating from the inside and plumping up your cells the old fashioned way. Your water is a huge aspect of your nutrition and is something we don't pay nearly enough attention to. Drink at least 2 liters of high quality [low toxin/chemical] water a day and set a reminder for yourself if you forget. A water app is an easy way to hit this goal.

2. Stay out of the sun. Not because a tan doesn't look beautiful on you, but because too much heat dries out your skin and chances are if you are in the sun, you are squinting too, making this one a double whammy. I'm not a big fan of sunscreen so I'll leave it at this: if you're going to be in the sun, wear a sun hat or big glasses to hide your eyes and stay near some shade so you can get intermittent sun exposure instead of all day / head on sun for long periods of time. I'm down for the sun, so pick your preference: a tan or a few more wrinkles. You don't need to protect yourself from the sun necessarily, you need to protect yourself from the heat of the sun - when it comes to wrinkles.

3. Include lots of fruits and hot/warm steamed foods in your diet. Cooked foods are easier to digest and will help your skin renewal happen quicker with less stress on your system. Fruits have a ton of bio-available vitamins to help stimulate cell regeneration and are particularly good at keeping the skin juicy. Keep fruits as a snacks and avoid eating them with foods or after foods, since they are best consumed [and digested] alone. 

Everything comes down to digestion, which especially shows up as your skin quality.

4. Exercise! This not only improves skin tone and elasticiy, but it allows your skin to sweat, thereby releasing toxins. Exercise is the ideal way to release stress too - which will 100% show up on your skin, will tax your complexion and will lead to the majority of wrinkles that show up on your beautiful face. Stress is THE thing that will get you. 

Exercise, meditate, take up a breathing pranayama or ritual. Do something every day to let that stress gooooo. 

5. Avoid using soap on your face. 

Let me explain.

Everything on the market says you need to leave your face squeaky clean in order to have a radiant complexion. Ayurveda, the oldest system of healing in the world [and the oldest system of healing for a reason] teaches us that washing your face with warm water twice a day is enough. Soaps, cleansers and beauty products strip your face/skin of its natural oils, leaving you dehydrated and prone to cracking - hence your having to moisturize after cleansing. 

If you must cleanse [totally cool, we get it] try hydrating with oils instead of moisturizers or lotions. Here's why: oil has the closest pH to your skin; your skin cells already have oil in them so it absorbs quickly and easily; your body understands oils since they are a food and therefore know exactly what to do with them; hydrating with oils allows your skin to release unwanted pollutants and fill in the gaps with the goodness it is missing; oils stimulate collagen production and plump up your skin cells with it's natural chemical composition; oils restore the skin's natural integrity.  All good things, all great anti-wrinkle things too.

6. Smoking. Just don't.

7. Avoid saturated fats, too much meat, any kind of processed foods, alcohol [sorry guys], sugar [sorry, sorry], potatoes, margarine and low fat dairy products. 

These may all seem random, but they are all difficult to digest, are taxing on the body and all have a direct impact on your skin. Fill in the gaps with the good stuff instead, like full fat diary products and olive oil instead of margarine, and you skin will reward you. Good fats are your friends, heavy difficult to digest foods are not- beyond skincare.

8. Regular face packs, special oil massages, Ayurvedic facial or oil treatments, 100x washed ghee, specialized herbs and steam treatments are all great for the skin's complexion and for fighting off wrinkles. Restoring, repairing and pampering the skin, especially if there is already signs of damage, is an important aspect to skincare as a good plan can prevent further wrinkles from happening, and a really good plan can start to repair previous wrinkles too. These options are available through your favorite holistic practitioner or through Wellness By Helen too, at the shop or in the clinic.

Anything you can do to further nourish your skin will help keep the wrinkles away since wrinkles show up when the skin is mal-nourished- either from the inside or from the outside.

Here's a good rule to remember: everything you put onto your skin is something you should be willing to eat. This is a great principle to keep in mind when you think about the quality of the products you are choosing and the steps you take to achieve your glowy complexion too. Go as natural, as simple and as clean as possible. The results will show on your skin. 

xo