How Skincare Opens the Door to Deeper Self-Connection
In yoga, your skin serves as a conduit, connecting you to the world. It’s also your body’s largest organ. And keeping it healthy is essential for your overall health and a deeper yoga experience.
But, this can be especially challenging during harsh, colder months. If you’re seeking a tip to help you turn your senses inward and achieve what yogis call pratyahara, then you might surprise yourself with a change in your skincare regimen. This post will show you how to make that happen.
What Is Pratyahara?
Pratyahara (recalling of your senses) is one of the eight limbs of yoga as outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. As we learn more about and become more steadfast in our yoga practice, the concept of sense withdrawal or pratyahara becomes clearer.
As yoga students, achieving pratyahara guides you into a deep state of relaxation. In this state, we can expand our sense of self-awareness and inner balance. If there is a goal, it’s to disconnect from the chaotic, fast-moving world around us long enough to center ourselves and gain clarity.
Our senses help us to survive in the world. We use sight, sound, smell, taste, hearing and touch to understand the world around us.
Our nervous system automatically responds to these sensory inputs. As a result, it adjusts for optimal regulation of our bodies. In short, it controls how fast we breathe, our heart rate, our balance, the way we walk, temperature regulation, and much, much more.
Our sense of touch comes through the largest of our organs, our skin. In fact, it’s one of the first ways our nervous system knows how to adjust to the world around us.
That’s why it plays a major role in achieving pratyahara.
Yogis long ago believed that we could experience the world “outside” of our bodies through our skin. They saw this as evidence that the mind could exist elsewhere… outside of our bodies.
Our skin is awesome, both on a biological, and spiritual level. And to build a deeper connection with your surrounding world, you need to keep it healthy and to be in touch with it.
How Your Skin Influences Pratyahara
Achieving pratyahara requires the mastery of your sensory organs. That includes your sense of touch, which can be difficult.
Simply put…
Our skin is made up of three layers: the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. As our largest organ, it makes us “waterproof”, protects us from the elements and infectious attacks, and keeps us from dehydrating into human raisins.
We owe a lot to this marvelous organ. But for all the good it does, it’s often subjected to the harshest conditions, especially in the winter. The colder months cause it to dry, crack, and wrinkle.
This weakens our skin, putting us at risk of infection and discomfort. At the same time, damaged skin damages our connection to the world. In short, unhealthy skin makes it harder to achieve pratyahara.
Think about it:
When you’re meditating, trying to detox from your daily lives, your senses heighten. Without the noise distracting you every minute of every day, you tune into your mind, body, and the world around you. But painfully dry skin pulls you back into that world. It disrupts your ability to practice pratyahara.
Rather than guiding yourself to a deeper sense of peace, you’re stuck focusing on the discomfort caused by dry, cracked skin.
And it’s this sense of limbo that keeps you from fully connecting and recharging during your yoga classes.
So, why does dry skin happen?
Reasons for Dry Skin During Winter
- Overwashing: Washing your skin keeps you healthy, but soap can pull your natural oils away from your skin, drying it out.
- Cold weather: Temperature and humidity drop during colder months, causing your skin to dry out.
- Hot Baths and Showers: While really comfortable, the more time you spend in the shower, the more you wash away your natural oils and moisture from your skin.
- Harsh soaps: A lot of soaps pull away oil from your skin along with dirt and germs.
- Heat: Using central heating, space heaters, and fireplaces to stay warm also dries out the air, pulling moisture away from your skin.
Why You Need to Wash Your Hands More in Winter
The temptation to avoid dry skin may simply be to cut down on handwashing. But with flu season, cold climates, and the greater chance of getting sick in winter, it’s very important to wash your hands more often this time of year.
The key to maintaining your skin health (and get more from your yoga classes) during the winter months is to take the time to care for it.
How to Keep Your Skin Healthy in Cold Weather
You don’t have to suffer from dry skin throughout the holidays. These skincare products will keep your skin soft and healthy, keeping all your senses alive and in-tune during these chilly months.
Nasya Oil By Banyan Botanicals
If you’re experiencing dry, cracked skin around your nose, it’s probably because of dry air. Use Nasya Oil before you go to sleep to find relief. Naysa oil has been around for hundreds (if not 1000s) of years. And it works.
Simply place the end of the dropper glass right at the tip of your nostril and line the rim. Then, squeeze the tip of your nose (gently!). Wipe any excess oil away with a tissue. In the morning, rinse your face with warm water and/or rinse your sinuses with a saline solution.
Beauty Balm By Banyan Botanicals
If you have persistently dry, wrinkled skin, cracked cuticles, and hangnails, then you need Beauty Balm will give you relief. You should know that this is a much heavier moisturizer than a normal lotion. So, you’ll want to be careful after applying.
You’ll also want to use this at night with your Nasya Oil routine. All you need to do is rub the Beauty Balm into your hands and massage your cuticles, elbows, and any other dry bits.
And if you have a pair of silk gloves, add an extra layer of Beauty Balm over your hands and put the gloves on before falling asleep. This will help your hands moisturize overnight.
Hand Relief™ Moisturising Cream By AVEDA
You don’t have to suffer from dry hands. Aveda Hand Relief™ Moisturizing Cream is here! This is a hand moisturizer that WORKS. It moisturizes without that heavy, greasy feeling that rubs off on everything you touch.
Best of all, it was formulated to sink into your skin. That way, even after you wash your hands, they stay smooth and hydrated.
In my experience, it lasts through three handwashes. And that’s important when you’re washing your hands a lot during the winter.
Also, don’t forget to rub your elbows. This is one of the only moisturizers that effectively smooths that pesky elephant skin.
Everyday Oil By Everyday
Juggling a lot of different moisturizing products can be a challenge. That said, if you’re looking for one product you can use everywhere (hair, face, body, hands, and feet), then you need to check out Everyday Oil by Everyday.
I found this seemingly magical potion by a complete accident while shopping at a Westerlind in New York City. I’m always keeping an eye out for nice, but not overpowering oils and essential oils. (Both for myself and to use in my yoga classes.) And this clean, classic little bottle next to the register caught my eye, so I picked it up and sniffed.
It is divine. There is something for every person in the perfectly blended moisturizing oil. It’s organic and impeccably sourced with natural ingredients that create its incredible scent.
And you can use it everywhere. On your body, hands, feet, on your face, in your hair. It’s a must-have if you’re looking to keep your skin healthy through the winter.
Is Yoga Skincare Enough to Help You Achieve Pratyahara?
Absolutely not! Consciously redirecting your senses energy from the outside world to your inside world and achieving pratyahara takes practice, discipline, and guidance from the right teacher. And that’s something that we offer at The Soule Collective.
If you’re looking for unlimited online yoga classes that you can take from the comfort of your own home, you need to explore The Soule Collective. You’ll work on your yoga practice with expert instructors that will help you get more out of your journey with yoga.
Ready to give it a try? Get a 3-class pack for $18!
