Ever notice how glimmers of joy seem to light up your face?
It’s not just in your imagination. There’s scientific research behind how happiness can enhance your complexion.
In this post, we explore how pursuing glimmers of joy throughout your day might make you look and feel more beautiful.
What Are Glimmers?
According to the Newport Institute, glimmers are “small moments of joy or peace that arise from appreciating simple thing like the colors of a rainbow, the scent of a flower, or the sound of the rain.”
“USA Today” describes glimmers as “the opposite of triggers,” stating that they are small moments that spark joy or peace, “which can help cue our nervous system to feel safe or calm.”
The term was first coined by Deb Dana, a licensed clinical social worker, in her 2018 book, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy. She described glimmers as “micro moments that begin to shape our system in very gentle ways.”
The idea has become more popular lately, particularly after a TikTok video about glimmers gained more than 78,000 likes and hundreds of comments. Many mental-health organizations have been touting them recently too, because they are seen as the opposite of triggers.
Whereas a trigger negatively affects your emotional state—often causing extreme overwhelm or stress—a glimmer helps calm your system down.
Think about the little things you notice throughout your day that elevate your mood. Maybe you spot a beautiful butterfly on your way into the office or catch a snippet of a song you love while eating lunch.
You’ll know it’s a glimmer when it sparks energy or happiness in your mind, body, and spirit.
Photo by Surface via Unsplash.
Pursuing Glimmers: How Positive Feelings Influence Your Appearance
We can easily understand how glimmers can affect us emotionally and mentally. But the effects don’t stop there—they move on to our skin, too.
That’s because how you feel affects the condition of your skin. Scientists have discovered a clear connection, for example, between psychological stress and skin reactions. They call it the “brain-skin connection” and note that the skin is both an immediate perceiver of stress and a target of stress responses.
You know how it goes. You experience stress and your skin breaks out, gets red, or becomes inflamed and swollen. During chronic periods of stress—when you are under stress for several weeks or months—stress hormones can break down collagen and elastin in the skin, causing signs of premature aging.
Joy and happiness, on the other hand, positively affect the skin. They help calm your nervous system so it doesn’t have to release stress hormones. Inflammation goes down, circulation improves, and the skin is better able to repair itself.
The Joy-Skin Connection: The Science of Glimmers and Skin Health
Drop in Stress Hormones
As mentioned above, when you’re stressed, your body produces more stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These naturally break down collagen and elastin over time, accelerating the appearance of aging.
Stress hormones also make the skin produce more oil (sebum), increasing the risk of acne breakouts. Inflammation goes up, which contributes to eczema and psoriasis flare-ups.
Joy is an excellent antidote to stress. When you’re happy, your body sustains a more normal physiological system that doesn’t overtax your skin.
Reduction in Inflammatory Markers
Research shows that positive emotions are linked with lower levels of inflammation in the body. In a 2015 study, researchers acknowledged that negative emotions “are reliably associated with poorer health,” while positive emotions help reduce levels of inflammatory markers in the bloodstream. They found that awe, in particular, was a strong predictor of lower levels of proinflammatory cells.
In a 2017 study, researchers had participants provide end-of-day reports of their positive and negative emotions over 30 days. They found that “greater diversity in day-to-day positive emotions was associated with lower circulating levels of inflammation,” regardless of body mass index, medical conditions, or personality.
Since inflammation is a key player in many skin problems—including acne and rosacea—reducing inflammation through happiness can directly improve your skin’s appearance.
Improved Sleep Quality
We outlined how just one night of poor sleep can make you look older in a previous post. Inadequate sleep is linked with reduced skin health and faster skin aging.
To experience your best skin, you need to regularly get 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Experiencing more glimmers can help you do that, as positive emotions are associated with better sleep, while negative emotions are more likely to disrupt sleep.
Indeed, the two feed each other. In a 2018 study, researchers noted: “Not only does emotion impact sleep, but there is also evidence that sleep plays a key role in regulating emotion.”
Immune System Boost
A strong immune system is crucial for skin health because it fends off infections and skin conditions.
We noted in a previous post that when the immune system is working as it should, the skin is strong and protective. When it’s not, common problems include psoriasis and eczema flare-ups, acne, infections, allergic reactions, and itching.
Pursuing more positive emotions may help the skin to maintain a supportive immune system. In one study, for example, scientists found that positive human emotions increased immune response and decreased stress hormones. The connection was so strong that the scientists stated that those who regularly experience more negative emotions “may be at risk for illness more so than those with a positive affective style.”
Photo by Mi Pham via Unsplash.
How to Grab More Glimmers In Your Life
If you’d like to experience more glimmers in your life—and give your skin a natural beauty boost—instead of focusing on bad moments, practice looking for glimmers that help you feel and look better.
You can look for glimmers while on a walk, driving in the car, sitting at your desk, or just going about your day.
Look for those micro moments of joy. Try to notice when you experience some of these feelings in your body. These include happiness, hopefulness, joy, glee, peace, or a sense of being cared for. If you write them down when they happen, you’ll train yourself to experience even more.
Notice when something makes you smile, like petting a dog or cat, eating something delicious, hearing a song, stepping out in the sun, or seeing a picture of a loved one. Just experiencing a beautiful scent is a glimmer!
I get a spike of joy with that first sip of coffee in the morning. It gives me a mini moment of calmness. When I look at a cat doing something cute or purring, my heart fills with immense joy. When I see a new bloom on my orchids, I feel happy.
Sharing your glimmers can help you grow that sense of joy. I’ve joined a text group, where we share our glimmers with each other. It’s a reminder to keep looking for those glimmers throughout the day.
When applying your skincare products, like CV Skinlabs, take a moment to enjoy how they make your skin feel. We created them to help reduce inflammation to improve the skin’s condition and appearance.
Go ahead and tune into all the amazing things around you. Here’s to your glimmer-full day!
How do you inspire more glimmers in your life?
Featured image by Robert Araújo via Pexels.