Skin care is health. If we really lived by that, we would take better care of our skin. Everything is connected. When you get a sunburn, it doesn’t just burn your skin, it affects every organ and cell in your body—you might feel lethargic, nauseous, dehydrated. When we look at your skin, it’s the mirror image of your whole life.

While topical treatments such as facials, brightening serums, and AHA acids all aid in revealing supple skin, the true source of overall health lies in what we eat, what we think, and what we do.

For Dr. Howard Murad, a truly healthy skin-care routine is taking care of your whole body. This is what he refers to as the Four Pillars of Wellness. This holistic approach means we view wellness differently, we believe that wellness is health, plus well-being. It's not only being free of disease and stress, but equally important is a sense of happiness, passion, gratitude and accomplishment.

So what are the Four Pillars of Wellness? How do we incorporate them into our lifestyle? What is the one ingredient we should always look for in skin-care products?

Be Kind to Your Mind

You can tell people to do what you want or need them to do, but they won’t necessarily do it. It is only when they decide to do it themselves that they will. So encouraging positive energy gives them the strength to do just that.

Cultural stress is with us pretty much 24/7, so it’s up to us to counter our stressful environments with positive self-talk and affirmations, plenty of rest and relaxation—unplugged, if at all possible, and other soothing techniques, such as slow, deep breathing.

Set screen limits, set a schedule for time away from the screen. When you go to bed, put your devices away from your reach or, better yet, turn them off completely. Because everything is available at our fingertips, this again gives us a tendency to have more of a sedentary lifestyle, which can lead to negative self-talk and more severely, depression.

Awaken Your Body

By exercising, you will help promote circulation, and skin is the body’s largest organ. Increased blood flow helps carry oxygen to the cells and helps carry away waste such as harmful free radicals.

Sitting causes you to have a very sedentary lifestyle, which can be associated with a chronic disease. The more you sit, the less you move, thus, you’re creating a system for the disease and ultimately increasing your chances of developing something.

But what do you if you're injured or recovering from injuries? It's important to follow your doctor's orders and not to engage in anything physical if advised not to. A good way to awaken your body is to do so with minimal movement, which include sound baths, meditation, and deep breathing exercises.

Eat Your Water

The reason why our bodies break down as we age is loss of hydration. Water is necessary to cell health. Remember: the human body is 50-65% water!

When you drink your water, much of it runs right through you as urine; however when you eat water-rich foods—such as fresh fruits and vegetables, which are about 80% water—your body has time to absorb the water, along with the other healthy ingredients, such as antioxidants, phytonutrients, and the vitamins and minerals that fresh produce contains. Also, certain foods—like pomegranate and watermelon—protect your skin from sunburn from the inside out. So eat your water.

Nourish Your Skin

Skin is beautiful when it is healthy at the cellular level, so Murad creates products with powerful hydrating ingredients that support the skin’s barrier function to protect cells from environmental damage and dehydration, while encouraging healthy cell turnover.

Dr. Murad recommends a skin-care regimen that’s loaded with stress-reducing and super-hydrating ingredients. According to him, neuropeptides can address visible skin wrinkling caused by repetitive facial expressions; wild indigo, used in Ayurveda, helps quickly calm skin’s stress signals; and, finally, hyaluronic acid is recommended to address the effects of dehydration on skin.

Expensive skin-care products won’t be as effective if you’re not treating your actual body with care. A robust skin care routine is wonderful, but it needs the support of nutrients and hydration from food, oxygenated blood from exercise, and reduced cortisol from better stress management.”