I was walking along the Thames last week with my mother-in-law and my husband.
“Have I told you about my manifestations?” my mother-in-law said.
I had not. I stayed silent, waiting for her to explain.
“I’m reading a book called ‘Just F*cking Do it’, and it made me think – anyone can do anything! There’s no excuse! I manifested that I would be smarter with my money this year, and then I found out that my house in Spain got a week-long booking, and I got a call saying I was due a tax rebate!”
Getty Images/Margie Rischiotto
I have so many problems with this. My entire feed was – before I cleansed it – brimming with rich, flat-stomached influencers blabbering on about how you can “think positively”, “trust your journey” and just “do things that make you feel good” until suddenly, abs appear. For me, these comments follow the same rhetoric as Molly-Mae’s we “all have the same 24 hours in a day” and Kim Kardashian’s “it seems like nobody wants to work these days” comments.
Via @mollymae @kimkardashian on Instagram
The idea that you can simply just… manifest your way to greatness is, in my opinion, ignorant and privileged. While this was absolutely not my mother-in-law’s intention, and while I do agree with her that you have to be both open to change and willing to put the work in before you can reap any rewards, I do not think that reaping rewards and being willing or manifesting are mutually inclusive. Simply being open to change and willing to work will not automatically guarantee you success.
This is why, when Adele gave her now-iconic Vogue interview in 2021, I was so relieved and delighted to hear her talk about her privilege, and how it allowed her to exercise more in order to take care of her mental health. In the interview, she said she was “basically unemployed” when working out three times a day, and the article even goes on to say that she “gets that it’s a rich person’s game”. “It’s not doable for a lot of people,” Adele said.
Via @adele on Instagram
Why, then, are my social feeds constantly contaminated by toxic positivity? A quick Google search of “toxic positivity” will bring up varying definitions, but they all echo the same sentiment: “Toxic positivity is the belief that no matter how dire or difficult a situation is, people should maintain a positive mindset”; “Toxic positivity is dysfunctional emotional management without the full acknowledgment of negative emotions”; “Toxic positivity happens when people believe that negative thoughts about anything should be avoided”; “Toxic positivity is an obsession with positive thinking”.
For me, manifestation and toxic positivity go hand in hand. The idea of manifesting and positively thinking your way out of tough situations can breed feelings of guilt, inadequacy, pressure, and simply not feeling good enough. Someone with a really tough life could watch a TikTok about manifestation – dripping in toxic positivity – and think, “Why is this not working for me? What am I doing wrong? Why am I not good enough?”.
Social media is obsessed with the law of attraction; you can manifest yourself a better job, better finances, a lover, and now… better skin?! I call bullsh*t.
@astrogirll1 What should I do next? ☘️#fyp #clearskin #witchesoftiktok #babywitch #witchtok #manifesttiktok #manifestationtechniques ♬ west coast – favsoundds
Okay, let’s reset. As a journalist who writes about super-duper important, hard-hitting stuff, I pride myself on being able to look at things neutrally from both sides. (Ha).
Skincare experts weigh in on whether or not you can *actually* #ManifestClearSkin…
#ManifestingClearSkin has literally millions of views on TikTok, with thousands of videos nestled under the hashtag claiming to work wonders on your skin. And, to be fair, it’s no secret that stress, exhaustion, and anxiety can have a negative impact on your appearance. In an interview with Grazia, Dr. Alia Ahmed explains, “Too much and the wrong kind of stress can be harmful to our bodies as well as our skin. It can lead to skin allergies as it activates what are known as mast cells.”
As an eczema sufferer whose flare-ups rear their ugly heads whenever I’m particularly stressed at work, I’m utterly persuaded of this – no extra convincing needed.
Stocksy/Nastia Kobza
“When your body releases cortisol it alters how you produce collagen and what are known as proteoglycans, which are the building blocks of skin. This can lead to loss of elasticity and firmness in your skin. Stress-induced cortisol production can also reduce the amount of hyaluronic acid, a natural acid in the body and skin, which helps us to retain water. Finally, cortisol can increase the production of oil in some people, which can contribute to acne breakouts.”
So, we’ve established that negative emotions can negatively impact your skin, but does that make the opposite true? I sat down with Marie Reynolds – founder of Marie Reynolds London and skincare industry veteran – to chat about this some more. She echoed much of the same, but with an added caveat:
“Stress raises cortisol levels in the body, which can lead to an increase in oil production, and thus, a lovely home for bacteria to thrive. It also disturbs the epidermal microbiome, which is the skin’s innate immunity. Raised cortisol from stress can even impact the gut microbiome, which also increases skin sensitivity.
“When we are more ‘zen’, there will be a hormone and gut homeostasis, which will reflect in the skin.”
Well, that would explain the post-holiday glow, but our chat did not leave me totally convinced, so I donned my Sherlock hat and continued researching. I stumbled upon a quote from Dr. Murad (of the skincare brand, Murad), which read: “Affirmations give us the strength from inside to have the appropriate strength on the outside. We can go further when we minimise our stress because we can improve our sleep, which allows us to reduce fine lines, wrinkles, dark circles, and more.”
At this point, it’s worth noting that many a brand is adopting the trend, with the likes of Murad, Miranda Kerr’s Kora Organics, and Alicia Keys’ Keys Soulcare all offering affirmation cards or including affirmations with their packaging. Alicia Keys herself says affirmations are her “secret weapon”, and the Keys Soulcare website says affirmations can help you to “manifest exactly what you may be in search of right now”.
In fact, their Skin Transformation Cream encourages you to “honour the connection between skin and soul by shifting your mindset” with the accompanying affirmation of, “I welcome all circumstances as catalysts for change”.
If such big cheeses can believe in the power of manifestation, then suddenly, the TikTok videos claiming you can think your way to good skin via positive affirmations like “my skin is beautiful” or “I trust my skin’s healing process,” suddenly don’t seem so wild.
Yet, there’s no denying that there’s just not enough research available to back up these claims, and manifestation is certainly no panacea. If you suffer from a medical condition like acne, rosacea, or eczema, no amount of positive thinking is going to cure it, and there are other factors to think about, like hormones, genetics, and diet. Not to mention the fact that skin conditions like these can cause negative emotions. As Dr. Alia Ahmed explains, “What we know from research is that people with skin conditions are more likely to experience poor mental health and have a higher incidence of psychiatric impact (like anxiety and depression)”. Imagine struggling with your mental health and then being made to feel like a failure for struggling to think positively – this manifestation trend can add a lot of pressure to those who are unwell.
As for whether or not I personally believe in #ManifestingClearSkin, I can only go by my own personal experiences. I had adult acne for years – I’m talking big, angry, sore lumps under the skin on my face and on my back – and nothing but medical intervention helped. I went through ups and downs – there were times when I was stressed, but there were times when I was incredibly happy – and those positive times did not clear my skin. I definitely wanted to clear it; I was certainly open to anything and believed, with hope, that the next (and the next, and the next) treatment would work, but nothing did. Manifestation and positivity were certainly not going to clear my acne.
Via TikTok
Even now, as I subconsciously scratch at eczema on my wrists between taps on my keyboard while I cheerfully do what I love – write – I’m seriously doubtful that manifestation and positive thinking can clear what years of using steroid creams have failed to. If we really could manifest our way out of bad situations, I think the world would be a much better place, and acne or eczema wouldn’t exist 🙏🏽.