We’ve all seen the glow-ups. The woman who suddenly looks ten years younger. Her skin is luminous. Her eyes are bright. She walks into the room differently. Everyone asks, “What are you doing?” and she just smiles.

Real glow-ups start on the inside. In this guide I’m sharing how to glow up from the inside out, using what I’ve learned from a decade of teaching Ayurveda and the divine feminine, and from my own glow-up after the hardest season of my life.

What Is a Glow-Up, Really?

A glow-up is a visible transformation that reflects an invisible one. Yes, your skin, hair and style may change. Underneath, what’s really shifting is your energy. You’ve stopped carrying what was never yours. Your life force is flowing again. You’ve become more of who you are.

In Ayurveda, that radiance is called ojas, the subtle essence that gives you vitality, immunity and glow. When ojas is strong, you literally shine.

The Energetic Glow-Up: Stop Carrying What’s Not Yours

Here’s what most people miss about post-breakup glow-ups. So much of the transformation happens because a woman is no longer sharing her energy with someone who doesn’t honor her. Women are sponges. We take on the energy of the people we’re connected to. When a draining person leaves our life, we can suddenly look younger, lighter and brighter. When we no longer need protective layers over our hearts, we become lighter.

Glow-Up Tips for Your Energy

• Clear old energetic cords with a cord-clearing ritual.
• Notice who drains you and who fills you, and spend your time accordingly.
• Consider a season of spiritual celibacy to return fully to yourself.
• Mute the accounts that make you feel less than.

The Ayurvedic Glow-Up: Build Your Ojas

Before I wrote about the divine feminine, I wrote books on Ayurveda. These are the practices I come back to every time I want to glow.

Oil Your Body

Abhyanga, self-massage with warm oil, nourishes your skin and calms your nervous system. Sesame oil is grounding for vata types, coconut is cooling for pitta, and a lighter oil like sunflower suits kapha. Find yours with my dosha quiz.

Eat Warm, Fresh, Colorful Food

Your glow begins in your digestion. Favor fresh, seasonal, cooked foods with healthy fats and warming spices. Ghee, dates, soaked almonds and saffron milk are classic ojas builders. Read my guide to vata dosha for grounding foods.

Sleep Like It’s Your Job

Go to bed before 10 p.m. as often as you can. Nothing builds ojas like deep rest.

Drink Warm Water

Sip warm water through the day to support digestion and keep your tissues hydrated.

The Embodied Glow-Up: Come Back to Your Body

When a woman can feel sensation in her body without checking out, numbing or dissociating, her life force increases. Grazing your fingertip along your arm starts to feel electric. Nature feels more alive. This is what I call nervous system re-sensitization, and it’s one of the most powerful glow-up practices there is.

• Dance every day, even for one song. Belly dance and hip circles awaken your sacral energy.
• Take slow showers and feel the water on your skin.
• Eat one meal a day with no phone, tasting every bite.
• Touch your own skin with tenderness when you apply oil or lotion.

Learn more in the Sensualist archetype.

The Identity Glow-Up: Become Her

There’s you, and then there’s Her. Her life has the most interesting lore because she’s perpetually on some side quest, following niche obsessions wherever they take her. That Notes app full of ideas? She actually makes them. She’s like if a monk, a muse and a baddie were one person.

Practice: Finding Her

Journal for five minutes a day about the woman you most want to become. What’s her story? What does she swear by? What is she obsessed with? How does she spend her weekends? What advice does she have for the version of you who isn’t Her yet?

Practice: Becoming Her

Each week, pick one tiny behavior she already does and let it seep into your life. Maybe she hosts themed game nights. Maybe she makes jewelry from seashells. These small acts rewire your identity faster than affirmations ever will.

The Creative Glow-Up: Do a Dream Girl Photoshoot

I recommend every woman do a dream girl photoshoot. Decide who you’re becoming, what the vibe is and how you’ll show it through set, wardrobe, hair and poses. It can be a professional photographer or a friend with a good phone and a corner of your bedroom with good light. Skip the filter so your real energy can be seen. Then print a photo and put it on your altar.

My own dream girl shoot was in a waterfall in Trinidad, dripping in amethyst and gold coins. When I saw the photos, I couldn’t believe it was me. It was me in a way I had never seen myself before. Read more in the Artist archetype.

The Era Glow-Up: Give Yourself a New Creative Direction

Think about your favorite pop stars and their iconic eras. They deliberately turn their mood into a moment. You get to do the same. Ask yourself:

• What’s been inspiring me lately?
• What energy or archetype do I want to step into?
• What does she say no to that I’ve been saying yes to?
• What does she say yes to that I haven’t let myself yet?

You become the era by being the era. Wear it, make it, go where she would go. Eventually the woman you were “playing” starts to feel like you, because she was always you.

The Spiritual Glow-Up: Your Dark Night Is the Doorway

Instead of the midlife crises of generations past, so many women are having post-dark-night glow-ups. We’re becoming DJs, opening coffee shops, riding horses through Kyrgyzstan and becoming tantric earth witches. A dark night strips away everything that was never truly you, and what’s left is magnetic.

If you’re glowing up after heartbreak specifically, read how to glow up after a breakup and how your archetypes rise after the dark night of the soul.

The full story of my glow-up, and the practices that made it happen, are in my new book Maybe This Love Story Is Really About Me, out now.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I glow up naturally?

Focus on deep sleep, warm nourishing food, daily self-massage with oil, movement and releasing relationships that drain you. Your outer glow reflects your inner energy.

How long does a glow-up take?

Many women notice shifts in a few weeks of consistent practice. A deep identity glow-up often unfolds over months.

What is a spiritual glow-up?

A spiritual glow-up is an inner transformation that shows on the outside: clearer energy, stronger intuition, more self-love and a more authentic way of living.

What is ojas in Ayurveda?

Ojas is the subtle essence of vitality in Ayurveda. Strong ojas shows up as radiant skin, bright eyes, steady energy and emotional resilience.

Listen to the Highest Self Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.