5 Simple Reasons Your Beauty Routine Can Reduce Stress & Anxiety

Don’t let stress and anxiety bring you down.

You can rise above and learn to deal with anxiety by becoming familiar with it.

The more you become familiar with what anxiety you’re struggling with, the easier it might be for you to deal with it.

Relax and continue with your daily skincare routine.

It might surprise you to learn that your regular beauty regime can reduce stress and anxiety.

It’s not because of some form of magic but something backed by science.

For example, you might feel more confident after getting a facelift, but you can’t do that every day.

Instead, your regular skincare routine can make you feel better on a daily basis.

Let’s look at 5 ways following your beauty regime can boost your mood.

1. Pampering Yourself Relaxes The Brain

People suffering from anxiety can feel that they’re worthless and many have low self-esteem and bitter thoughts.

By pampering yourself, you’re sending a signal to your brain that you’re being loved and cared for by someone.

Even if that someone is you, the action can let your brain release feel-good chemicals that can boost your mood.

So, in effect, you aren’t just making your body feel relaxed and beautiful, but you’re also relaxing your brain.

Many studies have shown that there’s a connection between your brain and the skin.

This brain-skin connection can be the reason why you blush when you’re feeling embarrassed.

According to the Inflammation & Allergy – Drug Targets journal, this brain-skin connection can also be responsible for stress-related skin inflammation or aggravation of multiple skin diseases.

The skin plays many important roles as the largest organ in our body.

It isn’t just a physical barrier that protects the rest of the body parts but also has immune functions.

The researchers explained that the skin is the body’s immediate stress perceiver, but it’s also the target of stress responses.

For example, the skin acts as the primary sense organ that lets you perceive external stressors such as cold, heat, pain, or mechanical tension.

It’s an important role that also helps your body immediately react to potential dangers.

However, the researchers also point out that plenty of skin conditions have long been considered to be triggered or aggravated by stress.

These conditions can include acne, atopic or contact dermatitis, pruritus (uncomfortable, irritating itchy skin sensation), erythema (superficial reddening of the skin), and psoriasis (red, itchy, and scaly skin patches).

The study determined the feedback mechanisms and crosstalks that happen between the brain and the skin.

Backed by science and knowledge that the skin can affect the brain and vice versa, it’s clear now why doing your skin-care regimen can have direct effects on your brain health, too.

2. Keeping To Your Routine Is Powerful

Humans can be creatures of habit.

Many of us don’t like transitions or abrupt changes to our routines.

That’s why the forced home quarantines and lockdowns due to the pandemic made so many people feel restricted.

Many felt depressed about the situation.

Understandably, losing your routine can be distressing.

Amazingly, some ladies managed to hold themselves together by trying to live their lives as normal as possible: by following their regular skincare routine.

Yes, you couldn’t go out and hang out with friends or even head off to the spa, but you could still pamper yourself at home and feel good about it.

Now, isn’t that fantastic?

The key to achieving that is consistency.

A pandemic or some other reason can throw off all your other routines, but your skincare regimen can remain constant.

Even if it’s simple, it can be something that can help you reduce stress and boost your overall mental well-being.

3. Anticipating Something Good Makes You Feel Better

A 2018 study in the Frontiers of Psychology journal shows that if you’re anticipating something good, such as looking forward to pampering yourself, it can make you feel better.

Anticipation for positive events activates the part of the brain called the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC).

This enhanced brain activity directly correlates with a higher level of mental health and overall well-being.

What’s in your beauty regime that makes you feel better the most?

For many, their skincare routine can be something mundane, yet if you think about its good effects on your brain, then you’ll see it in a new light.

This new awareness might even make you feel better.

The researchers in the study above also explained that their results were consistent with the goal theory of well-being.

According to this theory, having goals and progressing through them can benefit your well-being.

They explained that the benefits you reap from having these goals aren’t just focused on when you achieve the goal but also through positive anticipation that something good will happen as you make progress.

So, even when you still haven’t reached your main goal, the anticipation and all the little achievements you surpass along the way can already make you feel better.

In a way, that can relate to your entire beauty regimen.

Your goal is to pamper yourself and make your skin feel refreshed.

So, even just using a face mask or learning how to contour your face with foundation can have positive effects on your mental health.

You don’t see it, but your brain is being rewired to feel better with each little goal you meet.

Surprisingly, the study authors discovered that the amygdala didn’t show any activity during their positive anticipation tests.

It’s surprising because this part of the brain is thought to be the emotional center.

The researchers hypothesized that the amygdala might be responsible for negative anticipation so that you can be ready for the fight or flight response.

However, it doesn’t appear to be involved in anticipating positive events.

That might make sense because if you feel good, you won’t need to worry about how you respond to the situation.

4. Focusing On Self-Care Can Break Negative Thoughts

If you find yourself heading into the worry spiral, you can break those negative thoughts by going through your self-care routine.

It can be due to mindfulness and its role in emotional regulation.

Also published in the Frontiers of Psychology Journal, a 2019 study showed that mindfulness can have positive effects on depression and anxiety.

In this study, mindfulness is defined as the process by which a person attends to present-moment experiences, thoughts, emotions, and sensations in a non-judgmental manner. Your regular skin-care routine fits right into this description.

When worrying and depressive thoughts begin to enter your mind, you can focus on the sensations you feel with each beauty regime you do.

By focusing on this simple, regular task, your mind can break away from negative thoughts.

It might be similar to the effects that you can feel if you do yoga, breathing exercises, or other mindfulness-based stress reduction programs and interventions.

The researchers concluded that mindfulness might improve a person’s well-being, whether dispositional or enhanced through meditation.

It’s achieved by reducing the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

They also concluded that mindfulness-based interventions, including meditation exercises that focus specifically on worry reduction, may prove efficient and beneficial to protection against depression and anxiety.

Healthy emotional regulation is the important mediator that brings about this effect.

5. The Scents In Your Skincare Products Can Reduce Stress & Anxiety

Have you ever inhaled something that smells so good and instantly felt calm or happy?

That’s because scents can also affect the brain.

That’s one of the reasons why aromatherapy has long been considered a useful method for stress relief.

According to a 2015 study in the Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine journal, essential oils like lavender can offer stress relief and relaxation.

This essential oil even has effects on reducing anxiety and agitation while also improving cognition.

So, if you’re searching for a new scent for the products you use in your beauty regime, you can pick some with lavender.

Another option is to get a diffuser for essential oils so you can enjoy the aroma of lavender while you’re going through the steps in your beauty regimen.

Your home will surely smell good from that essential oil, and it can help you feel more relaxed.

Aside from lavender, other essential oils for stress and anxiety relief can include orange, chamomile, sandalwood, rose, bergamot, jasmine, ylang-ylang, vetiver, frankincense, and clary sage.