Could a Skincare Routine Help to Reduce Your Anxiety?

Stress of modern day living, recurring anxiety issues…

We’ve all been there.

When every day seems a struggle, when everything seems to have gone out of control. When you just want to come home, take a shower, put on your favorite face mask and turn on Netflix.

The Cov-19 pandemic has influenced these feelings of anxiety even more, it makes us feel like everything is going to hell, and like nothing will be the same anymore.

But it is now more than ever that we simply need that bath, and we need that mask in order to feel, just for a second, that everything is fine with the world.

What is Anxiety?

We have all experienced anxiety in one way or another, but many have not been able to define it. You know that sensation when your heart starts beating really fast when you come across a stressful situation, or when your palms start getting sweaty? That’s anxiety.

Do you remember that feeling of tremor in your hands when you are confronted with a problematic situation you just don’t know how to resolve? Well, that’s anxiety. When you cannot sleep because you feel you cannot breathe? That’s anxiety.

If any of these situations ring a bell, don’t worry, anxiety issues are, fortunately, solvable. We should feel lucky to live in this world, where we have the opportunity to talk about our mental health more openly. This was unimaginable in the past. Some of these conditions, including anxiety, have been long disregarded and undermined, even though many suffer from it. Luckily, now you have the opportunity not just to talk about it, but also to actively try to solve it.

What are Anxiety Triggers?

Anxiety, like many other conditions, has certain triggers which set it off.

By realizing what those triggers are, you can successfully try and go around them, avoiding the vicious circle you succumb to, if you let any of them get you.

Some of the most common anxiety triggers include: a stressful job and work environment, driving or travelling, genetics, medication, trauma, phobias, chronic illnesses and caffeine.

What Can You Do to Deal With Anxiety Successfully?

In this day and age, there’s not much that the scientific world has not figured out.

Therefore, there are definitely some things you can do to deal with your anxiety. Here are some of the more successful ones.

Rethink your negative thinking pattern

Every therapist will advise you several things. They will try to teach you to think about the ways you could react productively to an anxiety-causing situations. The aim of this is to learn to ignore the negative thinking patterns which make you behave in a certain way.

Take care of the health of your mind and body

Changing your diet is also one of the things you could do to alleviate the anxiety response. Some scientific research have shown that taking particular supplements can help you reduce your anxiety levels. This represents a long-term solution. The progress won’t happen instantly, but over time. The supplements you should take into consideration include lemon balm, food rich in omega-3 fatty acids, green tea, valerian root, dark chocolate. Yes, you heard us well, chocolate is scientifically proven to make you feel better! Well, dark chocolate, but still.

Try to take up a sport or start exercising

Any type of exercise is good for the state of both your body and mind. Not only will you notice that you’re getting physically stronger, but you will also realize that your state of mind has improved. There is something satisfactory in the feeling that you have done something productive for your body, which can only help the process of your dealing with anxiety. You will, at least sleep better, which is a necessary prerequisite for a healthy mind.

Go for a walk

Whenever you feel that you are about to have an anxiety attack, just go out and walk. Walk as long as it takes. Continue until you feel you have walked it off. By walking away from the situation, you will distance yourself from the trigger that caused the attack. Apart from that, you will have some alone time for self-reflection, a chance to think about what might have caused your body to react in such a way and think about the ways you could change.

Traveling is a good way to take some time off and de-stress on a vacation. but with COVID changing the rules of travel you make sure where you’re traveling to is safe for travel.

Do yoga and meditate

Yoga postures are known to help alleviate the muscle tension and stiffness throughout the body. They reduce the physical pain you may feel due to the stress, and, thus, reduce the stress levels that cause your anxiety attacks.  One important part of yoga is meditating and focusing on breathing. When inhaling deeply and visualizing your problems, then letting them go with each exhale, you achieve a state of tranquility, and allow your brain to relax.

Write down what troubles you

Keep a journal of your thoughts. It has been scientifically proven that putting things on paper can actually help you solve an important problem. In that way you visualize it and try to find a constructive solution. Getting things out of your head in any way can only be a good thing, right?

Try aromatherapy

Scents like lavender, chamomile and sandalwood are excellent solutions for soothing your anxiety attacks. These oils help your body to relax, and once your body is calm and relaxed, your head will follow soon.

Establish a routine

In order to change the way you respond to stressful situations, you need to establish a routine. This could be any sort of routine, from your morning routine to your exercise routine. Write down on a piece of pare what you could do every day that will make you feel happy and satisfied, and try to find time to do the activity every day. This can include all sorts of different activities, from painting, writing, dancing to cooking.

A Skincare Routine Saves the Day

Some of you might be surprised to find skincare routines on the list of appropriate activities. As unbelievable as it may sound, skincare routine can also help you in your everlasting battle with anxiety.

How often have you felt satisfied after a good skin care routine? We imagine quite often.

There is something soothing in the process of taking care of your skin. It is as you were washing all your worries away by washing your face and body. Especially now, in the time of the pandemic, a good skin care routine can save you from going completely mad. Having a routine set in these uncertain times can be comforting and familiar, in the sense that we know what we can expect. It is as simple as that.

It can help you reverse your negative thoughts and create a positive mindset. For example, morning beauty routines generate a feeling of calmness and control. It is how our brain works. The repetition of these procedures and a set time for doing them have a great impact on relaxing the brain. It has something to do with our brain finding logic in that repetition and perceiving it as a higher level of efficacy.

A Break from the Worry

First and foremost, applying a range of skincare products in the morning or in the evening gives you the opportunity to have some much needed alone time. It provides you with the opportunity to relax by doing something that will ultimately help you feel better. Of course, it will not solve your everyday worries, but it will provide you with a suitable distraction, enough to rest your brain and body just for 15 minutes. It will give you a restart you need to find a solution to your everyday struggles.

It Encourages Focus and Keeps You in Control

The best way to cope with anxiety is to perform tasks that require focus. A frequent reason for an anxiety attack is the fear of an upcoming event or thoughts about something from the past. Performing these daily rituals helps you focus on the present without having to think neither about the future, nor the past.

Anxiety stems from the feeling that things are completely out of your control. If you stick to a skincare routine, you will regain that sense of control, because you decide when, where and what.

Skincare time is your alone time, you keep in charge of everything and that can sometimes feel liberating. You tap deep into your feelings and try to recognize them and control them.

How to Establish a Good, Anxiety-Relieving Skincare Routine?

Take care of the scent of the products you buy

There are scents that are scientifically proven to help you with your restlessness and problems with sleeping. When you solve those, and get enough sleep, you are on a good path towards solving the problem. Take, for example, lavender, rose, coconut, sweet orange or jasmine.

Even if those do nothing for you, try to find the ones that create a soothing feeling for your mind and body and make them a part of your daily routine.

Pay attention to temperature

In the process of taking off your makeup be sure to use lukewarm water. In addition, studies show that the process of leaning over the sink immediately triggers resistance. So, try a different approach. Remove your makeup with a hot compress instead of splashing. Add a drop or two of some essential oil that you like, and inhale deeply. It will do wonders for your nerves.

Enjoy a long, hot bath

This can be an instant fix, because it provides you with everything: alone time, break from the outside world and hot water that helps your body regenerate. Add couple of drops of essential oils and a scrub to do a proper cleansing, and you have everything.

Hot water will help you restore calmness and allow you to feel safe and free from the outside worries. Let the bath be your safe place, your sanctuary. The feeling of being clean also helps with the reduction of anxiety levels. After a hot bath like this, you will feel much calmer.

Massage is everything

There are places on your body that hold tension. Usually, it is the back part of your neck, even some areas on your face, like the jaw and forehead.

While applying moisturizer, it is important to pay special attention to those areas that are tight and massage them gently. There are so many muscles on our face, some are bound to feel the great amount of stress you are dealing with. If you massage them with gentle, circular movements, you will ease the tension.

Have you ever had a situation where you went out of the house, but forgot to comb your hair? Did that make you feel nervous? Massaging the scalp can also be extremely helpful in the process of relieving anxiety. That is why combing your hair can also be quite beneficial.

Exfoliate

Exfoliating is an ultimate cleanser of both the mind and the body. By introducing exfoliating in your regular skin routine, you are boosting the recovery of your skin, and your brain. Exfoliation is a process of removing the dead surface layer of skin that clogs the pores. Clogged pores are a one way ticket to different sorts of skin inflammations, such as acne, different sorts of rashes and skin irritations.

Exfoliation can successfully solve the problems you have with your skin. Unfortunately, skin irritations are usually caused by a prolonged state of stress and anxiety the body has been enduring. And then you get agitated about the skin problem you are having, which causes and additional stress, and you get caught up in a vicious circle.

That is why the process of cleaning the skin is beneficial on many levels. The massaging movements help you ease the tension of some parts of the body that hold it. On the other hand, simply being aware of the fact that you are in the process of making yourself clean helps the brain feel more relaxed.

As we have already said, there is something magical in the process of cleaning the body, which the brain connects with the state of solving a difficult problem. So, think no further, and make a skincare routine a part of your everyday routine.

It will not solve all your problems, but it will definitely help you forget about them for a while.