Caring for yourself is an important part of improving your wellbeing. It’s good to indulge and truly love yourselves.

A skin-care, self-care plan is a good way to start. Simply put, it’s committing to and following a routine that will benefit the health of your body’s largest organ, your skin. It also delivers the bonus of providing the structure and pampering that benefits your psychological well-being.

Caring for the skin is one of the first steps for an effective self-care routine. Our skin in so many ways is an indicator for our internal health. When skin looks and feels good, we tend to feel better about ourselves.

Here are five reasons why a skin care routine is an essential jumpstart to selfcare.

A Good Skin-Care Routine Provides Stability in Your Day

A consistent routine feels good and acts as a comforting force in your life, providing an anchor to your day and serving as a point of stability in your week.

Routines are critical for your overall health, in both body and mind. In a study published in June 2018, researchers found that people who have less consistent routines throughout the active parts of their day were more likely to suffer from major depressive and bipolar disorders, mood problems, loneliness, and less happiness.

Following a regular routine, you may even feel like you’ve accomplished something. Especially now, because of COVID-19, it’s vitally important to maintain some routines during the week. Now is a fantastic time to reap the benefits of these habits.

Do Something Nice for Yourself and Help Stop a Worry Spiral

You may feel that certain times of the day can trigger intrusive thoughts, but you can break the negative thoughts with self-care. This is usually when you have more idle time, which increases worry for a lot of people. It’s when you’re engaged in an activity, including washing, toning, and moisturizing your face that you can get out of your head and focus on what you’re doing. This goes for any activity that keeps you busy, like working on a new project or cooking dinner.

The act of caring for your skin additionally provides an opportunity for mindfulness. Which is when you focus on the present moment without passing judgment (the soothing feel of warm water, for instance). This practice has been shown to buffer depression and anxiety by stopping worry and rumination.

By engaging in a selfcare activity for a few minutes, you can help your brain unhook from less healthy, spiralling thinking patterns. Try applying a deep moisturiser to your hands and feet every night before bed. Something as nourishing as Shae’s Honeycomb Salve that would nourish your skin, and nurture your soul with its heavenly ylang ylang aroma.

Pampering Skin Boosts Your Mood

Create a routine that feels good and includes products that you enjoy using. For example, don’t underestimate the impact of gently massaging skin with a warm washcloth to cleanse, taking extra time to smooth a silky moisturizer on your face, or applying a mask. You can even turn this into an evening event , set the mood when you do an at-home facial by lighting some candles, having a glass of wine, and playing some relaxing tunes while you let your mask sit.

The experience of an at-home facial or treatment is certainly comforting, but you also get a lot of fulfilment just planning for it. Expecting positive events has also been shown to activate a certain area of the prefrontal cortex, a brain region associated with a sense of well-being, according to a study published in January 2018. It’s a natural little high for something so simple. This is one reason why baths are so inherently calming. First, you expect to feel relaxed as you lower into one, and second, the warm water is naturally relaxing to muscles.

To make your bath an act of self-care that improves your skin health at the same time, add oatmeal to the water, which eases irritated skin and generally dry skin. Shae’s Rose Milk Bath is a good option with its romantic rose scent.

Bond With Loved Ones Over Self Care

Carve out meaningful time together with loved ones that will bolster your sense of personal satisfaction and family bond.  

One key step to this process is sharing your skincare routine with your family. Especially now, with less direct social interaction, spending some self-care time with kids or your better half is so much more effective in achieving the goal of self-care, i.e. a balance of physical and mental well-being.

A good option for a selfcare activity that could involve loved ones is a rejuvenating facial mask. Take out time to apply the mask for each other and play fun games while you wait to for the mask to do its magic.

Caring for Your Skin is Being Kind to Yourself

Right now, the world is a stressful place. So it might feel tempting to watch TV late into the night and then roll into bed without so much as splashing your face with water — you’re just too tired. But what if, instead, you focused on taking care of yourself in this small way. By spending five extra minutes to treat your skin. This is akin to the perk you might get when you swipe on a coat of mascara in the morning, apply colour on your cheeks to make them pop, or smooth on that tinted moisturizer that makes your skin glow.

What might be one of the more impactful steps is finding a moisturizer that you really love. Some things to consider: Does it feel good going onto your skin? Does it smell pleasant? Does your skin feel good after? Moisturizing serves to improve the overall look and appearance of the skin, while also restoring and maintaining the skin’s function as a barrier to the environment. It also helps improve circulation to the skin, which can help better your general sense of well-being.

There are numerous ways to practice self-care but focusing your efforts on improving skin health pays off for your mental and emotional health, too — and that’s critical in the time of COVID-19. Taking the time to nurture your skin affects your mind and body. It boosts your confidence and gives you a sense of control over how your day will go.