While pride may be a sin, there’s no shame whatsoever in taking pride in your appearance. We all know that sense of confidence, self worth and feeling of empowerment that comes with looking in the mirror and actually being happy with what we see. It’s a state of mind that can become addictive, and when we don’t get it we can feel a yawning chasm where our self-respect used to be. The truest accomplishment is when we can look at ourselves in the mirror straight out of bed and be happy with what we see. So few of us are able to accomplish this and so we rush out to equip ourselves with an arsenal of makeup, hair products and clothes to return our self esteem to an acceptable level. While we all have our good days and bad days, if you don’t feel whole unless your dresser is bursting with lip glosses, false eyelashes and foundation… That may be a problem.
The extreme end of the spectrum
We’ve all seen them, men and women who have let their beauty goals become an obsession and have made irrevocable (and costly) changes to their appearance in order to pursue their very specific ideas of perfection or realign what they see in the mirror with what they see in their old photographs. While this may represent the extreme end of the spectrum, the psychology remains the same. It’s becoming all too common for women (and, indeed, men) to be physically unable to leave their home in the morning without undergoing an elaborate and expensive beauty regimen. The psychology of beauty is fascinating but the pursuit of beauty can be addictive.
An embarrassment of riches
Shopping for beauty products can and should be fun, maybe even a giddy thrill. All those colorfully packaged shiny products out there, each one brimming with the promise to unleash the inner you in ways you never even thought possible, but like any form of capitalism, shopping for its own sake represents a quick high followed by prolonged feelings of guilt and shame… Like eating an all-cupcake diet. There are so many products on the market out there that we’re plagued by the nagging feeling that we can’t possibly own them all and that the right one is out there still, eluding us. This is why psychologists think that ample choice doesn’t make you happier, it actually makes you less happy.
When too much is not enough
We all know someone who spends a lot of money on their beauty products and if you don’t know that someone it may be you. If you’re burning through credit cards and loans in your quest to have the latest and greatest beauty products to the point where you’re desperate to find loans for people with poor credit. If your ability to have the latest eye palette supersedes you ability to pay off your credit cards it’s unlikely that you’ll ever learn to make do with what you have.
Finding acceptance
The only way to curb this particular brand of addiction is to learn to accept yourself as you are. To appreciate what’s beautiful about you while accepting the parts that you may not be happy about. Only then will you achieve the true beauty that shines through no matter what your product budget!