💋 Scientifically Proven Micro Acts of Self-Care
For When You’re Held Together by Dry Shampoo and Hope.
1. Change your shirt. 👚
It’s basic neuroscience. Changing tactile input resets your focus loop. Also, it stops you from marinating in yesterday’s emotional residue (and possibly soup).
2. Wash your face. The minimalist edition. 🫧
Cold water hits your vagus nerve and tells your body, “hey, we’re safe now.” No serums, no sheet mask, no influencer involved. Just clean skin and the ✨ illusion ✨ of control.
3. Refresh your favorite scent. 🌿
Light your go-to candle, refresh the diffuser, spray the spritz. Scent hits the limbic system (the brain’s emotional HQ ) faster than logic does. Which means you can gently gaslight your nervous system into calm.
4. Laugh.
Laugh at something ridiculous, cat videos, your own disasters, or the fantasy you had about adulting being glamorous. Laughter reduces cortisol by around 30% and boosts feel-good chemicals like oxytocin and endorphins. Laughter literally hacks your hormones, drops cortisol, boosts oxytocin, and briefly convinces your brain you’re thriving. It’s science, not delusion.
5. Stretch like you mean it.
Movement increases dopamine and blood flow, both are proven to reduce stress. So yes, flailing dramatically in your kitchen counts as neuroscience now. 💃🏻
6. Go outside. ☀️
The UV hits your retina, triggers serotonin, and whispers, “You are not just an unpaid intern of capitalism.” Stand there. Absorb. Photosynthesize like the overstimulated lil plant you are.
7. Hype Yourself. 👑
Thoughts shape reality, but spoken words anchor it. Saying it out loud activates your auditory cortex and strengthens neural pathways. Basically, a scientifically proven spell. ✨ So, tell yourself you’re doing you’re best. Heck tell yourself you’re rich and run with it, but say it out loud. It’s not woo-woo, it’s wiring dear.
Science says the little stuff matters, which is great news for anyone whose grandest achievement today was locating pants (like myself).
Progress doesn’t need to be pretty, it just needs to exist.
All you can do is your best. (Even if your best is just showing up for yourself today...in yesterday’s mascara.) 💅🏼
You’ve done the self-care science.
Now do the self-discovery.
