There are a variety of reasons for which people adopt a relaxed approach to hygiene. In some instances, poor hygiene is a byproduct of stress, depression and other mental health issues.
Other times, people come to regard personal hygiene as cumbersome. Regardless of why you’ve started to neglect your hygiene, it’s imperative that you get on top of this problem posthaste. Anyone looking to avoid falling into the trap of poor personal hygiene will be well-served by the following measures.
Make a Daily Grooming Checklist
Good grooming is an important part of personal hygiene and will serve you well in a number of areas. For one thing, it illustrates a commitment to maintaining a clean, healthy appearance. Just see what happens if you attend a job interview without cleaning yourself up beforehand. Suffice it to say, poor grooming won’t do you any favors when it comes to professional or social situations.
So, if you’ve developed a habit of skipping certain daily grooming rituals, it’s time to get a handle on this behavior. To help ensure that all of your daily grooming needs are met, create a daily grooming checklist and cross off various items as you make your way through your grooming regimen.
A good checklist will provide you with a sense of structure and help prevent you from becoming overwhelmed by all the grooming rituals most people are expected to go through on a daily basis. After a few days with your new checklist, you’re liable to find that a regular grooming regimen isn’t as hard to tackle as you initially thought.
Attend to Your Mental Health
Poor personal hygiene practices aren’t limited to things that are purely physical. Failure to regard mental hygiene as a priority is often reflected in one’s inability to stay on top of personal hygiene. So, if you’ve recently come to discover that basic grooming rituals like showering, face-washing and tooth-brushing are much harder than they used to be, there’s a good chance that some underlying mental health issues are at play, even if you’re not presently aware of what they are.
Allowing mental health issues to go unaddressed is never a good idea. Not only can doing so impact your personal hygiene, it also stands to affect every other area of your life. So, whether you’ve only recently developed mental health issues or have been dealing with them for years, now is the time to seek the treatment you deserve.
While having a solid support network of friends and family members is certainly helpful, these individuals should not be regarded as stand-ins for actual mental health professionals. This isn’t to say that the people in your life don’t have a role to play in your recovery – they just shouldn’t be the ones in charge of it.
Furthermore, while there’s no denying that mental healthcare – like everything healthcare-related in the U.S. – can be prohibitively pricey, there are a number of ways to receive treatment without breaking the bank. For example, consider seeking out a therapist who charges on a scale or receiving treatment at a community clinic that provides counseling free of charge.
Keep Your Living Space Clean
While some people take pride in keeping an immaculate living space, others have no issue with messiness. Although you needn’t necessarily keep your residence spotless at all times, you should aim to keep it reasonably clean.
In addition to helping you maintain an uncluttered mind and preventing you from becoming overwhelmed by insurmountable messes, regularly straightening up your living space can ensure that the residence remains sanitary – which can be a boon to your physical health. For example, anyone looking to improve the air quality in their home would do well to look into antimicrobial filtration options.
Although personal hygiene needn’t necessarily be your number one concern, it should certainly be among your top priorities. Failing to practice proper hygiene can have a negative on how others view you and, more importantly, how you view yourself.
So, if your current approach to hygiene leaves a lot to be desired, there’s no time like the present to start making some big changes. To this end, take care to heed to the helpful pointers discussed above.