You've had a busy day, getting the kids to school before your 9 a.m. meeting, eating lunch at your desk, getting home in time to prepare dinner before putting the kids to bed. You sit down on the sofa and notice a bad smell nearby so you smell it quickly and wrinkle your nose when you realize it's your body odor.
Your partner wants to cuddle with you but you say you don't like it when in reality you're worried that they will be offended by your body odor.
But why?
Society has us believe that we're supposed to smell the cool scent of coconut and cucumber from morning to night, despite the million things our bodies and minds are doing at any given time. We are constantly walking, thinking, working, being active, all of which produce sweat. Because guess what, everyone sweats. We sweat a lot in everyday life. In fact, the only areas of our body that don't have sweat glands are our ears, nails, and lips. Although different activities cause different types of sweat, they all give the same negative feeling that the sweat produced is dirty and gross. How can something so natural be treated like an embarrassment?
The answer is that we are often educated to maintain cleanliness, because apparently it will make us more attractive. Regardless of how this learned behavior occurs, feeling embarrassed about sweating is a natural reaction and your feelings about it are valid. When you've spent your entire adult life being told that body odor is something to hide, how can you not feel a little embarrassed when you smell it? Feeling embarrassed about your natural body odor is a behavior that is taught from a young age. Fortunately, anything taught can be forgotten.
So how do we begin to eliminate this behavior?
- Understand why we sweat. There's a difference between psychosomatic sweat and cooling sweat, and how you manage them is different, too. Please refer to the tips to manage your deodorant HERE .
- Let your body adjust itself. Find out what your body smells like, you will definitely like it! Your embarrassment may stem from not being familiar with body odor so bury your nose in your armpit the next time you want to hide and experience your natural scent firsthand. How wonderful it could be
- Wear clothes that you feel comfortable and confident in, have proper ventilation, and are not tight around your armpits.
- Talk about it. The best way we can unlearn socially learned behaviors is to talk about them with our peers, breaking down ingrained beliefs and coming out on the other side.
Use deodorant if necessary
Forgetting the shame of your body odor is something you should practice because it will make you more confident all the time. But we also understand that doing that takes courage and time. Additionally, there are periods in life where your body odor is really strong and makes you lose confidence. So don't hesitate and immediately use Breeze's body deodorant and antiperspirant products to help you feel confident anytime, anywhere.