50 Women Shared Their Small Appearance Changes That Made The Biggest Difference For Them

Change in life—even if for the better—is not always an easy thing to go through. Even if you’re upgrading, or moving to a bigger apartment, for instance, the smaller one might start to feel more cozy than cramped, and more authentic than old all of a sudden.

That’s because the things we’re familiar with are comforting—they make us feel good. Delving deeper into why that is on Psychology Today, Dr. Michael E. W. Varnum, Social Psychology Area Head and Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University noted that part of the reason is the fact that processing an interaction with someone or something familiar takes less mental effort than getting acquainted with someone or something new.

“Our mental capacities are large but not infinite,” Dr. Varnum wrote, adding that consequently, we try to use every chance to conserve mental energy. “Familiar stimuli tend to be easier to process than novel ones. We know what to expect from a park, restaurant, or person we know well.”

Dr. Varnum continued to point out that familiar stimuli are more “perceptually fluent,” which means that they’re easier to process than new ones. Studies suggest that it tends to put us in a good mood, explaining why we enjoy familiar things.

“Another reason to prefer the familiar has to do with our evolved psychology,” the expert wrote. “Our minds are designed, among other things, to keep us safe from potential environmental threats. Drawing on this logic, generally, a place, a person, or a food we’ve encountered repeatedly without being harmed should be preferred compared to new ones whose potential to help or hurt us is unknown.”

Bearing in mind that we tend to enjoy what we are familiar with, it’s no surprise that change can be far from enjoyable. Especially when it’s a change for the worse. However, according to cognitive scientist Maya Shankar, even change for the worse or certain challenges we face can end up being a positive influence in our lives.

In her TEDxTalk, she explained that change is filled with uncertainty, and we hate uncertainty. “Research shows that we're more stressed when we're told we have a 50 percent chance of getting an electric shock than when we're told we have a 100 percent chance,” she noted, proving her point.

“Change is also scary because it involves loss of some kind. By definition, we're departing from an old way of being and entering a new one. And when we experience a change that we wouldn't have chosen for ourselves, it's easy to feel that our lives are contracting, that we’re more limited than before,” the cognitive scientist said.

But Shankar continued to add that unexpected change can inspire lasting change within us. “We become different people on the other side of change. What we're capable of, what we value and how we define ourselves, these things can all shift. And if we can learn to pay close attention to these internal shifts, we may just find that rather than limiting us, change can actually expand us.”

According to The University Of People, change is not all about leaving familiar grounds; it’s also about fear of failure. In addition to being worried about not knowing what will happen after a certain change, people might also fear that that change will lead to failure. That’s why, when we don’t know how something will turn out, we may prefer not to try it because the outcome could be bad.

The fear that stems from the link between change and failure can turn even seemingly minor changes into difficult decisions to make. Take cutting your hair, for instance. Even if we want to do it, we might fear it at the same time. “What if it doesn’t look good?” we might think.

Needless to say, decisions more significant than that can be infinitely more difficult to make.

But sometimes, the only way forward is facing the fear and leaping into the change, whether that means cutting your hair, moving to a new city, or even ending a relationship. No matter how significant or small of a step, it’s one that can only be taken by you.

And clearly, the women on this list weren’t going to wait for someone to take that step for them. They decided to change their lives themselves, and, looking at their pictures, they seem to be pretty happy with their decisions.