If you scour the internet for the best beauty tips, you will be bombarded with over a billion results in a second. This solid fact solely proves that our contemporary world is more fixated on how to fix rather than how to embrace and appreciate who we truly are inside and out.
The sad part is that, most of us have internalized the few negative comments we have received in the past that we do not remember the myriads of compliments we receive from our family, friends or strangers every day. In this article, we discuss realistic yet proven techniques that will genuinely help you improve your self-esteem and have you feeling perki about your positive body image.
1. Remember nobody is perfect
Thanks to social media, society has idealized beauty into an unrealistic stereotype body. Research shows an unequivocal link between social and a rampant rise of decreased self-worth and low esteem among many people.
Aiming to be perfect will only prove to be a blow to your self-confidence which can affect other areas in your life. As such, it is very important to re-frame your view of perfection into a more realistic self-image created only by yourself.
For starters, recognize that there is nothing like perfection. Despite what the society has made us believe, there is no perfect body type; there is not a single flawless person on the planet. Yes, not even the men and women you see on magazines and on Instagram. And let’s not be oblivious of the fact that the “ideal body” perpetually changes with trends.
Everybody has that one thing they wish they could change about themselves. Spending hours on hours coveting that other person’s “perfect features” is only lowering your self-esteem and doing injustice to yourself. Low self-esteem has been linked to a myriad of mental health problems including but not limited to eating disorders, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Simple, asses what you’ve got, make a list of the favorite qualities about yourself. Take into account both your physical features and aspects of your personality you find most important. Lastly, rank them in the order you deem
Having a list of your positive attributes will help you stop looking at the negative flaws you perceive about yourself and start seeing yourself positively. Furthermore, your self-esteem will improve and eventually you will discover more perks about yourself that you didn’t realize you had.
3. Take Care of Yourself
Contrary to popular belief, beauty is not only a physical appearance. This incorrect notion engraved in our brains especially through social media has altered our beliefs and lowered our self-esteem.
The good news is you do not have to conform to these superficial notions. How you may ask?
Make a change; create a healthy balance in your life. Eat healthy foods, exercise and take care of your skin. Working out will help you achieve both mental and physical bliss which is paramount to feeling awesome and achieving self-confidence.
4. Rewrite your Internal Dialogue
The sad truth is that we are our own worst critics. Most a time, we choose to take other people’s shallow ideals and vague preferences to define ourselves and unfortunately, the result is always low self-esteem.
Vow to be your biggest cheerleader, talk to yourself with kindness, recognize your real personality, quit the negative talk and most importantly give yourself compliments instead of always relying on other people’s reassurance that you look good.
Use positive affirmations whenever you are feeling less confident, give yourself a pep talk if you have to feel good and confident, also, quit fixating on minor setbacks.
The Bottom Line
You need to believe that you are imperfectly perfect and there is utterly nothing wrong with that. Keep in mind that the goal is not achieving perfection but self-acceptance.