Over 50% of Americans are dissatisfied with their body weight or the way they look. Body confidence issues can easily arise in anyone, especially with pressures from what you might see in the media.
How Do You Know if You Have Body Confidence Issues?
- You obsess over your body image, such as constantly checking mirrors and being critical about what you see
- You’re always comparing your own shape or size to other people’s
- You feel as though you are not confident or comfortable in your own skin
- You wear loose-fitting clothes to hide anything you don’t want to be seen
- You’re never satisfied with your own image
These are just a few examples of how low body confidence can manifest, but your own personal experience may differ.
6 Steps to Better Body Confidence
Step 1: Exercise Simply for the Pleasure
Any exercise can have you feeling better about your body through the sheer power of movement. Instead of focusing on tailored fitness plans or the on-trend ways everyone else is working out, simply focus on your own exercise, such as a simple walk every day. Being active can help you to feel less sluggish, and therefore less critical about your body.
Step 2: Find Your Style
Forget about what other people are wearing, or tight-fitting clothes on hour-glass figures. Find your own style that brings you joy and which you feel comfortable in. Feeling comfortable in clothes, you love immediately results in confidence.
Step 3: Forget About Sizes
You can easily become obsessed with sizes and numbers when it comes to clothes. It’s important to remember that sizes vary in every store and that the ideal number doesn’t exist. Sizes should be based on your own size, healthy weight and how you want your clothes to fit. Comparing your size to other people who have a significantly smaller size can lead to issues, such as trying to lose weight unhealthily. There are anorexia nervosa treatment options for those who might be struggling with unhealthy eating to achieve a specific size.
Step 4: Care for Your Skin
Instead of focusing on style or extensive make-up to create the desired look, go back to the basics. Take good care of your skin, protect it from UV damage, moisturize it and use healthy cleansers. This can give you more confidence with a natural glow and put more focus on skin health rather than covering up blemishes with make-up.
Step 5: Focus on the Positives
This can be extremely hard to do when you’re suffering from low self-esteem, but you should try to do this every day. Even if it’s simply one thing you love about yourself – or perhaps just one thing you don’t mind — remind yourself of that every day. It could be that you love your hair, the shape of your nose or your legs. Anything which is a positive, pay attention to it.
Step 6: Health Always Comes First
Health can be put on the back burner when you’re too focused on image or what you think looks good. Having a healthy body and one you can rely on is what counts. Eat a healthy diet, exercise and have a healthy hygiene routine to create a solid foundation for your own personal style.
To read more on topics like this, check out the Lifestyle category
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