Most of us, if given the opportunity to change ourselves, could immediately rattle off what we would want to be different, from aspects of our appearance to our personality.
Right now, thanks to narrow standards of beauty, self-image is at an all-time low: 91% of women today aren’t happy with their bodies.
While this may feel like an internal battle, your self-image affects the way you show up in the world. If you don’t like how you look, you’ll do what you can to hide.
If you don’t like your voice, you’ll stay quiet. If you don’t love yourself, you won’t have the healthy motivation to create a life that really works for you.
And if you don’t have inner confidence, people will see through your facade.
Healing your self-image is the key to confidence that exudes from within. Here are some ways that I have found that have helped to heal my self-image.
- Notice the negative thoughts. Notice the sadness, the shame, or the critic in your head. Once you become aware of your thoughts, you can start to interrupt them.
- Be in the moment. When we are outside the moment is when we start to compare and wish that we were somewhere or someone else than who we are.
- Practice Mindfulness and Gratitude. Focus on what is real and what you do have. Could it be worse? How can you be grateful it isn’t? Write down a list of amazing attributes about yourself.
- Embrace the process. Today isn’t the final destination. You are a work in progress.
- Accept the struggle. Your self image is a relationship, and relationships take work. Don’t beat yourself up when you feel inadequate; change the conversation with yourself!
- Cultivate a practice of self-compassion. Treat yourself like you would a best friend or a child. How would you react if they told you that they didn’t like something about themselves?
- Compliment others. Instead of being envious of something another person has that you don’t, compliment her on it. That act of generosity will return to you.
Do you have ways that you improve your own self-image? Share them with me in the comments!
