A 2021 survey revealed that over 50% of Americans felt pressured to have a certain body type. Body confidence issues are common, particularly among women and young people. It’s not easy to increase confidence, but there are ways to address low self-esteem and improve body image. In this guide, we’ll share some top tips to send your confidence soaring.
Embrace self-care
One of the best ways to feel more confident about your body is to embrace self-care. Self-care is a very simple concept, which revolves around looking after your physical and mental health. Take pride in your health and be proactive in taking care of yourself. Analyze and evaluate your diet and try to prioritize nutrition, exercise regularly, and make sure you get enough sleep. Give yourself time to relax and unwind, socialize and enjoy hobbies and interests and treat yourself occasionally. Devote time to what makes you happy, adopt a healthy lifestyle and try to balance work and study with taking time out. Making small changes to your daily or weekly routine can make a big difference to how you feel.
Increase your activity levels
We often think about exercise as a means of losing weight. Being more active can help you to drop excess pounds, but it can also have an incredible impact on your confidence and well-being. It’s also important to note that exercise can help people who are underweight to gain weight and it can improve body tone and enhance muscle definition. Working out, doing outdoor activities and playing sports are beneficial for mental and physical health. When you’re active, your body releases endorphins and the levels of serotonin and dopamine in the brain increase. Exercise can also help you to lower stress levels and express yourself. If you start training or working towards fitness goals and targets, this can also supercharge self-esteem. Outline your objectives. You might want to get stronger or fitter, you may want to lose weight or you might dream of having a more shapely physique, for example. You can use targeted exercises and workouts to make you feel more body confident.
Explore treatment options
Many of us have flaws or imperfections that we’re eager to get rid of or tackle. Today, we have access to a huge range of treatments and therapies that can help us to feel more confident and comfortable in our own skin. Cosmetic surgery has become more popular in the last twenty years but there has also been a huge increase in the range of non-invasive treatment options. Examples include non-surgical facial aesthetics, cellulite treatment, body contouring and fat reduction. If you are thinking about having treatment, it’s essential to undertake thorough research and ensure you choose a reputable, accredited clinic. You should only have treatment if you want to. Nobody should ever feel pressured into making decisions by other people.
Adjust your mindset from negative to positive
Most of us are guilty of zoning in on our ‘faults’ rather than focusing on our favorite body parts or physical features. If you find yourself zooming in on photographs or looking in the mirror and concentrating solely on the things you don’t like, try to adjust your mindset. Rather than focusing on the negatives, put your energy into the positives. Identify your best bits and celebrate them. It’s also crucial to understand that everyone has insecurities. Even people who may look perfect to you may have the same issues when they look in the mirror. Nobody is perfect.
Treat yourself as you do others
How do you react when a friend is struggling with their confidence when getting ready for a night out, or your sister or cousin makes a negative comment about their appearance when you take a group photograph? The chances are that you probably rally around them, tell them they look amazing and go out of your way to build their confidence and make them feel good. Many of us are much kinder to others than we are to ourselves. We are harsh critics when it comes to our bodies and we pull ourselves up on ‘flaws’ and put ourselves down. Next time you’re about to make a nasty comment about the way you look, take a step back and imagine you’re talking to your best friend. Being kind to yourself can make a huge difference to body image and self-esteem.
Avoid triggers
Most of us have triggers that impact how we feel about our bodies or the way we look. Perhaps you feel low or uneasy when you flick through beauty magazines or look at glamorous social media feeds, for example. If you know that doing certain things makes you feel less confident, avoid those triggers. Instead of fixating on glossy magazines or social posts that feature influencers with supermodel physiques, start following body-positive accounts or spend more time thinking about the people you hang out with or see every day when you go to college or work, you take the bus or the train or you visit the grocery store or local mall. Social media and fashion magazines can provide a very skewed vision of body types. Most of the people you see on TV or social media fit a very narrow mold, which isn’t reflective of the general population. It’s also critical to remember that images are often edited and enhanced and they don’t always provide an accurate representation. Lighting, the position of the camera and editing can all alter appearances dramatically. It’s difficult to do, but try to avoid comparing yourself to others.
Surveys suggest that body confidence is low, particularly among women and young people. There is a lot of pressure to look a certain way and many of us don’t fit the mold. If you struggle with body image, there are ways to boost confidence and self-esteem. Embrace self-care, try to focus on the positives rather than the negatives and adopt an active lifestyle. Treat yourself as you do others, explore treatment options if you want to address issues that affect your confidence and try to identify and avoid triggers.