.I used to dread summer fashion before I became body confident. I couldn’t hide beneath layers of clothes like I could during the colder seasons. All the sleeveless dresses and bikinis used to make my head spin. I’d feel so awkward and bad in myself if I went to the pool or beach. I basically spent my summers covered up in baggy t-shirts and shorts. I couldn’t wait for autumn to come around. Does this sound familiar to you? At any point did you feel uncomfortable in your body or like you wanted to hide this summer? Let’s change that! You deserve to be body confident. Here are my top 6 tips on simple things you can do this September to feel good in your body!
1. Smile at your beautiful self
The number one thing I ask all my clients to do is to start smiling at their reflections. I ask them to do it whenever they see themselves throughout the day. You see, when you smile your brain releases serotonin which makes you feel good. Your brain does this even if you are just doing a fake smile. I know, cool right? I bet you are smiling right now, aren’t you? Anyway, if you start smiling when you see your reflection you will start to feel good every time you see yourself. After some time, you will start to associate seeing yourself with feeling good. So, even if you forget to smile sometimes, you will still feel good just from association.
2. Be friends with the mirror
Once you’ve nailed smiling at yourself it’s time to become even friendlier with the mirror. To boost your body confidence, you need to become familiar with yourself. This means spending some time really looking in the mirror. I encourage my clients to look in the mirror and note what they like about themselves. Maybe you love your eyes, elbows, and feet. It doesn’t really matter what it is, you just need to find at least one thing that we like about yourself.
If you really aren’t comfortable with your reflection then you may avoid it, especially when you are in the nip. But the truth is that the more you see yourself nude, the faster you can begin to accept your body and love it. If you are uncomfortable seeing yourself nude, then take your focus away from your body and place it elsewhere. Maybe try drying your hair or brushing your teeth in the nude. The more often you see yourself the sooner you can begin to accept yourself.
3. Show yourself some gratitude
Body confidence isn’t just about liking the way you look but about being truly grateful for your body. Sometimes we can spend so much time nit-picking and disliking our bodies that we forget that it’s the thing that is keeping us alive. Take some time to think about all the wonderful things that your body does for you. That includes breathing, your senses, movement, feelings, laughter… and IT IS KEEPING YOU ALIVE.
4. Clean up your feed
I’m not going to tell you to quit all social media and go live off the grid. But what I will tell you is to clean up your feed. Please, for our own good, BE BRUTAL. Unfollow anything that makes you feel bad about yourself, makes you compare your body, or that triggers you into negative behaviour. Just unfollow it, even if it is a friend’s content (Sorry Katelyn but I don’t want to buy your diet pills. Please throw that crap in the bin).
Once you have cleaned your feed you are going to fill it up again. BUT, this time I want you to be more selective and start to follow body confidence and body positivity accounts. From now on you should try to only follow things that make you feel good.
5. Start praising, stop picking
Do you have a habit of noticing and pointing out other people’s flaws? Be honest with yourself here. When you are with friends do you talk about celebs or people you know? Here is the harsh truth, talking about other people’s bodies and style choices is not going to help you with your own body confidence. It damages your opinion of yourself. So, just like your inner critic, your outer critic needs to be shushed too. Replace criticism with praise. Start looking for things to praise people about instead of looking for things to fault them on. Love comes from love, not from hate.
6. Body Confidence Chats
One of the best ways to boost your body confidence to talk about it and meet like-minded people who are body positive. Want to discuss body confidence in person? Come to Body Confidence Chats this October 5th, 7.30-9pm in Paris to talk all things body confidence. Get more info and register here.