How many people have been there? Struggling to look at yourself in the mirror, being disgusted when you look in the mirror or eat that dessert. There is a difference between making healthy choices and being so obsessed that you beat yourself up for every single donut or taco you put in your mouth.
It’s ok to love working out and sweating it out to the oldies if that’s your vibe. It’s also ok to occasionally stop and a Dunkin Donuts for a Bavarian Filled piece of heaven!
There has to be a healthy balance and love for the person you are now, no matter who you are working to become.
So how do we figure out a way to improve our self image? Well I’m glad you asked because I am still working on that myself, but we are in it together.
1. Stop the stupid inner critic! Please! I have her too and she’s a real Debbie Downer. I get how hard it is to listen to her and just how freaking incessantly she talks to you! We have to find ways to speak kindly to ourselves and about ourselves. Detach from those destructive thoughts.
2. List 10 things you are grateful for– DO THIS! It’s so important. In my 2020 planner I decided to go with one that incorporated a gratitude journal. I found this awkward at first. It was hard to find positive things to say about myself so I started with listing out all the things I was grateful for. This helped put me in the mindset to accept positive pieces of my life and then eventually see positive aspects of myself.
3. List your greatest qualities– This expands on the previous step. Now that you’ve listed out all the things you are grateful for then your mind is ready to talk a little more positively about yourself. Pick a number and make it a goal to list your greatest qualities. I get it. This one is hard, but you’ve got them. Explore yourself and ask yourself those why questions to help you figure who you are and what you are capable of.
4. Surround yourself with positive people and conversations– No one wants to be in a critical mindset about themselves and then turn around and listen to others who are in critical mindsets. I understand helping others through hard times and being encouraging, but when you are riding the self image struggle bus then make sure the majority of your conversations are filled with positivity and encouragement. Find others who have that self confidence you are looking for and mimic how they talk about themselves. Fake it till you make it! Eventually it will become habit.
5. Find healthy role models– This is in everyday life and social media. So many of us just stroll through life and let others decide who we should be and what we should look like. Don’t like society and social media define you. Most people don’t post their failures or their 99 horrible lighting/body angle/closed eyes selfies. You see the one out of 100 that turned out “perfect”. And, let’s be honest, a lot of those are photoshopped. We are humans and we have flaws. It can be a beautiful thing when you embrace it.
Maybe this doesn’t sound like a whole lot of anything to you, but it’s helped me. It was simple enough for me to have the follow through, but motivational enough to push me into even more ways of developing a better self image. Helped me see my life in a positive way and therefore see myself as something positive.
I hope anyone who is struggling the same way I was and still do, will find that at least one of these helps you. If so, please please please let me know. I’d love to hear what helps you as well. We have to build each other up and share our knowledge!
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