A Journey of Self-Love, Appreciation and Recognising the Importance of Happiness From Within
The concept of what is beautiful is different to everyone, no two people will have the exact same idea of what the most beautiful human being looks like. So why do we all seek the approval of others when it comes to our own image?
Beauty comes from within
One of the greatest feelings I can recall is looking in the mirror and being happy with what I saw. Not because I fit into the beauty standards of society, but because I was happy with me, and I had learnt to embrace my body as it was.
With the use of social media on the rise, it's hard not to be critical of your own body sometimes when you don't look like all the models online, but who is to say that we should be envious of them? Why shouldn't we be proud of the way we look? Every body is perfect exactly the way it is and the sooner we all start to accept that, the happier we will be.
Positive reinforcement
Being happy with your own body might not always be easy, but I'm here to tell you that you are beautiful. You should tell yourself that too. In my experience, the best way to feel comfortable in your own skin is to start being kind to yourself.
When you look in the mirror, instead of picking out your insecurities, find something that you like about yourself. For me, I always quite liked how wide my hips were, so I would look in the mirror and tell myself that my hips looked good. And then from that I started to appreciate my waist and then my chest and then my stomach and legs.
If you're nice to yourself, you'll naturally start to feel comfortable and confident in what you see because you're telling yourself positive things about your body. Think about a time when somebody paid you a genuine compliment on how you look. I'm sure it made you feel good about yourself. But why should we have to wait for someone else to make us feel like that? We have the power to make ourselves feel good and we should all empower ourselves and use that!
Look in the mirror every morning and say out loud how good you're looking, how much you like a certain feature you have. Hearing these things out loud will have a strong impact on how you view yourself and if you say it to yourself enough, you'll start to believe it and feel comfortable in your own skin!
Use social media to your advantage!
Social media doesn't have to be as damaging to your perception of yourself as everyone says it is. If you follow the right accounts, it can be a wonderful place of positivity and encouragement where people lift each other up instead of tearing each other down.
Some body positivity influencers that I recommend following are @vickaboox @florence.simpson and @aliciamccarvell on TikTok. They are so comfortable in their own skin and it is really beautiful to see; they spread positivity and it's so infectious, it really helps with finding a happy mindset towards your own body.
It's okay not to be okay
The journey to being happy with your body and feeling comfortable in your own skin can be a long one, and it’s certainly not the easiest. And that’s okay! We can’t expect to change our outlook on things overnight, but the more time we spend being kind to ourselves the happier we will feel.
Don’t put the pressure on yourself to feel good every single day. It’s completely normal to have days where we don’t feel too confident, or we feel like we don’t look good. Embracing those days and finding ways to challenge those more negative thoughts is only going to help in the long run. Some days will feel worse than others, but that will help you appreciate the days where you’re really feeling yourself even more.
Just recognise that it isn’t a step backwards and you haven’t lost all the progress you’ve been making, it just means that you’re completely normal; nobody feels good 100% of the time so don’t be hard on yourself!
Enjoy the journey!
Learning to love ourselves and our bodies shouldn’t feel like a chore. It should lift us up and make us feel good! Start by taking small steps to ease yourself in to this new way of thinking; if loving everything about your body seems impossible, start with finding one thing about yourself that you like and build up from there. Enjoy the journey of learning to love yourself and then you’ll be well on your way to getting joy from feeling comfortable in your own skin!