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Body image problems are one underrated problem that can secretly kill your confidence and literally keep you from living your best life. Some of us have been there! Scrolling through social media suddenly becomes a lucrative sport, because we’re using it as a means of comparing ourselves to our favourite models, only for them to become the winner. And just right there, we begin to hear that little voice of self doubt creeping in. These things, though they seem little, are capable of affecting your confidence, relationships, and down to your overall satisfaction. While you may continue to wallow in self pity, you can have a hold of yourself, reverse this negative trend, and begin to love yourself just as you are.
How to Identify the Hidden Signs of Body Image Struggles
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The way to effectively resolve body image problems would first of all require you to have an understanding of their hidden indicators. These symptoms oftentimes appear, mostly in a very slow manner,and may not be so visible right away. Let’s cite an example you may be familiar with: most times, you might notice that you avoid looking at yourself in the mirror. Perhaps you might as well also choose to cover up or turn away from your reflection just so that you don’t get to have a picture of what your shape looks like. You are not tired of comparing your physique with others all the time — be it your normal friends that you hang out with daily or your favourite celebrities on Instagram that you don’t fail to check on steadily. This can be a reason why your self-esteem is being trampled upon and slowly the feelings of inadequacy are surfacing.
Why Social Media Isn’t Doing Your Self-Image Any Favour
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One thing that’s flawless about the internet and specifically social media is that it’s so crafted in creating a highly edited version of reality, where every girl appears to have the ideal ‘life and figure’ you occasionally dreamt about. What you fail to realize is that your self-image is constantly being thwarted by the high exposure to a whole bunch of unrealistic and filtered images. Thanks to the likes of Instagram and TikTok, it’s a freeway access to come across these sorts of images. Once we’ve constantly fed our minds with these unattainable standards, the influence it has over us is that it covers our eyes to our own sense of beauty and progressively makes us feel self-conscious about the way we look – “not enough”.
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When you browse through social media quite often, there is a very high tendency that you may fall into the “comparison trap,” where you get to assess or evaluate yourself based on the perfectly created life, and bodies of other people. This right here is the reason why a large portion of women are going through various stages of depression as a result of low self-esteem. This virus gives you the impression that you don’t measure up.
Social media influencers often promote seemingly perfect lives to you, but it’s important to remember that these are strictly showbiz, and a lot of what goes on there is manipulated and crafted just so they have extra cash in their pockets. The world behind the screen is purely like yours, if not worse. The temptation to keep up with social media trends may cause you to question your own unique beauty. Reminding yourself that what makes up real life is quite diverse and taking a break from social media can help you bounce back from these negative effects.
You can rewrite your inner dialogue: The power of affirmations and support
A useful technique that can help boost your self-worth is to embrace positive affirmations. I know your mind is already going towards “Here they come again, these motivational speakers” but then, let’s face it, we all need that one friend who doesn’t judge us in words, for eating that extra plate of rice. If that one friend can be there every morning to give us some sort of good talk, it’s already a game changer for our self-perception. Imagine always being reminded that “you’re beautiful in and out” Woah! Such a life. That’s why you’d see girls whose fathers have heavily invested positive affirmations to, are not easily swayed away by the deceitfulness of guys around them, cause it’s like they have a whole bank where words of encouragement reside, and that in turn gives them very high self-esteem.
The focus however, is more on us using these affirmations for ourselves. To do that, we’d have to make sure these affirmations really stick to our minds, you could place them in spots where you can’t avoid them, like on your phone’s lock screen or you could just paste them on your bathroom mirror. The fact that you’d get to keep looking at these words can somehow lay an imprint in your heart that can truly alter the definition of how you see yourself. For instance, When the thought of “I don’t like my legs” comes, fire back with, “My legs are strong and capable, and they totally deserve their own fan club!”
The game changer here is celebrating every little victory along the way. Whether you’re flaunting a new outfit or learning the new national anthem, acknowledging these small wins can really charge up your self-confidence in no time. The hidden secret you should know is that each positive affirmation you give to yourself is like a tiny victory dance for your self-esteem. So, go ahead and dance like no one’s watching (and if they are, just give them a wink!).
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In addition to the systems you’ve placed within, you’d also need to surround yourself with people who think you’re amazing just the way you are (and aren’t shy about telling you so). These are the people who’ll hype you up when you’re feeling down and less motivated with your self-affirmations. It’ll really be difficult to keep up with the positive affirmations if all of your circle is filled with the opposite.
When you have yourself surrounded by these kinds of people, you shouldn’t be shy about letting them know what you need. If it’s a pep talk, a hug, or just someone to laugh with over the absurd beauty standards out there, your support network is certainly there to help.
Practical Tips for Embracing how Uniquely Beautiful you Really are
Accepting your girly beauty doesn’t have to be a difficult thing to do. One of the starting points should be from wearing clothes that give you a sense of comfort and at the same time confidence. You’ll feel better about yourself when you dress to flaunt your best characteristics.
Recognize and appreciate your excellent attributes and strengths. Turn your attention from the shortcomings you perceive to the qualities that set you apart and remarkable. Positive affirmations as discussed earlier should already take the place of negative self-talk. When you notice yourself being judgemental, change your focus to the positive aspects of who you are.
By implementing these suggestions into your everyday activities, you can cultivate a more optimistic view of yourself and accept “you for you”. Congratulations, you beautiful queen!
