If most folks are honest with themselves, we all experience those times when we look in the mirror and simply despise what’s looking back at us. It doesn’t matter if your friends and family are constantly telling you that you look amazing; there can be times when you create a mental block to all outside stimuli, put on the blinkers, and can only see a person that you hate and feel disconnected from.
While this happens occasionally for most, for an unlucky few, this can develop into a serious issue and cause all kinds of mental concerns that have a propensity to spiral into other, far more serious problems.
If you fall into the latter category and utterly hate who you are, we would advise seeking professional help from those who are best suited to create treatment plans that can alleviate many of the root causes of this malaise.
For those of you who know that a better person is inside you but are unsure of how to bring them out, this post may be just what you’ve been searching for. Just to be clear, the tips in this post aren’t designed to be a panacea, but instead to proffer a few ideas that could have beneficial effects if used in combination with each other.
Embrace Your Uniqueness And Individuality Fully
This initial tip might read as something devoid of any understanding of what you might be going through, but bear with us! While, at first glance, it sounds like one of those wishy-washy phrases that you might find in an Instagram post about positivity, the point remains valid.
We are all unique creatures, and learning to embrace this fact can go a long, long way in helping you become more secure and comfortable in how you look. If your discomfort lies in physical imperfections that you have lived with all your life, then seeking out specific plastic surgeries could also help you along this path. According to the Silhouette Plastic Surgery Institute, this can range from cosmetic procedures that give you a boost in confidence, helping you to go out and mingle more without fear of being judged, to more extreme reconstructive surgical procedures designed to change your life utterly.
Always discuss any concerns you may have with your doctor before making a decision, and never feel pressured into taking a course of action that could be detrimental to your desired outcome. Regardless of whether you choose to have elective procedures performed to address cosmetic issues or if your discomfort lies purely within, working on embracing who you are and what you look like can help you develop a more positive outlook on life and hopefully create a sense of ease within yourself about who you are.
Practice Self-Love And Positive Affirmations When They Make Sense
Here is another Insta-worthy quote that you might find on the profile of an engagement farmer, but another one that actually has a deeper meaning than it first appears.
Positive affirmations might sound like something that you would hear Kim Kardashian drone on about, but in reality, when practiced with regularity, you will develop a better sense of yourself, which can possibly help you to come to terms with the way you look. So, what do we mean by practicing self-love and positive affirmations? The reality is that it may be different for everyone, but the crux is actively nurturing your well-being, accepting yourself as you are, and prioritizing your mental, emotional, and physical health. It involves treating yourself with kindness, compassion, and respect, much like you would treat a loved one.
When it comes to positive affirmations, this can be as straightforward as taking one or two minutes each morning to look in the mirror and say something nice about yourself.
You can do this in your mind while brushing your teeth, and finish by the time you’ve finished brushing. By taking on these tasks regularly (preferably every day), you will soon develop a habit that ultimately turns into a virtuous cycle, dramatically boosting your mood and self-image. The idea is to cultivate a healthier outlook on who you are as a person and what you look like, and over time, you will discover that your mood improves.
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Surround Yourself With Supportive, Loving People
It is often said that those you choose to surround yourself with can make or break how you feel about yourself. Even those you may have been friends with for years can still be an underlying cause of how you feel about yourself.
Making a stand and opting to hang out with those who exude a far more positive outlook on not just you as a person, but life itself can have a marked effect on your mental health. Conversely, those whose only concern is to constantly drop comments about your weight, your skin, your nose, or whatever else it might be (no matter how small or seemingly innocuous) will have the counter effect of seeing your mental health take a serious nosedive.
Although it is not always easy to distance yourself from certain people, you need to try to make the effort, particularly if you know them to be the cause of your low self-esteem.
You don’t need to exclude yourself from their company immediately, but by taking small steps away from the toxic and corrosive people in your life and towards those of a more conducive outlook, you will see yourself improve in the way you feel and help you become the person you know you are deep down.
Image: Pexels
Focus On Progress, Not Perfection
Perfection is the enemy of progress, and while this statement tends to be aimed at work rather than the self, it holds true in most regards.
When you are attempting to boost your self-esteem, it can seem like an impossible task. In fact, the worse you feel about yourself, the less likely it is that you will make any genuine progress towards getting better. However, as soon as you realize that you don’t need to seek perfection in everything you do (or in the case of this post, the way you want to look to others and yourself), the quicker you will enter a place where you are comfortable with your body and able to interact without constantly expending mental energy on thinking about what others might think of you.
As the title suggests, feeling better about yourself is a journey rather than something that you will achieve overnight. By taking incremental steps or more drastic ones if needed, you will end up in a place where you are happy with who you are and able to live your life on your own terms without wasting your mental energy trying to impress others.