5 Ways to boost body confidence will show you quick, easy ways to feel good about your own body. You don’t have to have a celebrity’s body to be happy with it. In fact, if you ask that celebrity you admire about his/her perfect body you saw on the cover of that recent magazine, he/she will tell you they too wish they looked like that. Always keep in mind that celebrities’ bodies are mercilessly airbrushed to make the cover of magazines look perfect. What you see is not what you get.
Before journeying to the point in your life where you’re ready to boost body confidence, it’s important to determine to leave all the self-doubt on the other side of the lake. On ‘How To Build Confidence’ we always maintain that building confidence is not a destination. It’s a journey. Therefore, start this body confidence journey by taking your first steps. Here’s how you do it.
are you ready to take the plunge to body confidence?
A note: I work closely with a lot of celebrities on a regular basis. They don’t look like you think they do, and most of them don’t agree with the magazines’ versions of themselves. Although, with the money they’re being paid for being on the cover, they can’t or won’t complain about how their bodies are being portrayed. That understood, let’s see how you can boost your body confidence with a normal body shape.
When celebrities walk the red carpet, they put on their best stances. In case you didn’t know this, they don’t all automatically know how to walk and stand, so many of them take special classes to train in this. Modelling coaches show them how to look their best on what could be the most important night of their lives. Make every day your most important day by implementing the elements of body image celebrities are taught. They are: stand tall, pull your shoulders back and never, ever slouch. Slouching makes even thin people look fat around the back and waist. Slouching also limits your lung capacity. Do this experiment. Slouch and try to take a deep breath. Difficult, right? Now push your shoulders back, chest out, and try to take a deep breath. Easy, right? Boost your body confidence by thinking you’re thin, tall and important, and copy what the celebrities are taught to do on the red carpet. Being happy with how you look is a great way to gain body confidence. These will definitely help you do that.
It goes without saying that part of body confidence is about having a healthy body. Thin is not necessarily healthy. We love to say this (and it’s true), but on the flip side, it’s difficult to hit the pinnacle of health if we’re overweight. I don’t think anyone would disagree with this statement. Celebrities sometimes go overboard where being thin is concerned. They know that the world admires people who look healthy and fit and many times we equate these two elements with being a healthy weight too. The problem we have is that people sometimes try to lose weight to look like someone else, or to follow in someone else’s footprints.
The correct thing to do is to hit your own healthy weight. This is different for everyone. My healthy weight is a long way off yours, so your healthy eating and your activities may not be suitable for me. Keeping active is one common thing we can all agree on. No one needs to do self-punishing gym exercises. Having a generous amount of normal activities like walking, talking the stairs, house chores, cycling, swimming etc, gives you fun activities to do. Being fit while having fun brings happiness. Happiness produces confidence. If you’re happy with your health, this produces even more body confidence. The trick is to find the right amount for you. Here’s a magnificent guide to help you hit your healthy weight through proper eating (no diets) and activity.
Of all the other things building body confidence entails, searching within yourself for answers is one of the best ones. You can’t get any type of confidence from outside yourself. Of course, supportive people can help, but the answers lie with you. You’ve got to reflect your inner strengths in order to see the best bits about yourself. If you continue wearing blinders – thinking that you’ll be able to do such and such when you lose 10 pounds; when your hair grows longer; when you have enough money for the teeth whitening session; when you’ve removed the mole on your face… nothing will ever get done. You will never achieve because the thing that’s stopping you is not your body’s imperfections (we all have them), it’s your attitude. If body imperfections stopped achievements, Stevie Wonder would be a poor, black boy living off the government, and Tom Cruise (dyslexic) would be working in some burger joint.
Your body’s faults aren’t stopping you from liking yourself. You are. If Obama didn’t think a mixed-race man measured up to the job, America would never have voted for him. Your body confidence has to come from within you. It’s not about how you look. It’s about how you feel you look (within reason, of course). Sometimes confidence-building aides help to start you on your journey. I recommend using them. Extended recommended reading:
No one gets it right the first time. There’s a school of thought that says you can make false memories by repeating something over and over again. If this works negatively, it will most certainly work positively. You can make yourself believe you have the greatest body on earth by telling yourself that. In the same way you’ve looked in the mirror and pointed out flab that wasn’t there, you can look in the mirror and point out attractive bits about your body, then make the best of enhancing those by what you wear and how you carry yourself.
Of course, the above will all have to apply. You have to carry yourself well and confidently. You have to maintain fitness and health (it would be stupid not to). And you have to dig deep to start thinking differently about yourself. After all this is done, you’re ready to fake it until you make it. Fake having confidence about your body and everyone will think that you do. They’ll treat you differently, and this will rub off on you. If you’re treated importantly, you’ll believe you are – as simple as that!
Body confidence is not a difficult thing to achieve. As long as you’re prepared to do the work, you’ll definitely get there. Definitely! We can do this together. Just send me a message or leave a comment in the comment box below. Building and boosting confidence is a step away and you can achieve it with dedication. Look at these confidence building apps and this page of confidence building aides. I’m sure there’s something there you can use.
Thanks for your visit and for your comments. Please share this post with someone who needs it.
Great post, Anne! My favorite is standing and thinking tall!
Thanks, Icy. Yes, standing and thinking tall seems simple things to do, but you only know how profound they are once you’ve tried them for a while.
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Great steps to build confidence Anne. I am happy you explained how celebrities have coaches and are airbrushed. So many people get let down because they don’t look “perfect.” The steps you gave are a sure way to build confidence. Keeping Active is important for our health and welfare. We don’t have to suffer, but eat well and get out there and at least walk. We also have our own comfort level in our weight. I see too many women saying they are fat when they are a size 6…hooey!
Also, ACTING like you are confident works. I tried that when I was a very young girl that was introverted. I used to pretend I was a certain idol singer and pretend to be her. I walked into a place without curling in the corner. That was my first step I could ever remember boosting my own confidence (which at that time I had none).
Thanks again,
Donna
Donna Merrill recently posted..Prosperity Mindset
Donna, I remember doing the same thing too. My earlier life didn’t present me with many choices. I had no confidence whatsoever. I started small, and used to pretend I did.
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Excellent post Anne. I wished that everyone would read this post as there is a tremendous need for understanding the importance of being confident with one’s self and certainly to NOT compare with what is presented to us in magazines! This has been a problem for ages, since the creation of Barbie dolls! It is sad that so many strive to have a certain body which whey simply were not meant to have and cannot obtain and end up causing damage through abuse through an unhealthy diet!
The fact of the matter is, everyone is uniquely created and beautiful in their own way and the attempt to alter this can even be dangerous!
Wonderful post!
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i always hides from people when i feel unimportant and i wanted to be unnoticed, thanks to this post,I’ll try doing it..
Hi Anne,
I just found your blog. I love your ideas surrounding body confidence. I am a Personal Trainer and over the years I have gone from this dysfunctional body image ideal (as you say, the airbrushed ideal!) to having a focus more on health and leading my clients towards sensible choices for food and lifestyle and oftentimes gentle exercise instead of punishing gym workouts.
However, I don’t believe that the gym has to be an absolutely punishing place, and that is where it helps to find a good trainer, or a gym that takes a look at you as a whole person before you start – body and mind as one.
Plus there is the whole concern that some people just aren’t ready to quit their gym routine yet. The “punishing” is what keeps them going and without it they spiral into even more self-hatred at the thought of not training enough. It certainly is a tricky dynamic.
Working out of a gym it is probably the biggest challenge I come across on a daily basis and I will be sure to share your post with those people who are still finding this way of thinking a challenge.
Thanks
Thank you for your quality comment, Brett. I agree with you and can see how the punishing routine may be all that’s keeping them going.
Thank you for sharing my post. I do appreciate it. On a personal level, I also focus on health and a healthy lifestyle because I think this is definitely the way to train your body to look the way you want it to.
I’d rather do that than wildly indulge – then go on diets or punishing exercise routines a few times a year. For me, easy does it 🙂
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