In a world of sharing and social media, it is not surprising that we can easily get caught up in looking at others’ lives and start comparing, even though we know a lot of what we see on social media is filtered. It could be another's appearance, home, relationship, or any other area of their lives, but if we start comparing it can result in negative self-talk. If you are a perfectionist, this could affect you even more. Being a perfectionist is not necessarily a bad quality to have but learning to be happy and confident in yourself as you continue your personal or professional development journey is vital.
8 Ways to Boost Your Self- Love + Self-Confidence
1. Be Mindful of Negative Self-Talk
This is another area where mindfulness is so important. Being aware of negative self-talk is the first step. Next, is replacing the negative thought with a positive one that you believe. For example, the negative thought could be “I don’t like how I look, I’m never going to lose weight”, replaced with the positive statement, “My weight isn’t exactly where I’d like to be right now but I am committing to making small changes each day to accomplish my goal weight.”
2. Exercise/ Practice Yoga
Exercising and doing yoga can improve your self-confidence by challenging yourself, creating mind and body awareness, helping you feel more comfortable in your body, and improving your body image. Giving yourself an outlet to feel more in control over your stress by releasing endorphins can give you that “feel good, look good” affect, increasing your self-confidence.
3. Practice Self-Care
Self-care allows you to engage in activities that make you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally well. This is essential not only for your relationship with yourself but also with others. Self-care is a form of self-love that makes you feel worthy. You are able to approach your daily life with less stress and more balance, resulting in feeling much better about yourself. For some self-care ideas, check out our blog post Your Self-Care Tool Kit for Mental Health.
4. Limit Social Media
Becoming aware of your relationship with social media will help eliminate any unhealthy patterns. How do you feel while you’re on social media? Do you find yourself mindlessly scrolling while comparing yourself to others? How do you feel after you get off social media? This awareness exercise may help you put boundaries around social media time and help you stay mindful of self-talk while you’re on social media.
5. Fit Out
We can easily look at what is popular and start to feel badly about ourselves if we don’t fit the mold or feel we are different in any way. We all want to feel connected and that is healthy, but we can be still be connected while also being our unique authentic selves. Instead of trying to fit in, try fitting out instead. It feels much better to view your uniqueness as a pro not a con. Being assertive while also socially conscious and kind is a way to stay true to your authentic self.
6. Accept Your Flaws
We are all perfectly imperfect. We have strengths and weaknesses. You can work on improving what you can change and for the things you can’t change, such as maybe a physical trait like your height, self- acceptance is vital.
7. Have Compassion for Yourself
Maybe you slipped up and forgot something important, or had a moment where you let your stress get the best of you and didn’t have the patience you wanted with your kids, or maybe you didn’t do as well on an exam as you thought you would. We can easily start feeling guilty for the ways we didn’t measure up to our own standards. Having compassion for yourself, the same way you would for a loved one, letting yourself know that it’s ok to make mistakes and remind yourself of all the things you do well will be a healthier approach.
8. Set Goals
Setting goals will help you improve areas of your life that you’d like to develop. Creating official goals will help you create the action steps needed and is more likely to result in success. Accomplishing your goals and making positive changes will give you a sense of achievement and self-confidence.