We identify too much with our bodies and end up thinking that the body is what we are. Therefore, when we do not meet the standard and the norm, we lose trust and confidence in our body. But we are not our body, we are in our body and at some point we will come out of it.
Body Confidence is an inside job and it's always in progress. Some people are more ahead of the game than others in that walk. The body, which can be our best ally, very often becomes our worst enemy and something we keep trying to shape and to change into something that meets whatever role model we have in our minds.
What about if we shift this approach towards one of more love and more acceptance? This is the approach I think builds Confidence in our body; when we have this approach we are able to appreciate how much the body is able to do and to cope with and that makes a beautiful body: The multitasking, the versatile, the functional, the mobile.
Here some simple tips towards more Body Confidence:
1. Accept how your Body is, you don’t have to change it to be more confident, you need to change what you think and feel about your body. Bring awareness to the comments, thoughts and feelings that you hold around your body and train your brain muscles to transform them into positive ones. The first step towards transformation is acceptance of what it is.
2. Remember you are unique, and so is your body. Stop comparing your body with other bodies. When we have a comparing attitude, an thing will trigger unpleasant emotions. When these feelings come, bring into awareness how much your body does for you, bring body gratitude into the game and you will realise the power that there is in your uniqueness.
3. Drop the numbers: sizes, weight, calories, BMI. They are stressors for your body and stress rises the cortisol hormone which triggers insulin changes which supports fat storage. The body is much more intelligent that standards numbers and it prefers to communicate through body intuition.
4. Don’t take other people’s comments too seriously. When our self-esteem and confidence is fragile, we tend to treat other people’s comments to personally and even depend on them to measure how good we are. Other people’s comments about your weight, shape and so on, say more about them than about yourself, so relax and let them go as if they do not belong to you, because they don’t.
5. Stop depending on social Media to measure what is the ideal body shape, weight, role models. Social Media body standards have a very subtle and profound effect on our body self-image and confidence. It is very powerful because it is unconscious.
6. Bring awareness to your negative thinking/ feeling about your Body and when you catch yourself on that loop, switch into a phrase, though and emotion of gratitude towards your body and all what it does for you 24 hours a day Gratitude goes a long way when we need to transform a negative emotion.
7. Do some physical -any- physical activity consciously. Working out has the power to stress the body in a healthy way, the body likes it and it helps to build confidence and self-empowerment. A physical activity you build up, creates a healthy code to improve the communication with your body and we need this to be more body confident. When we cultivate a physical practice, our self-esteem increases, our intimacy with our body improves and therefore body confidence builds up.
When a single moment of self-appreciation and self-love comes, lets treasure it and nurture it. The body will keep asking for more of them, let's listen, let's treat the body, but let's treat it well, with the thoughts, the right words, the right food, the right exercise.
When a single moment of honouring the body comes, let's make of it an opportunity to design/perfect/ a physical practice that is ours, lets persist, lets assess, let's try and error, try again and assess again. The body understands the message and will reward your effort.
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