Unlocking Self-Love: Embracing Your Beauty After Major Life Changes
Just have a baby? Just realize you're older? Freshman 15?
Guessing you're not too happy with the way you look. I know the feeling and I’m truly right there with you. And honestly, it’s hard not to care at all or ever. And, as an adult with real life responsibilities, children, and the weight of the world seemingly on our shoulders, how do we get it all done, and still take care of ourselves? Well its actually a lot more doable then you think, and taking care of ourselves is what we need to do to be ok with how we look.
Image Credit: @bwl667
Here let me explain...
If you are actively trying to remove yourself from the media-defined idea of what beauty is, along with making sure you don’t constantly stare at yourself in the mirror when you know your just going to judge yourself. You will be able to focus on what is needed and really take care of yourself because while you are probably busy, its not about working out and taking the extra time to care for yourself, it’s about changing the way you perceive yourself. And Let’s talk a moment about how you perceive yourself. Your Body image or your perception of self is based on the way you see your body and we assume that because we see ourselves a certain way, everyone else must see the same thing when they look at you. This image is heavily influenced by Family Friends and Societal pressures. Not even going into the Media. Which is why it's so important to remove yourself from as many of those factors as you can when trying to change that very perception.
And in doing that, you are also more likely to end up caring for yourself. Because the goal stops being you trying to be perfect for the world and instead imperfectly perfect for just YOU. Here is what happens. You start to think of you and when you think just yourself for a moment and decide to for example, fuel your body, you may decide to eat things that keep your energy up. And by eating the better foods because it made you FEEL good or taking a walk because you enjoy taking in the scenery you can possibly begin finding your mood changes in a much more positive way. Now imagine being happy, knowing your feeling good and then catching yourself in the mirror, you may not love yourself immediately. Still, you will already know the changes you have made to your life of focusing on yourself is going to have a big impact on how you look on the outside.
To be clear, It’s not something that fixes any kind of body dysmorphia, this is more about trying not to focus on the changes/transitions in your life and trying to find that happiness again. Which will allow you to see the beauty in life again and by doing that you have the opportunity to see the beauty in yourself.
By Smiling, and putting on that makeup if it makes you feel good, or no makeup if you just hate it!
But also wearing more comfortable clothing that again makes you FEEL good.
See where I am going with this? By focusing on feeling good, you focus less on looking good and you find happiness which helps you look better than ever. Instead of focusing on your looks, feeling miserable and ending up looking worse because your stressed out/ anxious/depressed.
