“Feelings are much like waves. We can’t stop them from coming but we can choose which ones to surf!”
I have been speaking a lot over the past week about confidence, self love and appreciation, so I though I would tie it all together…and when it is tied together, all the pieces work together to help us feel good about ourselves.
We are all so unique, the things that make us unique are our strengths. For example, have you ever met a child that is really quirky, funny, sassy, or cheeky and that is what you love about them? I have always been drawn to strong personalities, because those are the people that are not afraid to embrace their uniqueness. For some reason, very often those children that are that way start to conform to “fit in” rather than continue marching to the beat of their own drum. I find this really sad, and that’s why I wanted to talk about this topic today.
Here are my top 10 ways to help you to learn to feel good about yourself:
- Take pride in your strengths. If you are caring, happy, loving, sharp, easygoing or fun…appreciating your qualities is the best way to feel good about yourself. Have you ever noticed that your strengths are not someone else’s which means that you are the perfect person to be there for someone that needs a caring person when they’re feeling down or a fun person when they need lifting up?
- Don’t expect every day to be perfect or rosy. You are going to have bad days and that’s OK! It was so funny the other night I hadn’t had great sleep the night before, I was definitely irritable and I could feel a storm brewing. I had to take Jack, my 13 year old to his baseball game, but when I pulled up there was no one else there. I immediately felt irritated, and said “of course, no one else is here…” and here’s Jack’s response to me – which made me stop in my tracks. “Mum, not everything is going to go your way all the time, but your first reaction can’t be to become angry!” Wow! he definitely showed me, I felt at that moment that I wasn’t the parent anymore because he was 100% right!
- Work on developing a positive attitude. I really do believe that we can train our brain to do anything we want it to. Why not train it to think more positively?
- Know that you are worthy. There is someone in this world that needs YOU and what you have to offer.
- Make a list of all the things you are thankful for. When you write something down, your body remembers, and it is a great thing to refer back to when things aren’t going your way.
- Don’t tie all your confidence and self esteem to how you look. Focusing on physical attributes rather than strengths or self worth will only open you up for more frustration and negativity. This doesn’t mean don’t take care in your appearance, but rather allow yourself to recognize your other qualities. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and when you have a positive attitude and feel good about yourself that is what you will see when you look in the mirror and what others will see too!
- Don’t worry about what others think. Thing is, we can’t control what they think and more often than not how they feel about you has less to do with you and more to do with them!
- Focus on growing your self love by stopping comparison and focusing on your strengths.
- Work on developing your confidence. This can come in so many ways, but a great way is to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable and grow your abilities and therefore your confidence. The most confident people in this world aren’t the ones that sit at home in a safe place and do nothing, they are the ones that are changing the world by trying new things.
- Recognize that you may have insecurities but that they don’t have to define you. Feeling like you are not great at something doesn’t make it so…they are just negative feelings and we can circumvent them by focusing on the previous 9 steps.
I can tell you that most of the time I feel confident, most of the time I know who I am and what my strengths are, but just like the other day, there are days when I don’t react the best way, when I feel down and don’t have energy, but there is always a new day, a new thought process and always a choice.
I whole heartedly believe that we get to choose how happy, how confident and how positive we are, and that we can retrain ourselves to think these thoughts.
It truly is that simple!
My appearance isn’t the only thing that makes me feel good about me, however, when I have a great shoot like the one in this post, I am definitely feeling good. I have the pleasure of working with a great company that has some really cute pieces and one I am loving right now is this cute Kimono – you can shop this kimono and some of their other pieces by going to Poppy and Company (click link) and use the code STYLE15 for an exclusive 15% discount. You’re welcome 🙂
Happy Weekend…