Building body confidence: how to be confident in your body

Everyone deserves to feel comfortable in their own skin, and even the most confident people feel self-conscious from time-to-time. Here are several ways to overcome body hang-ups and stop any insecurities from taking over so you can learn how to feel confident in your body, no matter what.

Building body confidence is challenging because we live in a world that often suggests that our bodies aren't good enough, through advertising, social media and sometimes even casual conversations with friends. So, instead of accepting what we have, we spend time and money trying to fix things we don't like about our bodies. While diets and workouts can change the shape of our bodies, they can be mentally and physically challenging and sometimes leave us disappointed, or worse, feeling like a failure.

Do we really need washboard abs or cellulite-free thighs? It can be helpful to try and focus on more important things like our values, morals, achievements, and how we treat people and ourselves.

No matter how tricky your relationship is with your body, getting out of the toxic cycle and prioritizing self-love is essential. We totally understand that this is easier so as than done. So, here are a few tips on how to be confident in your body and start accepting yourself as you are.

Curate your Instagram feed
The more time you spend on social media, the more likely you are to feel bad about your body. This is because most pictures on social media are heavily edited to portray unrealistic beauty standards, and being constantly exposed to them could make you feel insecure.

However, social media can also be a source of building body confidence. Start by unfollowing any account that triggers you or makes you feel that you need to change in some way, and fill your feeds with influencers who promote self-love. Positive inspiration will help you accept your body and strengthen you when feeling low.

Exercise for fun
Instead of working out to lose weight or change the way you look, do it for the many health benefits it can offer – from improved fitness and mental health to confidence.

Physical activity is an effective stress reliever, and most people feel happier after exercising. So, if you need that extra push to get yourself moving, adopt fun exercising options like dance classes, climbing, yoga, or trampolining. As long as you enjoy it, that’s what matters. It will increase your joy and happiness in life and a nice side effect of being consistent with exercise is that it may also help you build physical strength and promote flexibility.

Avoid body talk
The key to building body confidence is being kind to yourself and avoiding obsessing about bodies as much as you can. Overthinking about our bodies, even when we’re doing it in what feels like a positive way, can lead to negative thinking if we end up falling short of goals we’ve set for ourselves.Always focusing on how your body looks can harm your self-confidence.

Instead of forcing yourself to love your flaws, or trying to be optimistic about your body all the time, focus on things that really matter, like your personal and professional goals, values, morals, friendships and relationships. If you want to learn more about the differences between body positivity and body neutrality, check out our our article here.

You don't need to change a single thing about yourself to be confident. You are unique and worthy just the way you are. So, mute the inner voice that tells you otherwise. Do you strive to be a good person? Perfect, that's all you need.