Loving your own appearance and the way you look is honestly extremely difficult. I find myself spiraling through self-doubt every time I receive a compliment, even now. But in a lot of ways I’ve grown to love how I look; it’s a skill, one that is hard to learn and even harder to master. Loving your appearance is a skill that one can build by themselves by shifting your own focus away from your claimed flaws to instead focusing on the parts about yourself you appreciate.
The biggest and most important step in beginning to love your own appearance is stopping and putting an end to the negative conversations within yourself. Negative self-talk is a hard part of the mind to quiet down. But taking the steps to get rid of it will help you tremendously over time. Stopping the harsh thoughts about yourself and the things you see in the mirror is important. Instead of allowing those harsh thoughts about yourself to slip deeper into your mind, instead focus on the things you do like about yourself, and when it comes to the things that are harder for you to view in a positive light, try talking to yourself more softly, in the kind of way you would talk to a loved one or friend.
Comparison is the thief of joy, and the biggest thief of them all is social media. Social media is arguably the biggest factor outside of family-based issues in why people view their appearance and physical attributes about themselves so negatively. Limit your social media time or even direct your algorithm on your social media feed to show you fewer beauty and body “standard” posts that make you compare and feel bad about yourself, and instead focus on posts that have realistic standards.
Another way to feel better about yourself is to wear clothing that makes you feel comfortable all around. Wear the clothes how you want them regardless of what others think, only focusing on your own joy within those clothes.
All in all, loving your own appearance is a difficult task that goes even further beyond just the few ways I listed above. It’s a difficult journey of self-love and discovery that not everyone can succeed on. But I hope just maybe the small bit of advice I gave can help anyone start their own journey of self-love and beauty.
