A lot of us struggle with self acceptance and loving our body for what it is. Read this article, think about what it says & follow these simple steps to finally accept your body unconditionally.
Conditioning is a behavioral process whereby a response to a stimulus becomes more frequent as a result of continuing reinforcement. It was established on the assumption that human behaviour is learned. This means you can teach yourself self-love through constant positive reinforcement. Stimuli can and will vary from person to person. It can be as simple as painting your nails, going for a walk, doing your hair, anything that makes you feel good about yourself. Find a variation of things you can do that have this affect so you’re not doing the same thing day-in-day-out.
Change things up, relax and establish a positive stimuli and reinforce it daily if you have to or just when you need to. By associating certain activities with feeling good about yourself you can teach yourself to recognise them as positive stimuli and learning that such behaviour will have a positive impact on your thoughts and how you feel about yourself.
Try it and see what a difference it’ll make to you and your perspective of yourself.
Positive thinking is a mental and emotional attitude that focuses on the good things in life and expects the best outcome as opposed to always expecting the worst.
Similar to conditioning positive thinking done on regular basis can make you believe in the positives rather than focusing on the negatives in life.
As complex as the mind is you can train it to look at life through a new perspective. All it takes is a bit of willpower and some positive thinking on your side.
So where to start? You’re not going to wake up tomorrow and have a new perspective just because you want one. Like all good things worth having, it’ll take a bit of time. Start off by waking up each day and thinking, “today is going to be a good day”, think of a few things you like about yourself and then smile. A simple smile can elevate your mood and reduce stress, not to mention you probably look a lot nicer when you smile and who knows, you might brighten up someone else’s day.
When you’re ready to go, rather than focusing on the things that you don’t like, for example if your hair didn’t go the way you wanted it to, focus on something that you do like. This could be your outfit, your nails or even your perfume/aftershave. No one else will know what your hair was meant to look like so just walk outside, stand tall and act as if you’ve intentionally done your hair that way, no one else will know what it was meant to look like.
At the end of each day think of all the good things that happened and all your accomplishments for that day. No matter how small they are, take pride in them and be happy. Go to bed happy and wake up with that positive attitude, you’ll be surprised how much of an effect this positive thinking will have on yourself and your entire day.
Embrace Your Uniqueness
The only thing everyone has in common is that we’re all unique. And there’s a reason for it.
We always get told to embrace who we are, to just be ourselves, don’t try to be someone else or copy someone because it’s what we think we’re meant to do. But why? What’s so great about being you? How can you be happy by just being you?
Maybe it’s because the things that make you unique are the things that make you stand out from a crowd. You won’t stand out in a crowd if you’re too busy trying to be like everyone else.
Your life and your experiences; your emotions; how you see the world; everything you’ve ever felt; done; seen; smelled; touched and heard make up who you are. No one thinks like you, acts like you or even dreams like you. No one knows what it’s like to be you, so why not just be you?
We get jealous of others who embrace their uniqueness but instead of embracing our own and being empowered by it, we try and copy who they are. Copying others is like having a defeatist attitude and not knowing it. You won’t really ever succeed or be genuinely happy by trying to be someone else for one reason. Your happiness is dependent on someone else, not you.
So why not be happy with who you are? Identify the things you like about yourself and let them shine throughout every day. It’s alright not to love every aspect about yourself but by accepting who you are is a major step towards a happier you. If you want to lose weight, don’t hate yourself because of it, accept where you are and love yourself enough to make a change.
Hating your body will never get you as far as loving it will. It hasn’t worked for you in the past so why not see where loving it will get you?
Embracing your uniqueness is knowing who you are, working with what you’ve got, owning it and standing tall. It’s not about being inferior or superior to anyone else, it’s about being yourself and being happy about it.
Think to yourself at the end of each day; “Why not be yourself? – Everyone else is taken.”
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