By Mackenzie Amore

With the start of a new year and everybody sharing crazy diet fads, skin care tips, and all these beauty standards all around us, it’s easy to look in the mirror and point out everything about ourselves that we wish were different. Believe me, I have been there. 

Growing up in a world where beauty standards are created based upon photoshop, plastic surgery, and judgment, I felt myself never feeling as if I was good enough. I would constantly compare myself to the models and influencers I would see on social media. It took me a very long time before I looked in the mirror and was able to truly love everything about myself. 

It was a long journey to become the confident, beautiful woman that I am, but I am so excited to share some of the big actions and methods I followed to have confidence in who I am, each and every day.

#1: be around people who make you feel good

One of the biggest factors that impacts how you feel and think about yourself and others, are the people you interact with and surround yourself with on a daily basis. In order to breed positivity, I created a strong friend group of people that constantly made me feel confident and beautiful. I began to realize if I am around people that criticize myself and others, it left me feeling insecure and not happy with myself. Therefore, as I began to spend time with empowering friends and loved ones who complimented me and embraced my flaws, I turned my mindset around and began to truly love everything about myself.

#2: mental Wellness is SO important

I can’t express enough how important being truly mentally well is for becoming confident. As someone who has had a mental health journey of my own, this is something I feel is the key for any happy and positive life. I remember how insecure I felt with everything about myself. I constantly would criticize the pimple on my chin, or the small jiggle of my thigh and never could find myself happy or confident. As I began to focus more on mental wellness through affirmations, therapy, and mental breaks, I felt myself recognizing the beauty in my flaws. 

#3: positive affirmations

How you speak to yourself and about yourself truly influences your brain’s perception. I remember how I used to criticize my skin and comment about how horrible it was and pull on my body, wishing it were smaller. I never felt comfortable in my own skin, which was mainly due to the way I spoke about myself. However, as the trend of “positive affirmations” came to be, which it took me a while to jump on that train, I began to look at myself in a totally different light. Each morning, when I would wake up and look at myself in the mirror, I would list three things I loved about myself. Then, as time went on, I was able to convince my brain that I am beautiful inside and out, which helped me truly believe it. 

#4: use social media in positive way

This one is huge, especially in a generation which is consumed by social media. I used to follow all sorts of accounts which focused on dieting and crazy skin care trends, which were not realistic at all and filled with photoshopped, face-tuned, women that existed for brands to make money. It took me a long time to recognize this, however, I began to unfollow accounts which did not make me feel happy or inspired and began to follow accounts that were body positive and made me happy. I also began to post pictures which were less staged and more authentic. By doing this, I did lose a lot of followers, but I felt that I could share pictures that made me happy and truly showed who I am as a person, which helped make me confident. Therefore, using social media for good allows for you to still be trendy and stay up to date with your friends, without being corrupted by the societal standards of beauty.

#5: take time to focus on self-care

Taking care of yourself goes hand in hand with loving yourself. One of the ways in which I was able to become confident and truly love myself, was taking the extra step to care for myself and focus on what my mind and body needs. I would make it a routine to take one night a week, at least, to focus on doing a face mask, an extra step in my skin care routine, or even the opposite and doing a full make up look. No matter the way I focused on self-care, it helped me feel beautiful and love myself.

#6: understand self-love is a constant journey

Self-love and confidence in your own skin is something that is not an overnight process. While this journey takes time and effort, when you overcome the hurdle which is lack of self-love, you can truly embrace all the greatness that makes you special and unique. Making the conscious choice every single day to focus on positive aspects in life and the different attributes that make you feel good about yourself, will eventually become develop a habit of loving your flaws and embracing those traits that make you one of a kind.

in conclusion

The most important thing to remember is that there is only one you in the world, and that you is truly beautiful, just the way you are.