5 tips to create body confidence

This topic of body confidence comes up so often within the MerryBody Online Studio and on our Get Merry Podcast Show. We talk about it often because we’ve experienced a serious lack of body confidence.

Can you relate?

When it feels like your mind is completely consumed by negative thoughts towards your body.

And of course, these thoughts are always untrue and definitely self-destructive. 

Think about this, your thoughts create feelings and emotions…

… these feelings lead to actions,

… your actions create your future. 

What happens when your thoughts spin out of control with negativity towards your body? 

Your lack of body confidence only grows.

And this affects every aspect of your life in some way or another. 

This is why each and every MerryBody class is driven by ACCEPTANCE, RESPECT and JOY. 

This is why we don’t just teach movement and exercise inside MerryBody, we focus on mindset and the relationship with your body.

This is why we are running a 21 day Body Confidence Challenge inside MerryBody Online Studio. (This Challenge has now been run however we run these member-exclusive challenges every 2 months!)

5 tips to create body confidence

Stop comparing yourself to others… also while you’re at it, stop comparing present you to past you.

Ahhh, why why why does comparison come so easily?!

Who defined what ‘beautiful’ is?!

Why do you think they are beautiful and you are not? 

It is conditioning, it’s society. It’s social media, it’s magazines, it’s advertising tapping into emotions that lead you to believe that you MUST buy this to feel beautiful.

Sadly, many companies make a lot of money off insecurities. And it’s not going away… so it’s important to bring awareness to your actions and make a change if necessary.

It’s time to stop and reflect. When are you comparing yourself to others and feeling negativity towards yourself? 

When you scroll on Instagram or Facebook… what do you see, how do you feel?

set-spring-intention

Do the images and words make you feel good? Or do you follow accounts that show unrealistic body ideals that instantly make you feel like you need to change who you are and what you look like?

ACTION: Check in… unfollow, mute, block.

Maybe you compare yourself to your friends in real life. Yes, you can unfollow in real life… but maybe you actually love the person!  This is when you need to welcome in a body confidence practice. 

ACTION: When you find yourself comparing your self to your BFF and you feel negativity towards your body… be prepared.

Think of something you LOVE about yourself NOW and remind yourself again and again. Especially when the comparison creeps in. 

What about when you compare your present self to your past self? 

You look at old photos and you think…

I wish I was that weight

I wish I looked like that still

I wish I stuck to that diet

Ohhh, I am at least 10 kgs heavier now… and back then I thought I was fat!

ACTION: It’s important to understand that when you dwell on the past, you say NO to life now.

Switch your thoughts to the present, focus on the good, focus on the positive actions you wish to welcome in to create a happier, healthier present (and future) you.

Create an epic support system.

The people you hang out with regularly are your support system, they are your inner circle. It’s important that you help each other feel positive, energised and uplifted.

Yes, it’s also important to support each other through bad times but we don’t want to be spending time with people who reinforce body confidence issues and bad habits every time you see them!

You don’t want friends like this… 

 

If you know your friendship group has similar body confidence struggles make a change together.

Share healthy recipes (we have a bunch here), exercise together for the social aspect not just for fitness. 

ACTION: Check in with your inner circle. Do you need to make any changes with who you’re spending time with or do you need to initiate a positive change?

Stop being so nasty to yourself, be kind, be loving, be respectful towards yourself.

What’s your self-talk like? 

ACTION: Start monitoring your words, your thoughts. Especially when you look in the mirror. Write them down.

Ask yourself… are they true? Ask yourself… would you ever speak to anyone else like this? 

Awareness is a game-changer, this practice will give you the motivation to take action and make a change.

Show yourself the love, kindness, compassion, and respect you deserve. And remember it’s a practice.

Get grateful for your body!

It’s time to feel absolute gratitude for your body, it’s taking you on this epic journey (called life) after all! 

When you find yourself looking at your arms, wishing they looked a different way… think about all the hugs and cuddles you can give to your loved ones with your amazing arms. 

For the times when you look at your tummy and think it’s flabby, think of the functionality. Be grateful for the organs that help you feel energised every day or the children you have birthed or can birth.

This body-gratitude practice will also help you create a loving exercise practice.

You’ll no longer work out to lose weight. You’ll work out to gain strength and flexibility to help you live with more comfort, more ease and less pain.

You’ll move your body for the happy endorphins that are released. You’ll move your body to show care and respect for your body. We talk about this all the time inside MerryBody Studio.… move your body, find your JOY.

ACTION: Start a gratitude practice, every night write down three things you are grateful for. Relate some of your gratitude moments to your amazing body.

Remember that you are not your body.

We tend to emphasize so much of who we are by what we look like. 

It goes further, we identify ourselves by the clothes we wear, the brands we wear, the car we drive, the amount of money in our accounts, the holidays we go on, the work we do, the people we hang out with. You get it. 

In our Western culture, we put this huge emphasis on the external. We link our self-worth to everything on the outside.

We seek happiness and life fulfilment from external aspects of life and then wonder why we are unhappy, why we feel empty and discontent.

When we had this realisation, that we are none of these external things… our happiness and contentment levels rose significantly.

And our body confidence strengthened.

This practice also allows you to better accept your current situation and welcome in positive feelings and positive action steps towards a brighter future.

It also allows you to uncover and re-discover what brings you life fulfillment and contentment. You know, that soul-feeding stuff. Ahhh!

ACTION: Get still (meditation helps, try our Free 3 Day Intro Course HERE), practise gratitude, do Yoga, do stuff that you love, create something from nothing. Get curious, go look for your Bliss.

This is why MerryBody is not just movement and exercise, inside the Studio, we work on our mindsets and our relationships with our bodies each and every day.

Inside the studio we don’t talk about weight loss, we don’t talk about summer bodies. You won’t ever hear us say the words calories… muffin tops… saddlebags or love handles. We don’t say them because these words and goals welcome in fear, they feel like punishment, they feel low energy, they feel mean, they feel un-joyful. 

If this is all making a lot of sense to you and you feel like you need to welcome in a change, MerryBody is for you. 

We begin our next 21 Day Yoga and Pilates Challenge on Monday 23 September. 

And the theme is BODY CONFIDENCE. It’s the perfect time to sign up to MerryBody as all members gain instant access to the Challenge. 

Not only will you do 21 days of MerryBody classes, but each day we will share tools, inspiration and words to encourage body confidence. 

By the end of the 21 days, you will have more body confidence, more body respect and body love. 

To be part of the Challenge you simply join the MerryBody Online Studio. 

This Challenge is now over however you can access all of our past Challenges when you sign up! Plus, we run live challenges every 2 months.

>>> We start the next Body Confidence Challenge soon, CLICK HERE TO JOIN.

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

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