6 Simple Ways To Boost Your Body Confidence This Autumn

Perception is everything - what you perceive is your own reality. If you perceive yourself to be fabulous, lo and behold, you'll be fabulous. If you perceive yourself to be fat or stupid or ugly, that's all you're going to see in the mirror. Altering your perceptions, and how you interpret what you see in the mirror, is the only way to improve your self-esteem and therefore your body confidence. 

A recent study on 75 pairs of college-aged women were asked how often they discussed four weight-related topics: appearance, exercise, weight loss and nutrition, whilst assessing the body image of the women and finding out whether or not they had a strong desire to be thin. Generally (and sadly) the conversations around these topics were usually associated with negative body image and lower levels of self-esteem, although when the women discussed exercise, their conversations were more positive than negative. Another really interesting point bought up by the study was the perception of others and the perception of self. Women who thought that their friends had low self-esteem were more likely to have low self-esteem themselves - as in, "I think that my friend feels badly about herself, so appearance is really important. I feel badly about myself, too".

And when we start to focus on what we can do - and all of the fabulous things about our bodies - it means that we start to focus less and less on what we can't do and what we don't like. So, here are six ways to boost your body confidence this autumn, so that you'll be well on your way to your very best rockstar self in time for Christmas.

Stop the Fat Talk

We women are notorious for "passing the buck" when it comes to fat talk, so to speak. When one of our friends says something like, "I'm so fat", and our response is "No, I'm the fat one - have you seen the size of my bum?", we're reinforcing the belief that we're not good enough. It even reinforces the fact that your friend is fat, especially if you're smaller than them and are trying to make them feel better out of a misguided sense of "I don't like myself either".

What Can You Do?

If you don't like your bum, think about what it lets you do - sit comfortably, for example? Don't like your arms? They propel you forwards and let you move, which is probably one of the most important actions in the world. Focus on everything that your body lets you do and you'll soon learn to love it.

Use Positive Self-Talk

One of the simplest, most popular and most effective techniques used in self-esteem therapy is positive self-talk. That doesn't mean that you have to ignore all of your perceived faults or pretend that they don't exist - instead, you simply have to think of three different things everyday that are positive about yourself. That doesn't even mean that you have to like them - it just has to be three objectively positive things. For example, maybe you spend a lot of time helping other people. Maybe you're caring. Maybe you're simply a "nice" person. Whatever it is, write it down - and remember that you can't use the same quality twice.

Soon, you'll start to notice patterns emerge - common themes and common positive qualities that other people recognize in you.

Fake It

If you don't know or can't think of anything good about yourself, try your very best to fake it. Wear the clothes that make you feel sexy and confident. Choose the makeup that gives you a swing in your step. Slip into a pair of heels, or, if you feel sexiest when exercising, your prettiest gym gear. Fake that you feel confident and it will come, eventually. You just gotta believe!

Don't Focus On Weight

The number on the scale is something that we all have a funny relationship with. For a huge number of women, your weight is either too high, or not low enough. It's rarely ever the perfect number. The same goes for BMI - if it's even a little bit too high, it's really easy to demonize yourself and to put a lot of pressure on yourself for not being the "right" weight. But science has long proven that BMI isn't a realistic indicator of your health. Neither is your weight. 

See Also: 10 Steps To Better Body Confidence

Think about how you feel, how your clothes fit and how "well" you are, rather than the number of pounds that you weigh. You are worth far more than that number on the scale.

Hold Your Head High

Slouching and ducking your head sends out a very clear message to people around you - that you're not good enough, worthy enough, pretty enough or smart enough to walk and stand with your head held high and your shoulders back. There's a very good reason why we call the signals our body sends out "body language" - these signals give other people information about what and who we are and how we feel about ourselves. It's important to think about how much your perception of yourself affects how others perceive you. Feel good about yourself and others will respond in kind.