How to be Confident with your Body in 11 Effortless Ways

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Do you struggle with a lack of confidence and want to learn how to be confident with your body? Well, here are 11 effortless ways to learn how to love yourself and be more confident in your own body. And of course a list of body confidence book ideas that you’d totally love.

As a woman, it is essential to fall in love with yourself and be confident with your body to fight the negativity in this world. A lot of times, you get judged and put down because of either your size, the color of your skin, hair texture, your teeth, ankles, blah blah blah. Literally, the world has no Mercy. LOL! It’s crazy out here!

But, despite the fake social media and celebrity standards, that try to put most women down, I am happy to see the new culture of body positivity and representation rising.

My Experience with Body Confidence

Personally, I grew up in a culture where being a dark skin girl was considered less beautiful and everyone kinda “accepted it.” There was no debate or argument in that. Lighter-skinned girls were teachers’ favorites, got more opportunities, and were generally more confident. I honestly, envied that. When I was younger, I was not confident in myself and kinda questioned God why I had to be darker.

But y’all, in my late teenage years, I discovered that the belief that being “darker is less beautiful” was the BIGGEST SCAM there could ever be in my world. I honestly could not believe, that someone set a fake standard and lied to generations and generations of women about their bodies. Haha! Cracks me up to this day!

Anyway, it took me a while to recreate my thoughts to believe that I am beautiful and nobody can tell me otherwise. I mean, I have good and bad days, let’s be real, haha! But I know deep down that most days I am confident in my body and how I present myself in this world.

So I definitely understand if you’re struggling with accepting your body, shape, hair, skin, height, and basically being your best self.

Girl, I know it doesn’t take a day to change your negative belief, but here are the top tips that have helped me to be more confident with my body today.

11 Ways to be Confident with your Body

Save the “How to be confident in your body” blog post on Pinterest for later reading. Because these girl boss tips are that good. Trust Me!

1. Accept yourself

The first major step to being confident with your body is to learn how to accept yourself wholly just the way you are. Despite the “negative” parts of your body, you have to learn how to love yourself. Especially the things you really can’t change about yourself, such as your height, shape, hair, etc.

Remember, that the change has to start with you. Don’t wait for anyone to compliment you, or find a partner to tell you how beautiful you are every day. Just practice thinking positively and highly of yourself. And be grateful for the things that you already like about yourself.

I know it doesn’t take a day to accept yourself the way you are. And honestly, this is the hardest part of body confidence.

But you have to start by remembering that it is not your fault for believing negative things about your body. This is because body image perception was mostly taught to you, or you’ve experienced body shaming and bullying.

So, slowly find the root cause of the problem, and work towards healing and accepting yourself the way you are.

*nobody is perfect

2. Avoid self-criticism

In order to be super confident with your body, you have to let go of self-criticism. It is so easy to get caught up in negative self-talk. And being your own worst critic has a huge negative impact on your mental health and how others perceive you.

Whether jokingly or on a serious note, being mean to yourself and criticizing your negative body image, is an easy way to accept that you’re not enough. Which will lead to unhealthy behaviors such as comparison, trying to become someone else, using stuff that is not good for your body, etc.

So it is very important to learn how to be your own best friend. Tell yourself amazing things, practice gratitude, and speak highly of yourself to make sure that your mind and body are in good health.

3. Practice self-care

This is my most favorite tip to practicing being confident with your body. I mean who doesn’t like to treat themselves?

Every time you start lacking confidence in your body, pampering yourself is the best way to immediately start feeling good once again.

To be honest, sometimes I feel confident with my body and sometimes I just don’t. For example, I have learned that every time I look at myself in the mirror and feel down, it is most likely because a makeover is way overdue, haha! Probably my braids are a little crusty, or my skin is dry, my jewelry is rusty, etc.

So doing the little things like getting my nails & hair done, bubble bath, or buying a seasonal body lotion boosts my confidence.

If you haven’t noticed, when you have new clothes or a new hairstyle, you walk with your head high. Or when your nails are done you type on your computer louder and use your hand gesture a lot more. Or if you have new boots, people can hear you walking from a mile away. Have you ever asked yourself, why is that?

Girl! That’s what’s called the miracle of self-care and high esteem.

4. Strike a pose to be confident with your body

I am sure you learned that striking a pose before doing your English presentation in college made you more confident during your speech. Isn’t that the truth, though?

Striking a pose takes less time, but is a super powerful tool that boosts your confidence immediately. This is because all of a sudden you envision yourself as this higher, well-known person that has all her things together. And when you think highly of yourself, then the magic happens…

Girl, you become a superwoman and confident in your own skin. You literally get things done.

Also, according to a lot of body confidence experts, they state that focusing on your posture and body communication on a daily basis has a positive impact on better body image and confidence.

Doing power poses and practicing body language may be out of your comfort zone, but to be a confident person, you have to just fake it till you make it. Once you make it a daily practice, it will soon enough be like a first language to you.

Here is are small things you can do to improve your body language and confidence.

Maintain eye contact
Practice firm handshake
Strike a power pose
Sit straight up
Pay attention to your facial expressions

5. Make healthy positive lifestyle changes

If you’re experiencing low body confidence due to things you can control, start by making small positive lifestyle changes to get you where you want to be. Yes, you can go ahead and call it, “body goals.”

Setting healthy body goals and achieving them, can actually make you fall in love with yourself and boost your confidence. You just have to acknowledge where you are, what you’d like to improve on, and how you can reasonably get to your goal without hating yourself.

Well, this may mean having a list of things you can do to get you to your desired healthy body goals.

For example:

Finding a workout you love
Eating healthier meals
Doing regular exercies

Also, remember that a healthy body image is not about being skinny or super muscular, but about being healthy in a holistic way such as mind, body, spirit, environment, etc. So, do not fall into the habit of regularly looking at numbers on your scale.

Yeah, it is a great way to measure your weight progress from last year, but there are more important things you should direct your energy to than criticizing yourself daily because you’re not meeting your goals fast enough.

Remember, best things take time.

6. Wear clothes that make you feel super confident with your body

One major factor that plays a big role in body confidence is your choice of outfits. Don’t be shy to wear outfits that make you feel comfortable, sexy, classy, vibrant, you name it. Just be you and embrace your uniqueness.

Style is not about wearing what’s most trendy, but it’s about curating outfits to your taste, body shape, and comfortability.

A lot of people go wrong in thinking that outfits advertised with “perfect body models” are for everyone. But, it is not guaranteed that those pieces of clothing will fit perfectly. Yes, they may look good on them but that does not mean they will be the right clothes for your body type.

And once you get the outfits and it doesn’t look as good as the model pictures, it may lower your self-esteem and confidence.

So yes, dress to impress YOURSELF. And get style inspiration from diverse models who look like you.

7. Focus more on what your body is capable of

Another way to build body confidence is by focusing more on what your body is capable of. I see a lot of people trying to do workouts or do activities that are just not meant for them. Or try to indulge in unhealthy behaviors just to look a certain way.

I mean yeah there are no limits in life, but do not let being super competitive lead to bodily injury and harm. So, as a human being, you should let your ego down and focus solely on your body strengths. So, pay less attention to the different things other people are doing and more towards yourself.

As much as I wish my body could have strength and flexibility like Simone Biles, it just may not be possible for me, haha! And that’s okay. I mean all I can do is focus on light flexibility exercise and cheering my girl. That’s absolutely it!

And if you don’t know what your body strengths are, seek professional help such as a personal trainer or a health coach to help you.

8. Do not compare

One big reason a lot of people have low self-esteem and are not confident in their bodies is due to comparison. I mean how can we not compare, when every platform posts and idolizes celebrities/models with clear skin, perfect bodies, long legs, no stretch marks, etc.

Most women tend to forget that there’s a difference between real life and edited life. Honestly, in real life, it’s not as glamorous as it may seem. There is a whole lot of makeup, filters, editing software to make someone tone, smooth, flawless, and vibrant.

So, you cannot base your whole standard of beauty on what you see on your social media feed.

Therefore, practice healthy habits that will give you more confidence in your body and ditch what brings you down. For example, curate your social media accounts to follow more confident people who have the same body features as you and people who embrace body positivity.

Moreover. follow more stylists who have your good body type to encourage you to love every part of your body every day.

9. Embrace positive affirmations

Telling yourself positive affirmations every day is an effective way to boost your body confidence. Be open to telling your mind positive things to accept, love, and change the negative perception of yourself.

So on a piece of paper or sticky notes, write down positive messages that would bring positive thoughts and body confidence.

I know it takes a long time to feel good about yourself, but practicing positive affirmations will eventually help you trade the negative outlook of your body for a positive one.

Nevertheless, start accepting compliments. I know sometimes it is easy for us to shy away from compliments because we either don’t believe it or are just trying to act humble. Free compliments in the streets are one of the best ways to feel good about yourself and boost confidence.

10. Take pictures of yourself to be confident with your body

Sometimes the little things count in life. If you are struggling to be confident with your body, you should try taking more pictures of yourself.

Once in a while, dress up, look nice, go somewhere and get a photoshoot professionally taken. There’s just something that clicks in your mind when you look at your own photo. I’m always like, “damn I look good.” And that’s just simply because I made a little effort to appreciate my physical appearance.

Every time you feel low about your body, you can go back to that photo to remind yourself how damn sexy you are.

Also, if you can’t afford a professional photographer, just do some mirror work and take some bomb mirror selfies using the front of the camera to feature the best angles and parts of your body.

11. Do not put anyone down

Lastly, you need to preach body positivity and create confidence within the society of women. The change and movement have to start with you.

Sometimes we focus all our energy on our own negative body image issues, that we let our insecurities and emotional state reflect on other people. Just because someone has been mean to you, it doesn’t mean you have to pass the hate down to other people. Like a good friend or a parent, it is your duty to stop the spread of negative light.

So, when you meet new people or friends, try to spread good things such as giving a compliment, helping people make style choices, being nice, avoiding negative words that tear people down, etc.

Nevertheless, surround yourself with positive people who embrace and uplift every woman, regardless of their shape, size, color, and texture.

Body confidence book

Here are book ideas to help you take actionable steps towards a positive body image.

Last thoughts on how to be confident in your body

Lastly, I hope you have found these tips on how to be confident with your body effective. I also hope that you will start practicing positivity in your daily life to have a sense of confidence in your body and mind.

Also, if you have read this far, it is not by coincidence. I honestly believe we have been brought together for a reason. Therefore, if these success tips resonate with you, feel free to leave a comment. Aaaand! Let’s be friends because I can’t wait to chat with you more.