Confidence is everything. It allows us to express ourselves, to take risks, to go out into the world and have healthy relationships. Yet for so many of us, this is something that we are desperately lacking. Whatever the reasons (and there are many), the good news is that there are also lots of ways to re-build that confidence, and we want to be part of that journey!
Change the way you think
When we fail at something, we are trained to feel bad about it. Confident people make just as many mistakes as we do (if not MORE), the only difference is that, when a confident person embarrasses themselves, or makes a mistake, they don’t treat it as a setback. They’re probably already thinking about what a funny anecdote it’ll be later.
When that job you applied for doesn’t call you back, or you gain a few kilos on that week bender in Bali – chalk it up to life experience. Some things are out of your control, but how you react to them next time will be defined by how you treat yourself at this stage; are you going to obsess over the fact you spent half the morning in the office with pastry on your face? Or are you going to wipe it off and it eat it? Changing how you think may seem insurmountable, but just think – you’ve already trained yourself to be negative, so we just need to turn the tables.
What would you say to your closest friend? We often see in the studio, that when someone looks at their own photo, they are drawn to the negative almost immediately. However, when a loved one looks at our photo, they see all the positives just as quickly, and are almost completely ignorant of the things we nit-pick at constantly. See yourself through different specs.
It’s important to note, that no one is asking you not to desire positive changes for yourself. If you want to lose weight, or you want to stop biting your nails, then that’s great. But it’s much easier to grow into the person we want to be, when we start loving who we already are. The things you don’t like about yourself, do not diminish all the things that are already wonderful. Stop idolising other people.
We run a regular competition in order for our readers to experience this for themselves.
If I were to put money on the one thing that sucks confidence out of women faster than anything else, it’s this. When we feel our least confident, t’s usually because we’re comparing ourselves to someone else – or worse, some photo-shopped, unrealistic representation of a human being. Our rose-tinted view of others pushes everyone else above you mentally, leaving you down at the bottom, where you definitely don’t deserve to be.
Of course, we should always be willing to see the beauty in others and be inspired by them (this is a valuable trait to have if we are to empower each other), but it shouldn’t be at the cost of seeing our own beauty and our own ability to inspire others.
Idolisation is the pitfall of womankind. When it comes down to it, all these celebrities and icons of beauty, they’re flabbergasted by our awe of them. When women come to the studio, it’s hard to imagine themselves looking like the women that have come before them, but these are all REAL women, and so are you.
Why not book a shoot now to find out more about yourself than you really knew!