Can you recall the last time you were feeling happy or rather good about yourself, so you spontaneously snapped a selfie to capture the moment? When you glanced down to view the image, did that feel-good mood of yours suddenly shift?
Maybe the angle of your face wasn’t quite right, and you felt it made your face look large, or the sunglasses you wore made your face look small. Perhaps the lighting didn’t strike quite right, or you didn’t strike the most flattering pose.
If you searched the internet right now for ways to take your best selfie ever, you would undoubtedly find some helpful self-photography advice. But we want to offer a different kind of advice, not on how to take a summer selfie you love but how to love it (and you) - all filters and flashes aside.
Prioritize self-care
Stick to a healthy diet and fuel your body with the foods that make you feel good and energized. Suppose you decide to eat fast food one day of the week, great. You can still love yourself all the while. The key is to make choices, not rules, so find power in that - choose to love yourself by treating your body with kindness.
There are countless ways you can take care of yourself this summer - it’s not only about eating all the right food or getting enough sleep. For instance, you can choose to put yourself first, forgive yourself, or unplug and stay at home if that is what you need. Self-care is like a magnet for self-love because it involves actively choosing to prove to yourself that you care about your health and wellbeing.
Speak kindly to yourself
Any comment you make in life may seem like a mere string of words that release then vanish once you say it, but the truth is everything sticks. Whenever you look in the mirror and criticize yourself, remember that your subconscious mind is listening, and it will retain what you say. You condition your mind with the content of your words and thoughts. The ones you choose the most become your default way of thinking.
One practical way to help you work on this and cultivate more self-confidence is to remember this each time you feel a negative self-thought forming: if you wouldn’t say it to a friend, don’t say it to yourself.
Find Inner Peace
From mindfully breathing to visualizing your happy place, there are many ways you create more inner peace in your life. One of these ways is also to practice acceptance. Whether of yourself or a particular circumstance, acceptance takes time and practice, but it’s also something you can practice at any moment. For instance, you might feel stressed or frustrated because the traffic is keeping you from getting home on a Friday or somewhere you need to be on time. Your initial response is the stress and frustration, and your mind might want to refute a calmer thought which is that this traffic is out of your control.
Flow with the tide rather than against it any chance you get. The next time you take a selfie this summer and the backdrop isn’t as eye-catching as you wish it were, say to yourself, “this isn’t the best, but I’m here, and I’m happy, and that’s what matters.”