People often hear “looks don’t matter,” but they know that it does matter. Everyone looks at other people and base their impressions on their appearance. A well-dressed person often commands respect, and a casually dressed person is often seen as relaxed and easy-going. Appearances affect how people see others, even how they see themselves, and that’s the undeniable truth.
Why It’s Important
Body image and self-image wouldn’t be such an issue if humans didn’t have to base how they treated each other based on appearance. They even often treat themselves based on how they view themselves, no matter if it’s right or wrong. Feelings of inadequacy and lack of self-confidence usually stem from a negative self-image, and this is why it matters. If one finds peace and happiness in their appearance, it’s one step closer to finding contentment with ourselves.
How You Can Start
Starting is always the most difficult part of anything. How do you even start treating yourself like you look your best? Of course, it can only be done with realistic steps that walk you through stages of improvement. Here are some steps that you can take to have a better self-image.
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Eat the Right Meals
The secret to feeling and looking healthy (and feeling generally better) is the right diet. And the thing is, you don’t have to drop your current diet immediately. Go about it slowly, taking it one day at a time. Switch your usual lunch with something healthier, but just the lunch. And then keep replacing a meal or snack with something healthier. Go about this daily, even though you’re changing small aspects of your diet. Eventually, you’ll find that you’re feeling healthier and better and have changed your diet for the better too.
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Maintain Proper Posture
The way you stand or sit not only says a lot about your personality but also about your health. Slouching can more quickly deteriorate your spine, which can result in osteoporosis, and it can even cause gastric problems. To add to that, at face value, bad posture can translate to poor confidence and low charisma. It’s something that’s not going to get you far both in your professional and social life.
Start standing straight up; you’ll notice that people will begin treating you differently. When you stand straight up, you mimic a sense of confidence, which can even become actual confidence. Of course, this is on top of the actual health benefits good posture brings.
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Dress Right
It’s great that many clothing lines now offer a wider variety of options for people of all sizes. You no longer have to settle for baggy or ill-fitting clothes; yet, many people still seem to struggle with finding the right clothes for themselves.
Here’s the trick: dress for the body you have, not the body you want. Luxury clothes like designer jackets and coats are available for women and men, and you need to find which ones work best for you. Once you’ve found the type of clothing that’s appropriate to your body type, start wearing it, and wear it frequently.
Learn to rock that type of clothing and learn to love yourself. It’s hard to make changes internally, as convincing yourself is difficult, so start externally instead.
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Take Care of Your Teeth
People often ignore how their teeth look, paying attention only when they’ve gone bad. But dental care isn’t just for comfort and health; it’s also for how a person feels when looking in the mirror. Visit your dentist and floss regularly. Maybe ease up on your coffee intake, too.
Without delving deep into the health consequences of poor oral hygiene, your smile is one of the most impactful factors to make a good first impression. It can also affect how you look at yourself.
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Skincare is Your Friend
They say skin care is self-care, and it’s very much true. Your skin is the first to get exposed to dirt and pollution, not to mention harmful ultraviolet rays whenever you go outside. If you haven’t started on any skincare routine, don’t be intimidated by multiple-step routines that many influencers promote.
The one thing you must not skip is sunscreen, and you can use other products based on your skin’s needs. Our skin condition is another thing that plays a large part in our self-confidence and self-image, so it’s best to take care of it as well.
One’s personal appearance matters a lot; that’s something everyone should stop denying. But one won’t wake up suddenly feeling confident in their looks. Like many things concerning self-improvement, it pays to work one’s way towards it through slow but sure steps.
