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Treating yourself kinder, accepting your appearance as it is, not focusing on shortcomings … That, in fact, is all that is needed to make friends with your own body, says psychotherapist Michel Freud. Four simple exercises.
Exercise 1: get used to your body
Walk around the house every chance you get in your underwear or bikini… This incredibly simple exercise will help you get closer to two goals. First, you will be able to feel how your body feels in motion when it is not constrained by clothing. Secondly, it will allow you to get used to yourself in a half-naked form. If you do this exercise regularly for at least a week, you will no longer be embarrassed when it comes time to show up in a bathing suit on a busy beach. And putting on short shorts, an open sundress and other summer things is all the more easy.
Exercise 2: Feed Your Self-Esteem
Instead of focusing on your flaws, start admiring your appearance. Give yourself three compliments right now, without delay: the bowl with the word “self-criticism” on your internal scales will no longer outweigh. Now remember all the pleasant and kind words that you have received in your address over the past few years. Write them down on small cardboard cards (bright colors are best) and put them in a box or bag. Every morning, take out one of the cards at random, and then read aloud and expressively what is written on it. Let this positive attitude define your entire new day.
Exercise 3: cheer yourself up
On your desk, on your bathroom mirror, in your bedroom on your bedside table, on your fridge, in your car, surround yourself with stickers, cards, and postcards with compliments, words of encouragement, and just phrases that make you smile. These little positive “anchors” are the best proof that the fight against insecurities and self-criticism can be won with perseverance and optimism.
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Exercise 4: Experience Gratitude
Walking, eating, sleeping, hugging, feeling touched… The body provides primary physiological functions, allowing us to experience life and experience emotions. If we didn’t have our body – the way it is – this would be impossible. This idea is simple, but we forget about it too often. The better we hear the signals of our body, the kinder we treat it, the more we appreciate everything that it allows us to give to this world and receive from it, the less we perceive it as a piece of clay that needs to be endlessly improved. Take a break to take care of yourself: wash your face slowly using a gentle mousse or nourishing oil to remove makeup, apply cream to your body, make up your lips – do it gently and slowly, as if caring for your closest person. This attitude develops a sense of gratitude. And gradually transform your body from what you have to what you are.