This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Utah chapter.
1. Smile – How can you not feel beautiful when you are smiling? We all find smiling faces more attractive. Smiling is contagious and you will feel gorgeous when you make another person smile.
2. Breathe Deeply – Breathing takes the tension away and allows you to feel at peace. Make it a point to step away from things that stress you out in order to just breathe.
3. Find something to admire in yourself – When you are unhappy or lacking confidence, we all too often find a flaw within us and dwell on it letting that weakness run over and over in our minds again. Will you ever be happy if your mind is telling you that you have a flaw that you hate? Instead, feed your mind with at least one beautiful thing that you admire about yourself. It can be an inner or outer quality – whatever makes YOU happy!
4. Surround yourself with friends that boost you up – I have two friends that I just LOVE to see because I know they are going to tell me I look beautiful when I walk in the room even if I don’t feel pretty that day. It’s good to have people around that genuinely see the best in you. Friends are there to support and encourage you! If you feel you don’t have people in your life you can count on to boost you up, start complimenting others and it will automatically be a great leap for a friendship. On top of that the kindness you gave will come back in your life (karma!)… GUARANTEED!
5. Stand and Sit Tall – Good posture plays a HUGE role in telling your mind how you feel about yourself. Picture yourself with a crown on your head, and then just focus on not letting the crown fall off! When you have good posture, others will think more highly of you as well.
6. Wear your favorite color – Colors make you feel happy and confident! Find a color that you look gorgeous in and rock it often. You don’t always have to wear the same shirt, find a necklace, a scarf or sunglasses that have that color in it and wear it like you own it.
7. Say thank you! – Kindness, manners and gratitude can change your outlook on yourself in an instant and in return make others feel amazing! You feel beautiful because you made a difference. Say thank you to your grocery cashier, say thank you when the door is held for you and say thank you when someone let’s you cut in front of them.
8. LOVE – Love life, love your family, and love nature – this world was created with so much beauty and love. Take it all in. When you give love, you feel love and love equates to beauty.
9. Accept compliments – When someone is complimenting you they are going out of their way to make you feel loved. You may be thinking you don’t deserve that compliment or they don’t really mean it but they do! OWN it and be proud of the compliment that you just received. Be gracious and sound grateful no matter who it’s from!
10. Take time for yourself – We live in a world that is rush, rush, rush. It’s not one bit selfish to take a time out for yourself. Take a bath, paint your nails – you deserve it all!
11. Get out of your shell – Often when I don’t feel pretty I internally roll up in a ball like a potato bug, but potato bugs aren’t that pretty. Potato bugs roll up in order to disguise and protect themselves. You won’t feel pretty if you’re camoflauged, if you’re blending in to your surroundings and if you feel like no one even knows you exist. In other words – focus on your relationships with other people, having new experiences, and don’t get caught up in your insecurities or fear. When you open up to people and things, people don’t notice flaws – they notice connections they are making with you!
12. Try something new – I am a girl that loves repetition and consistency but I find when I get brave enough to do something new or something that takes courage, I feel amazing.