6 Ways To Love Yourself Naked and Boost Your Body Confidence.

I’ve been working at BodyRock since the very beginning, and in that time, we have had the pleasure of working with some of the fittest bodies around. The fitness trainers and models that we have shot our workout content with are all uniquely beautiful, with jaw dropping figures. What did every single one of them have in common?

 Each of them carries around their own insecurities, and each of them didn’t like some aspect of how their body looked. I’m sharing this because it’s important to understand that body confidence impacts everyone, and some of the people that you would assume have it all figured out because they have what looks like a ‘perfect’ body, are just as messed up or more so than someone that looks “average’. Body Confidence is key to our overall happiness as humans because we are spiritual creatures having a physical experience, and what we think about our body can make the difference between a life fully lived, and a life lived hiding ourselves in the shadows from fear. 

Here are 6 ways that you can start to Love Yourself Naked and Boost Your Body Confidence. 

1. Find one or two things that you genuinely love about your body.

If ‘nothing’ is what rushed to your mind when you read that sentence, take a deep breath and shake that nonsense off. It might not be easy to level with yourself, but we need to work together here. Feel whatever resistance, anger and resentment that this question might trigger within you and take a few deep breaths. Start at the top of your head, and don’t count anything out. Eyebrows have a nice arch? Hair fails in gentle curls? Your eyes have a sparkle? Your cheek bones, nose, lips? There are a lot of smaller physical attributes that we tend to skip over and ignore that actually might have a much larger impact on how we see ourselves, and how the outside world perceives us. Our physical appearance is comprised of the totality of all of these tiny physical details - find a few that you can get behind and start to celebrate. I can personally guarantee that everyone has beauty waiting to be discovered and appreciated. 

2. Turn on some endorphins and release the feel good ‘love’ hormone serotonin by getting into an exercise program that supports your body goals and makes you feel good about yourself.

There are seldom life challenges we face as human beings that can’t be at least partially improved by movement. Working out has been proven to help elevate mood, dissolve stress and relieve tension. If you are carrying stress around your body, that unease is going to start feeling like a sack of rocks on your back if it hasn’t already felt that way. I’m not going to get into the benefits of the right exercise routine, you can read about that here. Yes you will lose weight and re-shape your body, and this will help you start to feel better both mentally and physically. The bigger benefit at this stage tho comes from taking action. Challenges always feel more problematic than they are when you aren’t doing anything to face them. The longer that you wait and do nothing, the longer the emotional chaos builds and the harder it gets to do anything about it. The simple act of trying and moving towards a solution can create a powerful sense of purpose and hope that is night and day better than just feeling trapped or stuck. We have an excellent, free 5 day program lead by a mother of 3 that has been specifically designed for beginners - it’s our 5 day Introduction To Strength Training Bootcamp, and the program is achievable - meaning normal beginners can actually get through it - and it’s been shown to have an enormously positive impact on the women that have signed up. You can get started with that program here. 

4. Surround Yourself With Body Positive People.

Everyone holds some Body Confidence Insecurities. Everyone. But not everyone lets it hold them back. You can see these people all over the place, they are out and about and living life. This isn’t about befriending a bunch of public exhibitionists, but it is about making some room in your life for people who seem comfortable with themselves enough to engage in life in a meaningful way. These people are seen and heard for who they are, and they seem to actually like themselves. This is not the same as being arrogant or overly cocky - that’s just false confidence masquerading as self-esteem. I’m taking about people who work what they have in a way that feels authentic to you. Get to know these types of people. See how they tick. Often, self love and self-acceptance rubs off. 
Get out of your own head. I knew a woman that confided that she had a ‘self-avoidance’ morning ritual. She would get up (she slept in a long bath robe), and as she started to go through her morning routine to dress and get herself ready for work, she would defocus her eyes ever so slightly in the mirror so that she didn’t have to fully look at herself. She could see just enough to apply her makeup, and would sort of focus down on small parts of herself when she needed to do something like draw on some mascara, but the rest of the time her relationship with her physical self was this patch work of blurry compartmentalized body parts that she had to deal with. When I asked her why she did this, she said that by breaking down her body into these ‘zones’ of blurriness, she could find a way to deal with her overall disappointment in how she looked to herself. This was a woman that was vibrant, beautiful and seemed confident in herself. When you can’t look at yourself and hold yourself in your own vision, my guess is that you might have lost track of the way the outside world actually sees you - and that’s usually a far cry (and many factors more positive) than what we see. 

5. Light some candles and stand in front of a mirror.

There is an intimacy and genuine peace that comes from fully knowing yourself in spite of any perceived or imagined imperfections. To be imperfect is exactly what makes us human, and it opens our hearts to compassion. When was the last time you looked at yourself with some compassion? Find those things about your body that you love (or at least like). Allow your eyes to connect with all of the parts of you that keep showing up for you day in and day out. Utter a word of gratitude. Start to develop a level of comfort with who you are, and know that you can transform yourself into the best version of you possible by choosing to train. Give yourself the gift of hope that comes from deciding to change on purpose, for you. 

6. Embrace your body, and determine how you want to present it.

You determine your wardrobe, not the clothes at the store. Start researching how to wear clothes that work for your unique size and shape. Own that not everything works on everyone. Start focusing on amplifying the things that you love about yourself, and celebrate the parts of you that you can rock. You have choices, even if it doesn’t always feel that way. Rock you. 

I hope that this article has given you a place to start, or that it has shaken you out of feeling stuck. Nothing in this 6 point list is easy, and body confidence is a complex issue that almost everyone struggles with. Getting it out of your head, and having the tools to start to deal with it can make a profound shift in how you live all aspects of your life. It’s important and fitness can help.