Your body has been with you as long as you lived but maybe you haven’t always been so kind to it? Perhaps its time to treat it more lovingly…

The relationship you have with yourself is more important than any other relationship you will have with anyone else throughout your lifetime. Just think about it; YOU are the only person you will spend time with every single day from the day you were born.

Love Yourself! Women are constantly reminded of the importance of believing in and loving oneself. However, It’s not always easy as we compare ourselves to others. Often we have too high expectations to meet, ranging from not only looking good but also being a career woman and a brilliant home maker.

If you don’t treat yourself with care and if you talk down to your own body and focus on its flaws, you need to make yourself your own best friend. In order to be friends with your body you need to have a good relationship with yourself first.

Here are some ways to get you started:

Clean up Your Social Media 
Most people may recognise the feeling when you are scrolling through social media and are met by lots of photos of successful and beautiful people who seem to live exciting lives. Have a look at who you are following and unfollow the accounts which make you feel bad about yourself.

Follow Motivational Social Media Accounts
Find accounts to follow that will make you feel motivated and inspired.

Write a List
This may seem basic but it really works. Sit down with pen and paper and write down everything you like about yourself. It could be anything from a hot booty to being a good friend. Keep the list in your phone and have a look at it every time you feel a lack of confidence.

Use Your Body
Many of us focus on what our bodies look like - or in particular we focus on how we would like to look. It’s time to stop and instead start to appreciate the body for what it can do. Use your body to achieve something such as lifting weights. dance, paint or something totally different. It will help you to see your body as a fantastic tool.

Stop Talking About Your Body and Diets
If you and your friends often talk about different diets and what you hate about your bodies, then tell them that you have started a journey to like yourself and that you prefer to stay away from these kind of topics. If your friends care for you they will understand. 

Practice Compassion Towards Yourself
You don’t have to exaggerate, just simply accept who you are and what you look like. Make sure you give yourself the chance to be who you are especially in difficult times or situations.

Listen to Your Own Thoughts
If anyone were to say mean things to you, you would most probably be upset. However, have you noticed that your own inner voice sometimes isn’t very kind at all. Your inner voice has power over the way you see yourself sometimes judging and expecting a lot more from you than you can deliver. Research shows that we are not capable of achieving our optimal level if someone is mean to us, irrespective of if it is someone else or your own inner voice.

Address Others with Kindness
If you talk with kindness and politeness to people you meet they are more likely to talk nicely back to you. Practicing a kind tone of voice to others will also influence you to talk in the same tone of voice to yourself.

Be Kind to Your Body
If you are kind to your own body you will strengthen your own relationship with yourself. Treat yourself to a massage, facial or a body scrub. Take time to appreciate your body and thank it for being there for you every single day.

Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
Most people will compare themselves to others and base their own value about themselves on how they perceive others. It may appear that they have a perfect life and we feel it’s us there must be something wrong with. Weaknesses and challenges are something we all face at some point of time, all of us say something stupid, feel embarrassed or feel inadequate at times.

Collect Your Achievements
If we keep focus on what goes wrong and what is bad we will develop a negative view of ourselves. To focus on what you have done wrong is a non productive way of increasing self confidence. Write a Diary about things you are thankful about or think of other ways to remind yourself of things you are proud of.

How you perceive your surrounding and how you perceive yourself does influence your well being, so do try to look on the positive side of things throughout your day and it will pay off to your advantage.