Probably every person can admit they have felt insecure about their appearance at some point.
We live in a society of comparison and heavily-edited visuals, so it’s not surprising that a staggering 59 percent of Americans say they struggle with feeling confident about their looks.
It may feel like an endless cycle of self-doubt, but there are ways to work through your battle with self-confidence and come out the other side feeling comfortable in your skin.
A huge part of pushing past your worries is assessing your mindset and separating your personal feelings from reality. Fortunately, you don’t have to start in a place of self-assurance to begin feeling good about yourself.
If you’re caught up in the wave of insecurity, now is actually the perfect time to work on gaining confidence in your appearance. Follow these style tips to begin your healthy relationship with yourself.
Shift Your Mindset
Firstly, know that confidence comes from a place of knowing your self-worth, whereas insecurity is formed through comparison and doubt. You can change a lot of your perception when you realize you can manually override your thoughts.
If you’ve ever heard that you manifest the things you focus on, it’s true!
If you constantly reinforce the idea that you are unworthy and don’t measure up, you’ll believe it. Instead, try to replace these doubts with truths—you are good enough, and you deserve to feel great about who you are.
Dress for Yourself
You can probably relate to the habit of assessing your clothing in light of what others are wearing or what they’ll think. In order to create true personal confidence, you need to push those thoughts aside and dress for yourself.
Focus on the style you like and the outfits that best express you.
Every time you start to feel insecure about how you look or what others will think, just remember that people actually respect those who have enough confidence to do their own thing proudly—but what others think isn’t what matters.
Choose Quality Clothing Pieces
There’s a huge difference between quality-made versus cheaply-crafted garments. Not only is the quality apparent in the way the material hangs, feels, and looks, but you, the wearer, can sense the value of the clothes.
In order to teach yourself confidence, dress as though you deserve to wear nice things—because you do!
You can find an assortment of quality clothing manufacturers online that have confidence-boosting clothes just for you, whether you wear plus size, petite, tall, or standard sizes.
Use Color to Stimulate Confidence
Ever heard the phrase “fake it until you make it”? The same is true with style! Even if your standard clothing pieces are in neutral shades to avoid drawing attention to yourself, you can create a sense of confidence by going outside your comfort zone.
People associate bright, bold colors with self-assurance because they do indeed grab attention. Those colors that you love to decorate with but steer away from in clothing? Wear them! You’ll work towards authentic confidence one bright outfit at a time.
Be As Simple or Extravagant As You Like
Style is personal, so it’s important that you figure out what you like and curate looks that match your aesthetic. This doesn’t have to appear any particular way; for instance, you can be incredibly trendy but stick to minimalist, staple pieces.
On the other hand, you might be a person who loves to add layers and depth to your outfits.
There’s no one right way to wear clothes, so do what feels good.
Focus On the Outfit, Not the Way It Looks On You
We can all agree that we are less-than-objective viewers when it comes to our own bodies. You probably perceive “flaws” and parts about yourself that you don’t like, but no one else is thinking the same way as you—or even noticing those areas at all!
So when it comes to the clothes you wear, it’s easy to start nitpicking the way they look on your body. In reality, clothes never look the same on you as they do on the mannequin because every person is made differently.
Try to separate your feelings about the way your outfit looks on you from how you feel about the outfit itself.
If you aren’t loving that skirt, don’t hang on to it! But if you loved it until you saw it on yourself, acknowledge that you’re probably feeling biased about your appearance.
You’re not alone in feeling insecure sometimes, but when it affects your style and causes you to limit the clothes you wear, it’s time to focus on creating confidence. With just the way you dress alone, you can begin to feel more comfortable in your skin.
Now is the perfect time to experiment with your style, so utilize these tips to create self-confidence that lasts!