Why You Should Compliment Yourself:

I know, the title of this article seems silly.  Why should you compliment yourself? You’re probably thinking, I already know I’m a good wife, mother, friend, etc. Or you might think, I love how far I’ve come in life with my career and skills that I’ve aquired.  But that’s not what I’m trying to say. Those are great qualities that you may have that others see as well, but do you compliment YOU.  Your body. Your looks, your personality, your little quirks about yourself.  It’s hard to compliment ourselves when it comes to those types of things because we are our own worst enemies.  It’s true.  Right now, if someone walks by you and has the same body type as you, looks like you, and dresses like you, you’d probably think, “Wow, she looks great.”.   Complimenting ourselves doesn’t seem necessary and to some it may seem a bit selfish.  The reason why you should compliment yourself isn’t because you’re trying to look better than others, it should be because your body is a powerful tool and it craves it and needs it to be healthy.

Did you know that your body is so powerful that it can heal on its own, get sick on its own, and also destroy itself on its own?  The connection between your brain and your body is so intense that even negative thoughts can reek havoc on your body.  For example, you know how when you are really really nervous and stressed for a big event or test coming up? You lose sleep over it, you don’t eat well, and you are so stressed that you start to forget things.  Let’s extend that over a longer period of time- years.  Traumatic things in our life can leave long lasting effects such as depression and anxiety.  When your body isn’t releasing Dopamine,(the “good stuff” that makes your brain and body feel happy), you start to shut down. You’ll feel that you get sick easier, you may have developed inflammation, weight gain, insomnia, and delayed wound healing.  This is your bodies response to stress and negativity.   Once you change your mindset and start to let a little light back in, you see a noticeable difference.  Click here for tips on how you can relieve stress in your life.

If you don’t compliment yourself on a daily basis, let’s start with some baby steps. I know it can be hard to love your body when you only see your flaws like most women do. It’s a curse, I tell ya! But with time, it is possible to start loving yourself in ways that only you see. Afterall, you are the only one living in your body. Why not love the skin you’re in?

Giving compliments is just as beneficial and stimulating as receiving compliments.  Now, if you’re not good at receiving compliments and don’t know how to accept them, that’s another story for another time. That usually stems from past experiences that made it hard to take compliments. But there’s hope in that too!  People give you compliments because they truly mean it. It’s ok to say thankyou.

Here are my top 5 reasons why you should compliment yourself:

1. Complimenting yourself makes you smile more.  Nothing is better than an infectious smile. You smile and it makes other smile and it’s like a rippling effect. Smiling also releases Dopamine into your body giving you that feel good feeling.  The more you smile, the more you’ll be noticed. Not in the way of everyone staring at you, but in the way of people wanting to learn more about you.  Happy people tend to migrate towards other happy people.  The more you surround yourself with happiness, a light will ignite inside of you.  You will start to crave good in people and want more happy vibes so you’ll want to be with them too.
2. It’s a great pick-me up!  Love that new sweater you just bought? Nothing beats wearing a new fresh outfit out for the first time.  You love the new sweater so you give one last look in the mirror before you head out to meet friends.  You know you look good, so you start to feel good. And when you feel like you look put together, your friends will pick up on that too and give you a compliment about your outfit which only help boost that confidence.  Wanna kick it up a notch and add some extra spice? Try on a piece of lingerie that you never thought you’d see yourself in. No one needs to see it except for you, and if you love it, show your significant other. His compliments will be very nice to hear, I promise. Don’t know which lingerie style to pick out? Try this Lingerie For Your Body Type and see what would work best for you!
3. Increases self-esteem.  Complimenting yourself (especially your body) can be hard when you don’t look like you did in your younger years. Maybe you’ve had children,  hormonal changes or heck, you’ve aged a bit. That’s what’s supposed to happen.  Getting older is a gift denied by many so you might as well embrace it.  Our bodies change as we get older and that’s ok.  We aren’t as active as we used to be, possibly because of our jobs or lack of the energy we once had.  Weight gain can decrease our self esteem and make us feel not has beautiful as we were in our prime. But complimenting ourselves can help change that. I’m not saying you need to be a size 2 to be happy.  I’m saying all you need is the confidence. No matter what size, shape, race, etc if you have the confidence, you don’t care what others think and you can live freely.  For some, it’s not that easy.  You will see that over time it will get easier but for now, take it slow.  Look at your body in the mirror. I mean reallllly look at it — for longer than 5 seconds.  Notice things that make you unique. Try to see behind your flaws that you think you might have and see what others see.  Trust others when they say you are beautiful.  We only see the reflection of the person in front of us, not the actual person.  Other’s see you in a whole different light.
4. Complimenting your body can help put up a guard against criticism.  The more confident you are, the more immune  you are to both the good and bad.   You’ll be more accepting of praise, and less bothered by criticism. We are all human, there is definitely both good and evil in the world and once you choose to only see the good, the bad won’t hurt as much.  The people who put you down or talk negatively about you (mostly behind your back) because they are too cowardly to say it to your face, stems from their own insecurities and they feel better when they take it out on others.
5. You’ll achieve more of your goals if you compliment yourself.  Just like being able to take the good and the bad that comes your way, you are also capable of both encouraging and discouraging yourself.  You are the only one that can ultimately make the decision. You have to hold yourself accountable. You have a goal to go to the gym everyday?  What’s stopping you? You try to trick yourself into thinking that you are too busy or too tired or come up with another excuse as to why you can’t go, but then you also get upset when you haven’t reached your goal. If you don’t put in the work, you won’t see results. You are the only one in control of your body.  It’s a mindset. Once you change that mindset and make the gym (or whatever goal you have) a priority as a part of your daily schedule,  you will see results from that hard work and dedication which only helps boost your confidence.  It also gives you that feeling of accomplishment.  It’s not hard to see why you should compliment yourself after seeing results right in front of you changing for the better.

You’ve got this!  Now, it doesn’t happen overnight. This will take time if you don’t already compliment yourself. But there are no other reasons why you should compliment yourself more than accepting the body you’re in.  When you truly accept your flaws and see yourself differently, the world is your oyster.  The amount of confidence you’ll see grow inside of you is worth it.  You should compliment your body every single day.  Want to speed up the process faster and have someone jump-start your body acceptance journey? Book a Boudoir session and look at yourself through a different lens to bring out all of your best qualities. The experience is truly life changing.