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If you read my life lessons of 2019 post, you’ll see how transformative last year was for me. Like, it was A YEAR, to put it simply. I worked incredibly hard on managing my anxiety, pushing myself out of my comfort zone and growing my confidence in multiple areas of my life. And it has had the biggest impact on my self esteem. And as someone who’s always suffered quite a bit with their self esteem, that’s quite a significant thing for me.
Photo by Uby Yanes on Unsplash
So going into 2020, I need to keep that momentum up. That’s the thing about goals or changing things in your life – consistency is key. I still very much struggle with my self esteem, particularly around my appearance, but I don’t think hitting the gym for 86 hours a week is necessarily the right way to go about improving your self esteem.
It’ll keep you fit and healthy, sure (which is obviously never a bad thing) but when it comes to true self love and self acceptance, we need to look much deeper than that on the outside.
With all that being said, today I want to share with you the ways in which I’m improving my confidence and my self esteem. Which hopefully I’ll be able to continue with and take well into 2020 with me. Perhaps by 2021, I’ll be completely transformed into the best version of myself I always wanted to be?
More exercise
Bit of an obvious one to start with but I’m doing more exercise than I’ve done in years and I have absolutely no doubt that it is playing a huge part in my increased confidence. After my anxiety started, I just didn’t have the capacity to even THINK about exercising (heck, I didn’t have the capacity to leave the house for months on end). So I wasn’t at a happy weight for my body for a long time (both too light and too heavy) nor was I particularly healthy.
I’m not trying to transform my body into something that it’s not – but I’m trying to take better CARE of it. For me, exercising isn’t really about the goals (although a six pack would be nice!) it’s more about the feeling I get when I exercise and the knowledge that I’m taking care of this beautiful body I was born with.
More meaningful Yoga practices
You know I love Yoga by now – I never stop talking about it! I use it for exercise, for relaxing and for tending to aches and pains. But over the course of the last year, I realised that I’ve been doing Yoga more so to GET THE YOGA DONE than actually paying attention to what I was doing. It was more of a “I need to do Yoga because that’s what I always do” than doing Yoga because my body, mind and spirit needed it. Which is something I am DEFINITELY working on changing this year.
I never want to fall out of love with Yoga and the reasons I started Yoga. I never want to turn it into just another thing to tick off the to-do list. Nor do I want to just muscle through a practice without connecting to the practice on a deeper level. I’m working through Yoga With Adriene’s 30 Days of Yoga Journey ‘Home’ this month to try and fix that!
Photo by Uby Yanes on Unsplash
Taking better care of my appearance
Another thing that anxiety basically robbed me of was the ability to care about my appearance. Now don’t get me wrong, your physical appearance is NOT everything. It doesn’t define you, nor is it the be-all and end-all of having high confidence and self esteem. It’s all about how you feel about yourself. And quite frankly, I hadn’t felt like “me” in a very long time.
I always used to care about how I looked. I used to love doing my nails and my make up, experimenting with my hair and different brands of fake tan. But I only recently found my love for that again last year. I also learnt that you can take care of your appearance for YOU. It absolutely does not have to be for the sake of anyone else.
Late 2019, I got my hair cut short. Prior to it being down to my bum. I got new glasses too. And I finally started to feel like me again. I’ve never been a fan of my nose and I think in the future – if I had the money to do it this year I absolutely would – I’d look into getting a non-surgical nose job, like what Harley Street Medical offers but again, it’d be for ME. Not for anyone else.
Give myself time off
As a self-employed workaholic, this is something I struggle with, but I’m working on it. I promise. I gave myself a whole WEEK off over Christmas and it was absolutely glorious. But going forward, I won’t just be giving myself time off because it’s Christmas or New Year or my birthday. I’m going to be giving myself time off because, well, I deserve it.
Which I think is important to remember in your journey to higher confidence and self esteem. Having the confidence to know that you DESERVE downtime. You DESERVE a day off. You DESERVE to sit in bed and eat pizza and watch Netflix for eight hours. It’s all about that self love baby.
Continue to step outside of my comfort zone
And finally, another thing that has had a serious impact on my confidence, which I’m definitely taking into the New Year with me, is stepping out of that comfort zone! Gosh, had I not stepped so far out of my comfort zone from the middle of last year onwards, I don’t think I’d be where I am today. Incredible what half a year can do, isn’t it?
In my personal and professional life, I’ve pushed and pushed and pushed myself and I couldn’t be happier about it. My mental health has improved, I’ve made new friends, I’m making more plans, I’m accepting more opportunities – the list is endless. More of that this year, please. Stepping outside your comfort zone is a great way to Unleash Your Potential.
How are you improving your confidence in 2020? What steps are you taking – big or small – to step out of your comfort zone, improve your self esteem or help you feel more like you?
* This is a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.