What you should be doing as soon as you get out of the shower
When you take a nice, hot, steamy shower, then turn the water off, it can be tempting to grab a towel and wrap it around you immediately. That could be because your bathroom is a bit cold (brrr). . . or perhaps because you don’t want to look at any exposed flesh any longer than necessary. However, before you reach for that fluffy towel, there’s something you should do first.
According to Yahoo Health, experts say that the best thing you can do for your confidence and self-esteem is check yourself out. That’s right — your naked self, in all your glory. “[It] desensitizes you to being so negative about your body,” clinical psychologist and body image expert Amy L. Flowers, PhD, told the publication. “It normalizes the experience.”
The main two reasons many of us tend to avoid looking at ourselves in the mirror is because we notice what we deem to be our flaws before we notice anything else, and because we automatically compare ourselves with others — especially the unrealistic beauty standards in the media, like swimsuit models and airbrushed celebrities. “We’re kind of trained in our society to think about the ways we can improve upon ourselves,” psychologist and body image expert Sari Shepphird, PhD, told Yahoo Health. “But the more we focus on our flaws, the more they’re magnified — and then we’re going to want to avoid looking at our bodies in general.”
Experts recommend we not only check ourselves out, but do a quick exercise as well: Name five positive things about your body. These can be things you’re grateful for, or perhaps things that you like the look of. It can be anything at all, from your eye color to the pedicure you just got the other day — just as long as it’s positive.
If you’re having trouble coming up with five things you like about yourself, think about good comments and compliments you’ve received from others lately. And if your fear of looking at yourself in the mirror is higher, start with completing this confidence exercise once a week instead of daily, then slowly work your way up. It’s a very tiny change in your routine that can have”very transformational” results, Sheppird said.
There you have it, folks. Let’s make it our new year’s resolution to look at our beautiful bodies in the mirror after our showers, every single day.
(Image via Shutterstock.)
