“Mom am I beautiful?” Not the words I expected out of the mouth of my four-year-old. I don’t remember becoming worried about my image till I was in 6th grade at least! Why is it that girls are becoming more and more worried about their image and at such a young age too?
CNN did a report back in 2015 that stated girls as young as 5 years old are concerned about their self-image and they linked it to the behavior that they see from their mothers. Reading that article was like a slap in the face. I’m 5’2” and around 100 pounds; I never thought of myself as a person who has struggled a ton with my self-image. But as I read that article tons of “innocent” comments came flooding back.
“I don’t look good in this outfit”
“My hair looks like crap”
“My face is breaking out like crazy”
Unknowingly, I was the one teaching my four-year-old to worry about her self-image. So right at that moment, I decided to challenge myself to change not only how I SPEAK about myself, but how I THINK about myself. It’s time that I made the effort to teach my daughter through example to love ourselves.
But, where was I supposed to start?
After some research I found an article written in The Huffington Post on 5 ways to improve your self-image:
Gratitude for what is and what works
None of us have perfect bodies. Unfortunately, what we do is focus on the imperfections instead of what we do have going for us. So this is the first step in this journey, acknowledge our positive features.
Listen to the needs of the body
As a mom of three who works from home at all hours of the day, I am constantly tired! And while I take amazing supplements to give my body nutrition that my diet lacks, I know that the second I feel even a little sluggish I am turning to caffeine as a solution instead of eating better or working out. So for the next 30 days I will be focusing on more of what my body needs and getting rid of my dependency on the caffeine.
Rewire your brain
How many times a day do we make comments about our hair, makeup, or clothes? I have a few Marco Polo groups with some girlfriends and at least once a day someone apologizes about how they look in their video. We have to rewire what we say, even if it’s just to ourselves. So from now on no apologizing for how I look, and no negative comments!
Re-evaluate self-worth
According to Huffington’s article “How we nourish our bodies has a lot to do with self-worth. Until you feel worthy of feeling your best, you will constantly undermine your own efforts to achieving that end” So it’s time to do some meditation and internally telling myself that I am worthy.
Listen to your own information
The last and final step in this journey will be to listen to myself. This is honestly going to be the hardest part of the journey and it won’t come naturally. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to push myself in careers to be better, now I have to acknowledge that I am fine the way I am.
This is going to be an interesting month as I retrain some deeply seeded habits, but I hope to see a difference in how my 4-year-old behaves. As moms, our daughters should be looking to us as an example and a source of strength. I’ll update in a month my results but please join me in this journey!
