5 Tips on How to Gain Confidence

Recently I was asked to offer a few words on positive body image to a local news program. KETV 7 in Omaha was featuring a story on Paige Breci, a woman who defines herself as plus-size, and is headed to the Miss Nebraska Pageant. Body image is such a loaded conversation that I won’t try to work through all the details in this blog, but the interview I participated in and then seeing this intelligent, beautiful, vibrant woman on TV inspired me to have a blogging conversation with you.

Confidence is Beautiful

Ms. Breci seems to have an innate sense of confidence that many of us wish we had. That’s part of what’s so beautiful about her. She has confidence in herself, and based on her interview, she has had it much of her life. There might be some readers out there who recognize Ms. Breci’s confidence as something they’d like to have as well. There are a few things each of us can do to bring out that inner confidence in ourselves.

How to Gain Confidence Tips:

1) Consider yourself a whole person – not just a number on a scale or a size of clothing in your closet. Look at your beauty on the inside and the outside.

2) Remember that you are a work in progress! Like yourself for who you are and who you are becoming.

3) Have some gratitude for the body you do have – has it healed from surgery, given birth, learned to swim, or gotten up at the crack of dawn to walk on the treadmill?

4) Manage damage by shifting negative, unhealthy thoughts to more positive, realistic ones – such as “I am doing my best” rather than, “I’m sure I’ll do it wrong.”

5) Surround yourself with positive, caring friends who see you as a whole person.

Whether we are born with it or even if we have to work at it a bit, having confidence in ourselves and recognizing our worth is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves.