Gillette Venus recently launched its ‘My Skin. My Way’ campaign aimed at empowering women to celebrate the skin they’re in. Along with this campaign, they released the results of a women’s self-esteem study that they commissioned. The results were troubling.
Of 2,000 women polled, one third of them cancelled going to social events (like girls-nights-out) because they lacked confidence. Around 12% of them cancelled dates for the same reason. And one out of every ten stayed home from work because they just didn’t feel good enough about themselves. A whopping 63% said they would feel more confident in themselves if women in advertisements looked the way they did.
Loving yourself is way easier said than done. But if you want to find happiness and peace in your life, you need to love the lady staring back at you in the mirror.
Ask yourself: If every ad showed a woman who looked just like you, would it really help your self-esteem? I think not. You would only feel “normal” or “worthy” because society said it was OK to. That’s not how self-esteem works. It doesn’t matter what society thinks about you. All that matters is what you think!
Learning to love yourself is a lifelong process that begins with answering the question…
Why don’t you love yourself?
You don’t have to share the answer with another soul, but you do need to be honest with yourself. Do you feel bad about yourself because you’ve gained weight or because you can’t gain weight? Maybe you were bullied when you were younger, and you carried the shame with you into adulthood. Maybe you’re going through a divorce or a breakup and you’ve never felt more unloved. Maybe there’s many reasons you want to hide away from the world… some seem enormous and some are tiny but they still bother you. Either way, they won’t allow you to feel the happiness that you deserve.
Take comfort in the fact that we all feel down on ourselves at times. But when your self-esteem gets so low that you don’t want to be around people, you need to eliminate what’s causing you so much hurt, anxiety and fear. These insecurities are never going to go away unless you face them head on.
Once you know what triggers your low self-esteem, you can work on combating it. Stop letting others tell you who you are or who you should be. Stop negative self talk and push shame out of the picture. Be grateful for what you have, and for the fact that you’re alive. Surround yourself with good people who have your best intentions in mind. Do something kind for someone who is worse off than you are. Dare yourself to do something scary. Think about the last time you felt true happiness, and ask yourself what you need to do to feel that way again. Then go do it.
And if you really want a self esteem boost to kick off a new season and a new you… well, click here. Let’s show the world who you really are: An incredibly amazing woman!
xoxo,
Evgenia
