For those of us who have been blessed with a body that others admire, there is no necessity on overcoming body image issues. These people just need to bask in their own beauty. We want first to love ourselves and loving ourselves means accepting ourselves the way we are. Self-acceptance is about loving our own wholeness and that includes the body which is in other people's opinion, out of shape.

The starting point for each one of us who has body shapes that are not the model kind is to love and accept ourselves. When we have self-acceptance, we simply realize that we have not been taking care of ourselves by eating unhealthily as well as letting our body go without the exercise our body needs. When we can love ourselves, we love our bodies as well with the flaws and from this time onwards, we work towards a healthy lifestyle by making choices to eat healthily and to make time from our hectic routine to work our bodies by simply taking brisk walk or other exercises which we can do and enjoy. This way, we start to tone our bodies as well as gradually removing the excess weight we have on ourselves which does not serve us.

It is important that we find clothes that suit us and when we are dressed in clothes that flatter us, we are confident. When we have self confidence, it is one way of improving our own self-esteem and these are small steps that we can take to improve our lives. It is utmost important to realize that when we love ourselves, we simply take care of our bodies. This awareness is what we need inside us that help us whether we take a smaller portion of food, the choices of food that we put into our bodies as well as the effort needed to hit the gym or take the stairs to work out the body. Over time, when we start making these small changes in our daily lives, we are making positive changes to improve ourselves. When we see ourselves making small improvements, we want to do more for ourselves and that is where we know we have the ability to do so and this is the power we have within us.

When we have this awareness, we have beauty within us and this beauty simply radiates outwards. The good feeling we have about ourselves will naturally cause us to want to dress well to please ourselves. In fact, when we feel all is right within us, we feel beautiful in each moment of our lives and when we are in the awareness, we choose clothes that we simply look good in it. The secret is to nurture ourselves and when we nurture ourselves, we have the power to give to ourselves whatever we have chasing. When we learn to love ourselves, we overcome any body image issues we have of ourselves.

Learn more about this author, Helen Tay.
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