🪞 Radiate Confidence: Cultivating a Positive Body Image By Journaling🪞

To continue on with our discussion on radiating confidence, we have to get real. Self-love is essential for confidence, but it’s also essential for a positive body image. ✅ When you think about it, teen years are stereotypically the time we think of people having body image issues. However, some of us can go our whole lives not being satisfied with the skin we were born in. It takes work, but it’s doable.

Positive Body Image: To Perceive or Not to Perceive? 👀

Honey this lil app called Instagram can have you all in your feelings, second guessing your entire life. 🤔 The “perfect” bodies, “perfect” relationships, “perfect” families, & “perfect” images have changed people’s beliefs from keeping it real into creating mirages. It’s unbelievable!

      There are plenty of people who are more concerned with how their lives are perceived on social media than how they’re authentically living. 🤔 Every little thing goes online. No shade, if that’s you, cool. However, I’m too caught up in living in & enjoying the moments to be worried about a picture or reel. Hell, I hate taking/doing both! Cue the fake smile & snap. 😬📸

     Now don’t get me wrong, I do look at some pictures & videos & say “WTF” at times, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I have body image issues. We all have days that we don’t feel our best. Nobody is immune, & if they say they are, the lie detector determines that’s a lie! 😒 You can’t be on it 24/7/365…at least truthfully & without worrying about your appearance every second of the day. 

Positive Body Image…Where? 🕵🏽‍♀️

Those bodies we perceive as being perfect probably have the tightest hold on people. You can barely tell if someone’s  appearance is real, or if it’s:

• Altered by filters
• Photoshopped
• Surgery
• A. I. 

Chile them Kardashian’s will have you believing you can work out, eat healthy sporadically, & have a 20” waist & 40” booty without surgery. I call 🐂💩! It might be possible for about 0.5% of the population, but the vast majority ain’t natural. 🤷🏽‍♀️ 

     Anyone who’s ever worked out to lose weight knows the fat leaves, & that includes your booty. There’s no spot-shrinking without going to lay on somebody’s table. But if someone happens to stumble across that miracle, holla at ya girl so this leftover belly from dem chirren can scram. ✌🏽And on top of that, who can survive off 3 pieces of lettuce per meal? 🥬

Project Radiate Confidence With a Positive Body Image ✨

Now that I’m comfortable in my skin for the most part, I’m equipped to instill that confidence in my daughter & other young ladies. It’s important for her to know she was made this way & is unique for a reason, no matter how much she may look like me or her dad. 👧🏾 I compliment & affirm her frequently so it’s in her mind that she’s perfect the way she is, & nobody else has to like her inside or outside as long as she does.

Our journals can assist with keeping body image as positive as possible. They include daily affirmations that can help put your mind in an uplifting position. Whether you write first thing in the morning & need to start the day on the right foot, or you write right before bed to decompress before you settle off into Lalaland, Intentional Journals provide a safe space to cultivate positivity. While the adult versions focus more on positivity, decompressing, reflecting on the day, & planning for the day ahead, the young adult version does all of the above plus tracking feelings, pouring love into yourself on the Self-Love page, & making an emergency plan for anytime you need a pick-me-up. Either version is sure to help you have a more optimistic frame of mind.

     It’s our duty to help one another. That’s what God put us here together to do: hold each other down. Therefore, it’s each of our responsibility to put positivity out in the world. 🌍 You can’t go around spewing hateful things & think someone wants to deal with you. It costs nothing to empower someone else & even less to keep your nasty words & thoughts to yourself.

     Compliment your loved ones on a regular basis. You never know how a sentence can impact someone’s life. That one sentence could literally save someone from hurting themselves or someone else. 🛟 The tongue is the most powerful organ we have, & we can use it to boost up or tear down. It’s your choice what you put out into the universe. 

     If social media becomes something negative for you, delete the apps. These apps were created for socialization & fun. Far too many people take it too seriously & too personally. I don’t even know where some get the time to make or watch so much content. I can barely watch a whole 30 second reel without moving on to the next thing before it ends. 🤷🏽‍♀️ 

     If you see bullying, either do something to stop it or excuse yourself from the forum. There’s no need in going back & forth with folks (who are mostly strangers). It ain’t that deep, & if it is, you might want to reevaluate some things. If your social media interactions aren’t making you money, throw up the deuces & exit stage left. ✌🏽 

     People forget that once something is on the internet, it’s there forever. ♾️ It only takes one person to download & save it, only for it to come back 10 years later to haunt you. If you insist on having a presence online, make sure it’s a reflection of who you really are & the legacy you want to leave. 🪞Your positivity can be contagious & might help someone embrace self-love & body positivity for themselves. 

     Let’s commit to showing the future generations how to treat one another. Let’s plant seeds of positivity into their minds so they can continue to spread light instead of darkness.🌱 Let’s show love to others, but more importantly, to ourselves. You deserve to feel good about yourself as much as the next person. Now go embrace all that you are, inside & out.