Something that took me a long time to embrace is my body as it is. As it is, sometimes it takes a while to love yourself, as in your personality and who you are as a person, but you should embrace the outside as well. It's easier said than done. I understand, but you must do it to live a happy life. Acceptance in life is key to happiness.
Accepting your body as it is is a journey and won't happen overnight. Anything negative said to you can really hurt your self-esteem, but it is important not to let what anyone says about you influence your opinion of yourself. What you think of yourself should be the only opinion that matters.
You should work on yourself daily. If you don't like your body, work on getting it into the shape that you want, or learn to love yourself as you are. This can be one of the hardest hurdles to overcome in life. Especially when we live in a world of over photo-shopped models.
Unfortunately, it requires you to face yourself and your flaws. You have to be 100 percent real with yourself and try to find what would make you happy with yourself. That might involve eating better, exercising, cutting certain people off in your life or other major life changes. Some of these changes may be emotionally and/or physically painful. So keep that in mind and pace yourself. Remember, it's a journey and it might take time.
Changing your personality might take a lot longer than changing your body. This would involve realizing that there is something about your personality that you don't like and finding the tools to change it. It is really hard to fight your own nature. You can do it, but only if you want to. Don't change because someone else thinks you should. Do it for yourself.
For me, eating healthy makes me feel really good about myself. I like to make smoothie bowls when I don't feel so great about myself. Little things like that can serve as pick-me-ups when you don't feel so great. For some people, it could be going to the movies, going for a run or something else that makes you feel good about yourself. Do these often.
Just realize that you were given one body and one life. You should make the most of it and treat your body well. Loving the body you were given can take a while to embrace. You are perfect the way God made you, though. Self-love and self-confidence will eventually happen for you, but it will take some time to achieve. You have to work on it every day. You'll have your good days and your bad, but it is important to learn self-love.
