The world can be critical. You might feel consumed with self-doubt and comparisons. There is a quote that you are your toughest critic.

I am no expert and I don't know if that is true or not as I feel many people have criticized me pretty toughly. but what I do know is that if I can learn to love and accept myself, the words of my critics hold less power over me. I hope from this article you can take tangible tips on how to embrace your imperfections and block out the noise of our tough critics.

What do you like about yourself?

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My first advice is, to think about what you like about yourself. This can feel awkward and sometimes even challenging, but brainstorm your favorite things about yourself. Is it your witt, your smile, your eyes?

Maybe you like your laugh, your confidence, or your courage. This exercise is something I recommend practicing every day. This is not always easy. I know for me creating a list of things I love about myself has been hard at times and takes work. I am doing this exercise every day and it has helped me. What I did was in a notebook I started a list and titled it what I love about myself. After creating this list every night before I go to bed I try to add something. There were nights when this was harder than others, when it was hard though I could read back on old things I wrote and it would not only spark a new idea but make me happy and feel more confident. When I started this, I will admit it took me a few days to even come up with 3 things I genuinely liked about myself. I have been doing this for around a year and feel more confident and have a long list.

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Affirmations

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There are several ways to go about affirmations. When starting with affirmations, I would write them on a mirror or on my phone. Following the I am… template.

Ex; I am smart, I am kind I am brave, etc. Then after doing that for some time, I would start saying them to myself in my head. After that, I started saying them to myself out loud. This felt less daunting for me going from writing them to saying them vs just starting with saying them allowed. Now In the morning as I get ready for school I will try and say 3 affirmations a day. I recommend trying this process and practicing daily reminders of self-love.

Talking to your young self

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This idea I got from a Cosmopolitan article where Kendall Jenner said that she did this.

Hanging on my bathroom mirror is a baby picture of myself. It is a picture of my preschool self taped on a gold star. Every time I look in the mirror I am critical and harsh to myself and I point out what I don't like about myself, and I see my preschool self.

She is smiling at me, she looks so innocent and confident. I then remember that when I am being mean to myself I am also being mean to her. This has helped me.

Everyone is focused on their insecurities

We are all so caught up in our insecurities and what we consider our imperfections that we forget others feel this way too. If we are all caught up in our stuff I feel it is safe to assume that others are not as focused on our insecurities as we are. Has someone ever just pointed out something you're already insecure about? if someone is pointing out something you already felt insecure about, maybe they are insecure about the same thing in themselves and are taking it out on you to cope.

If someone made fun of me for being sensitive, maybe they are insecure about showing that they are sensitive or maybe they wish they could be more sensitive and are taking it out on me. Whether this is true or not it helps to think this way. So next time someone mentions one of your insecurities for no reason, rephrase it in your head to “Maybe they are just taking their insecurities out on me.”

Idols and role models

With social media, many people think to avoid it when working on self-love and embrace insecurities. This can be true. Social media can be critical and judgmental as well as lead to comparison.

I also think that for me social media at times has helped me. It helps to find a content creator who you can relate too. maybe you share similar experiences or someone who promotes self-love and inspires you. think if this is something that could help you? then try and brainstorm some content creators you feel inspired by and follow them!

I asked peers about their opinions on this and found…

“I find it helps to laugh at myself and take life a little less seriously at times.”

“ I feel like I am my toughest critic”

“ I like to tell myself to crush today and to not let today crush me

laugh at yourself (a good amount)

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These are good points. Sometimes you just have to laugh. You determine how you react to a situation.

Maybe you drop your lunch in front of everyone at school because you are clumsy. There are different ways you can react to this. You determine how you reply to this situation. So instead of running away and getting embarrassed you just laugh and clean it up. Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself a little and embrace the imperfections. I have found taking it a little less seriously does help.