When you look at yourself in the mirror, it can sometimes be hard to love the reflection staring back at you. As our lives move on, we sometimes end up gaining weight, getting frazzled because of our busy lives, and our skin loses elasticity as we age. Looking at your reflection can be tough when in your heart you’re still eighteen years old and perfectly happy to sprawl on the beach in the tiniest bikini in the world. If you find it hard to look at yourself in the mirror after a shower, here are a few ways for you to feel more body confident.

Focus On Being Strong
First and foremost it’s time to focus on what your body can do and not what it looks like. If you’ve had babies then your body is a marvel – it can house and grow these tiny human beings before pushing them out. Your ‘mummy tummy’ and stretch marks are a sign of your strength, and not anything to be ashamed of. Remember that skinniness is overrated – focus on the way that you feel instead and things like whether you get out of breath easily and whether you can run up a flight of stairs. Feeling strong and able to do things will feel a million times better than thin ever will.

Start A Fitness Class
If you want to get more toned and fit, don’t bother joining the gym – that’s no fun! Instead, go for a fitness class where you can meet new people and have some fun as well as getting fit. Yoga will help to tone you and improve your emotional and mental health as well as your physical strength. Pilates is known for improving your core strength, and if you want to have a dance and a laugh at the same time as getting fit then why don’t you try out zumba?

Consider Cosmetic Options
A lot of people shun cosmetic options but why not explore them? Get your makeup done at the beauty counter and buy a couple of products that make your skin look brighter, and get your hair cut in a new, different style that flatters the shape of your face. If you want to change the shape of your breasts after years of nursing your kids or if you’ve always been troubled by the shape of your nose then remember plastic surgery is nothing to be ashamed of. Just remember to get therapy as well – sometimes the way you feel about your body isn’t restricted to one specific part of it.

Love Yourself
Finally, the biggest challenge of all – and the greatest love of all, as the late and great Whitney Houston said – is learning to love yourself. This will take years of practice, of looking at yourself in the mirror and picking out the things you love, of choosing clothes to show off your shapely calves and delicate wrists and the other parts of your body that you love instead of hiding the parts that you don’t love. It’s a process that you’ll keep going through forever, but it’s more than worth it.