It has been said that the body is a temple- and there is nothing wrong with wanting to look and feel at your best. In fact, taking care of your body in all ways is nothing less than a spiritual act of self-love.  

Looking in the mirror in the chance of catching an image of yourself you will like is not creating your own reality. Neither is waiting for someone to speak a compliment about your physical appearance before you can feel good about yourself.

Empowerment about your physical body is deciding that you’re beautiful regardless of what the mirror or other people suggest. It is then that, almost as a by-product, the mirror (and other people) will begin to reflect back your feeling of beauty. Many of us try to ‘fix’ our bodies in order to get the appreciation but this is back-to-front thinking. Haven’t you noticed those moments of feeling so good that you just look absolutely great and don’t even see those things you once thought needed to change?! It’s all about perception. And when you are perceiving beauty, beauty will expand in your experience in amazing ways. 

Self-acceptance means you stop resisting or pushing against what is not wanted. Some people think that, for example, if you are overweight and accept it- you will be a happy, overweight person. But this is not the way it works. Getting in there and grabbing the bull by the horns and trying to ‘sort the issue out’ only keeps you stuck there. Relaxing and reaching for any thoughts that bring you into happiness- because of your desire to be slim- will mean you will be on the way to being slim.

If you think about it, you have two choices whatever the situation is: to accept where you are or not. We somehow think not accepting is saying ‘no’ to the Universe when in reality saying ‘no’ keeps what we don’t want in our experience longer.

A tip that I share with clients who are insecure about their looks is to ‘zoom out’. When looking in the mirror, see yourself as attractive ‘in outline’. If you were to zoom in on the individual features of a supermodel or sex-symbol actor you’d see a whole host of seeming flaws. And if you ask these people they’d probably agree with your observations (plus tell you a hundred more you hadn’t seen… why do you think air brushing was invented?!). So zoom out, be general and choose to feel attractive regardless of what you observe. It is the same with thoughts; zoom out and rather than trying to change your thoughts around specific physical features, be more general: I am beautiful and becoming more beautiful every day is a good start- and you will find your own better-feeling thoughts.

The irony of Law of Attraction is that when we most need a compliment or a good image in the mirror- or anything to uplift us- it is not there. It is up to us to bring ourselves into the feeling that we would get if we already had the compliment. Once we love and appreciate ourselves, so the world will reflect this straight back to us.

Attractiveness and charisma are choices- they are not some fixed qualities we’re born with! Like learning any new way of looking at ourselves, making the choice requires practice. Just remind yourself of how wonderful you are as you go along to becoming more beautiful, more charismatic and more attractive- both inside and out.