SLO What? SLO What Winter 2018 | Page 6

04 EVERYONE HAS THEIR BAD DAYS & ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING THAT THEY The first thing to know and be sure of is this - everyone feels this way. Everyone has their bad days and absolutely everyone has something that they are self-conscious about. With this being said, do not compare yourself to others. Now, obviously, that is easier said than done. It is almost impossible to look at someone else and pick out all of their best qualities and compare them to your worst. But here’s the thing - they are most likely doing that same thing with you. That girl you admire for being so skinny is envious of your curves. That girl who has long tan legs wishes she could be “petite.” Everyone compares themselves to everyone. Paige Schmidt, the Certified Holistic Health & Transformation Coach behind Healthy Hits the Spot, intimately expresses this problem that many people have. Her video “Positive Body Encouragement for Bikini Season” touches on this topic, saying that, “...we need to learn to capture these thoughts and turn them down, simply because they don’t make us feel good.” She is absolutely right. Comparing ourselves to others does not make us feel good at all and it especially doesn’t make us feel confident. So, the next time you catch yourself wanting someone else’s characteristics, stop and realize what you’re doing. Yes, the girl next to you might be extremely beautiful, but why does that make you any less gorgeous? The next thing to do is to be healthy. Now before you cringe and think about how you’re about to be lectured about gym routines and diets, take a deep breath, you’re not. Yes exercising is healthy, eating right is healthy. But do you know what else is healthy? Loving yourself. Sometimes we are so obsessed with our physical health that we forget how important it is to take care of our mental health. This means a number of things. It means that you need to check in with yourself sometimes just to make sure everything is okay. Find the little things that make you happy and just do what makes you feel good, or as Paige says in her video, “focus on feeling just one percent better”. If this means taking a rest day, do it! Just make sure you are taking care of yourself. This, of course, means being active and eating well but only to your own extent. You don’t have to run ARE SELF- CONSCIOUS ABOUT. “