This is episode 163 of the Absolute Mind podcasts and today I am covering being comfortable in your own skin.

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This episode is something that is personal to me as I spent a lot of years feeling uncomfortable with me and desperately wanting to be something/somebody else. Its only over the past few years that I truly feel comfortable in my own skin, who I am and what I do.

It's actually quite common to struggle with feeling uncomfortable in your own skin and and can lead to self criticism and low self esteem especially these days of social media and the amount of pressure we out on ourselves to live up to other peoples standards of lives.

It's far more important to have high regard for ourselves and our own self belief than to worry about what others think of us. Think of the last time you did something wrong or messed up slightly, what did you say to yourself? you might have said - "I'm a failure" "I always mess up". We generally say some pretty harsh things to ourselves but think about it, they way you speak to yourself, would you speak to somebody else in that way?

So how can you stop this cycle and begin to love yourself and feel comfortable in your own skin?

1. Be kind to yourself - show love and accept your faults, stop self criticising and when you do mess up think of what you learnt from the mistake and what you can do differently next time. This is a much more positive way of thinking.
2. Remember you are human - Nobody is perfect, We all have traits that we may want to change, we all mess up. When you can acknowledge this and be fine with it you will be able to accept yourself for who you are being comfortable with your personality, how you look, your career and so on.
3. Be mindful - being mindful of negative thoughts towards yourself and acknowledging them for what they are a negative thought and not the truth can allow you to notice those thoughts without them having an impact. Once you do this those negative thoughts wont be so important and wont be around much longer.
4. Practice some affirmations - Practicing positive affirmations can have a real benefit tell yourself tings such as - "I am worth it" "I am somebody" "I am good enough" "I like myself"

Practising self love is important when trying to feel comfortable with who you are, for you to be able to love those around you, you firstly need to love and accept yourself.