How do we #choosebeautiful every day? Dove has been asking women all over the world this question. Paula Facci from Thrive Factor gives us the answers:
One Beautiful Thought
Why not start the day in a beautiful way? In the morning, look at yourself in the mirror and choose one beautiful thought to have about yourself for that day. You might want to use the same thought for a week or an entire month. Or you could choose a new thought each day. At the end of the day, reflect on the positive impact this thought had on you and capture it in a journal.
Surround Yourself with Beauty
Our physical surroundings impact the levels of stress that we experience, which in turn impact our well-being and happiness. Noise and clutter can make us feel anxious, sad and stressed. By contrast, a more beautiful and healing environment can make us feel safe, happy, and relaxed. Spend time beautifying and enhancing your space. Surround yourself with the smells, sights and sounds that make you feel and function at your best. When you are surrounded by beauty, you will find it much easier to remain connected to the beauty within you.
Practise Mindfulness
- Use self-awareness: Notice your default thoughts, beliefs and conditioning at play.
- Don’t believe everything you think: Question the negative thoughts and let go of thoughts and beliefs that don’t serve you.
- Focus: On the positive and more resourceful thoughts.
- Override: Your default beliefs, stories and thoughts through conscious choice.
- Repeat!
Be Kind, Feel Beautiful
Notice and acknowledge the beauty in others at least once a week. Give someone a compliment, pass on your favourite book to a friend or donate your unused clothes or household items. Even a simple, friendly smile can be a tremendous act of kindness. Research shows that 30% of South African women feel more beautiful when they do something nice for someone else (Dove South Africa 2013 survey).
Exercise Self-Care
72% of women agree that beauty is not about being born with the most, but about making the most with what you have (Global Dove Research: The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited 2010), which emphasises the importance of excellent self-care. Make conscious choices to start incorporating better self-care into your life. Self-care does not have to be an all or nothing approach. Every little self-care choice compounds, to have an overall impact on the way you see and feel about yourself.
Practise Gratitude
This is an effective way of overriding our brain’s negativity bias; its biological tendency to always focus and dwell on the negative. Try the 3 Good Things exercise. Each night before bed, write down three good things that happened during your day, or three things that went well. Then reflect on why they went well and how you contributed to it that. By giving yourself the space to focus on the positive, this practice teaches you to notice, remember and savour the better things about your life and yourself.
Self-Compassion
Many of us feel the need to be loved. Research suggests that feeling loved, is the number one contributing factor to women feeling more beautiful. 72% of women globally agree that when they feel loved, they feel more beautiful (Global Dove Research: The Real Truth About Beauty: Revisited 2010).
Stop living in expectation of receiving this love from other people only. Take the lead in making yourself feel loved. Every day, do one thing, big or small, to nurture and take care of yourself. Every week, choose to do one thing that you really love doing.
Check out the video below and see how DOVE is helping more and more women to choose beautiful.
