See How Easily You Can Feel Better About Yourself

Clothes are never a frivolity: they always mean something.

~ James Laver

Anxiety can make you feel and think lots of things.  Especially things that aren’t necessarily true.  Ultimately these false beliefs can influence and shape your self-image into complex distortions that make you think that you’re too fat, dumb, giddy or whatever.  A simple way to rejuvenate your self-image is to take care of your appearance.

When it comes to helping people cope with anxiety lots of folks talk about drugs, therapy, and even gimmick programs.  But lets not forget about the daily decisions and actions that really determine how we will be affected by our anxieties.  Maintaining a healthy self-image will make you feel good about yourself, give you more confidence, reduce your fear of judgment by others, and give you a sense of optimism.  By taking the time to take care of yourself you’ll be tending to much more than just the clothes on your back.

Speaking of which, taking care of your appearance means to actually care about what you wear.  Not to say that you have to buy things you can’t afford, but just make sure that what you do have is clean, matches, and doesn’t have holes.  And make sure your shoes don’t look dirty or scuffed up.

Also, don’t neglect personal hygiene.  Pay attention to your hair and nails (that goes for both genders).  Shave and cut your hair when needed.  Remember this isn’t an exercise in narcissism.  This is about making you feel good about yourself so you can benefit from how this makes you feel inside.

People say that you are what you eat.  Well you are what you do too.  In other words, if you walk around dirty, smelling bad, and sporting shabby clothes how do you think you will feel about yourself?  Just remember that feeling good about yourself in the face of all your problems isn’t about miracles.  It’s about the small details.

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