Confidence & Body Image

• National Association for Self-Esteem (NASE): Rate your self-esteem, read the latest research, and engage in activities to boost it
• Life With Confidence: Find games, quotes, articles, and more to cultivate confidence
• “5 Yoga Poses For Confidence and Inner Strength”: Engage the mind-body connection with these empowering yoga poses
• CBT Worksheets: These PDF worksheets were designed to improve self-esteem
• “5 Mantras for Daily Self-Love”: This infographic lists 5 mantras for you to hold in mind when your self-esteem feels threatened
• “5 Easy Steps That Help You Build Self-Esteem with Meditation”: A brief, written meditation for building confidence
• The Kanye West Self-Confidence Generator: Get inspired by the singer who “love[s] you like Kanye loves Kanye”
• “The 15 Day Confidence Challenge”: New activities for each day designed to push your boundaries and improve your self-esteem
• Self Esteem Worksheets: 18 exercises for kids, teens, and adults
• “5 Everyday Practices to Boost Your Confidence”: These techniques from Bossed Up will help you gain the self-assuredness you need, particularly in the workplace
• More Self-Esteem Worksheets: These worksheets target adults, and cover topics like challenging negative thoughts, creating gratitude journals, listing positive traits, and more
• “A Guided Meditation to Quiet Self-Doubt and Boost Confidence: This video will guide you through a roughly 11 minute long meditation for boosting self-esteem
• “6 Steps Towards More Confidence At Work”: Tips for building your professional self-image and morale
• “10 Ways to Appear Confident (When You’re Really Not)”: Physical tips for coming across as confident
• “6 Personal Commitments to Overcome Low Self-Esteem”: 6 changes you can make in how you act and think as you move towards a greater sense of self-worth
• “10 Minute Guided Meditation for Confidence and Self-Esteem”: This audio meditation (presented in video format) is designed to uplift and inspire
• “How to Make Confident Eye-Contact With Anyone”: Practice looking others directly in the eye with these helpful tips

Apps

• Build Self-Esteem Hypnosis: Offers guided meditations on eliminating negative self-talk

Healthy Relationship with Body Image and Food

• Health At Every Size (HAES): Find podcasts, books, blogs, and community resources on HAES’s website
• Eating Disorder Screening Tool: Are you struggling with body image and eating healthily? This help can help you determine whether it’s a good idea to seek professional help.
• “7 Steps to Instant Body Confidence”: There’s no miracle trick to gaining unshakeable self-esteem, but these tips will help guide you on your journey towards body positivity
• My Name is Jessamyn: Practice yoga with body-positive yogi Jessamyn Stanley
• “How to Boost Your Body Confidence This Summer”: This blog looks at how and why our body image dips in the summer (hint—swimsuits are involved), and ways you can fight that trend
• “3 Tips For Coping With Triggers in Eating Disorder Recovery”: How to handle situations where you’re tempted to engage in unhealthy eating patterns.

• “How to Boost the Confidence of Others”: Simple strategies for letting others know how great they are
• “10 Tips On How to Build Confidence In Kids”: Encourage the young people in your life to love and feel proud of themselves
• “How to Help A Partner With Low Self-Esteem in 6 Creative Ways”: Support your partner and/or spouse with these tricks
• “What Not To Say To Someone With Low Self-Esteem”: Steer away from these common phrases when speaking with a friend whose self-esteem has suffered due to a breakup, a bad layoff, etc.
• “Teaching Strategies to Build Student Confidence”: Advice for teachers on how to create an atmosphere that promotes student self-esteem

Body Image & Healthy Eating

• “How to Help a Friend With Eating and Body Image Issues”: Ideas from the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA)
• “Kids Who Won’t Eat: How to Help Children With Eating Disorders”: A piece from Parents on recognizing dangerous eating patterns and how to combat them
• “How to Help Someone With An Eating Disorder”: Advice for supporting friends and family members and identifying the best type of treatment
• “The Impact of Body Image on Patient Care”: A case vignette and analysis from the Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

Stories

• “How to Talk Yourself Down From A Self-Esteem Spiral”: Haley Nahman shares the skills she uses to recover from feelings of self-doubt and low confidence
• “5 Superstars Who Have Talked About Their Low Self-Esteem”: Even the most powerful, talented people need a boost sometimes
• “The Reality of Low Self-Esteem”: One writer shares her journey with low self-worth
• “Brand New Kind of My: How I Overcame Low Self-Esteem and Negativity To Be a Better Me (and You Can Too)”: Writer Jazmine Denise shares her tips on boosting confidence. Note that one of her tips has a religious leaning, but the others are applicable to people of all belief systems,
• “To Dye or Not to Dye? Dr. Julie Lopez on the Difficulties and Joys of Going Gray”: The pressures of maintaining a youthful appearance are discussed in this blog post. Dr. Lopez shares why she decided to ultimately embrace her changing appearance.

Healthy Relationship with Body Image and Food

• Food Psych Podcast: Leaders in the Body Positive and Health at All Sizes movements discuss intuitive eating, eating disorder recovery, nutrition, and more.
• “My Story on Low Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem”: A teen shares her struggles with her appearance, and how she learned that she deserves happiness
• BodyPosiPanda: Check out Megan Crabbe’s blog on recovery, diet culture, self-love, exercise, “and all things Bopo.” Subjects include “Body Image Beyond Size,” “5 Ways to Beat Food Guilt,” and “Standing Up For Self-Love in a Self-Loathing World”
• “17 Stories of Eating Disorder Survival”: Get inspired by these tales of healing
• “Real Stories” from Healthy Girl: Stories of individuals dealing with yo-yo dieting, overeating, poor body image, and related subjects
• “My Horrible Body Image Sabotaged Every Relationship Until I Did This”: How poor body confidence interfered with one woman’s relationships, and how she made a change
• “How I Began to Love My Body”: A four part blog series about one person’s struggle with body image, featuring advice for improving your own body confidence
• “The Experiences of Disordered Eating in Men”: Two men share their experiences with gratuitous exercising and purging, respectively
• Nourish & Eat: Blogger Gina reflects on her struggles with anorexia, orthorexia, excessive exercising, and anxiety, and how body positivity and self-acceptance changed her life.
• “9 Stories of Women’s Complicated Relationships With Their Bodies”: You might relate to one of these stories, shared via Buzzfeed
• “Eating Disorder Stories of Hope”: Readers sent in their stories of eating disorder recovery

Tune In

Check out our Spotify playlist for Confidence & Body Image here!

• “Confident,” Demi Lovato
• “Respect,” Aretha Franklin
• “Stronger,” Kanye West
• “I Won’t Back Down,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• “Because I’m Me,” The Avalanches
• “Roar,” Katy Perry
• “My Way,” Frank Sinatra
• “Flawless,” Beyonce
• “Suddenly I See,” KT Tunstall
• “I Have Confidence,” Julie Andrews
• “Q.U.E.E.N.” Janelle Monae & Erykah Badhu
• “Radioactive,” Imagine Dragons
• “Good As Hell,” Lizzo
• “I’m Still Standing,” Elton John
• “Grown Woman,” Beyonce
• “I Am Light,” India.Arie
• “Who Says,” Selena Gomez
• “Started From the Bottom,” Drake
• “Love Myself,” Hailee Steinfeld
• “Girl On Fire,” Alicia Keys
• “Brave,” Sara Bareilles
• “Doubt,” Mary J. Blige
• “Fight Song,” Rachel Platten
• “Don’t Stop Me Now,” Queen

• “This is Where Self-Esteem Lives in the Brain”: See which part of the brain controls our self-esteem and learn why some people have “stronger” self-esteem centers than others
• “9 Powerful TED Talks to Boost Your Self Confidence”: These TED talks discuss subjects like self-image, body language, everyday phobias, and more
• “Body Image, Self-Esteem, and Mental Health”: This page examines the complex relationship between these body confidence, self-image, and mental wellness
• “Training the Brain to Boost Self-Esteem”: A look into the neuroscience of self-esteem, and how working with brainwaves can transform it
• The Dove Self-Esteem Project: Resources for teachers, parents, youth, and more on subjects including bullying, body image, gender stereotypes, etc.
• “Building Self-Confidence”: Mindtools offers both video and text resources explaining what self-confidence is and the steps you can take to boost yours
• “Your Job Affects Your Self-Esteem: Make it a Positive Effect”: How to ensure that the effect your career has on your life is positive
• “The Problem of Perfection”: The Confidence Code reflects on how the drive for perfection can be harmful. This resource is targeted towards women, but is applicable to people of all gender identities.
• “Confidence with Lea Sloan”: Tools to alter our neuropsychological experience and boost our confidence
• “Low Self-Esteem” from Simply Psychology: Learn the research behind why self-esteem is important, especially in teens and children
• “The Importance of Self-Esteem for Kids with Learning and Attention Issues”: Learn more about the relationship between learning and confidence, and get advice for supporting the children around you
• “EMDR and Confidence, with Dr. Julie Lopez “: How EMDR therapy is used to treat issues of confidence

Healthy Relationship with Body Image and Food

• “What is Body Image?”: An overview of why it’s so important to have a positive relationship with one’s body
• “Self-Esteem and Body Image”: A webpage on the relationship between self-esteem and body image. While this information comes from the Center for Young Women’s Health, it applies to people of all ages and gender identities.
• “How Social Media is a Toxic Mirror”: This article from Time examines the relationship between social media and poor body image
• Black Body Positive Leaders: Learn more about the black women who’ve innovated the body positive movement worldwide
• The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating: A nutrition therapist and a dietician specializing in eating disorder counseling came together to create this list.
• The Body is Not an Apology (TBINAA): Check out articles on dismantling weight stigma, the position of disabled women within the feminist movement, growing up mixed race, and more on TBINAA, a movement designed to foster radical self-love
• Overview of Eating Disorders from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH): Learn the signs and methods of treatment for anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating
• Men’s Stories: Living With an Eating Disorder: This 30 minute documentary discusses eating disorders from a male perspective
• “Body Image: Is It Influenced By Your Family?”: What is the relationship between our parents and the way we view our bodies?

• The Dove Self-Esteem Project: Resources for teachers, parents, youth, and more on subjects including bullying, body image, gender stereotypes, etc.
• The Confidence Coalition: An organization dedicated to boosting the self-image of women and girls
• National Association for Self-Esteem: This group serves to fully integrate self-esteem into the fabric of US society

Healthy Relationship with Body Image and Food

• National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA): This organization supports individuals and families affected by eating disorders
• The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Related Disorders (ANAD): A nonprofit working to improve education, prevention efforts, treatment, and advocacy for eating disorders
• The Body Positive: Founded in 1999, this group promotes joy and self-care in regards to one’s body image