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Resilient Brain Project

Breaking Down Barriers to Mental Health Through Accessible, Therapeutic Learning

  • Identity & Discrimination
  • Life Changes
  • Grief & Loss
  • Productivity
  • Confidence & Body Image
  • Stress
  • Relationships & Sexuality*
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Addictions
  • Trauma & PTSD
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Confidence & Body Image

[A] person with high self-esteem believes they are a good person; they can recognize their good qualities and will generally strive for a happy and successful life. Someone with low self-esteem has negative feelings about themselves, believing that they are not worthy of love, happiness or success.
National Alliance on Mental Illness

Actions For Now

Steps (& Apps) to Reduce Symptoms
  • 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.

For Allies

Give the Best Support Possible
  • “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

You’re Not Alone

Connect with Others, Hear their Stories & Access Playlists
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
  • “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
  • “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
  • “I Won’t Back Down,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
  • “Because I’m Me,” The Avalanches
  • “Roar,” Katy Perry
  • “My Way,” Frank Sinatra
  • “***Flawless,” Beyoncé
  • “Suddenly I See,” KT Tunstall
  • “I Have Confidence,” Julie Andrews
  • “Q.U.E.E.N.” Janelle Monae & Erykah Badhu
  • “F*ckin’ Perfect,” P!nk
  • “Radioactive,” Imagine Dragons
  • “Good As Hell,” Lizzo
  • “I’m Still Standing,” Elton John
  • “Born This Way,” Lady Gaga
  • “Grown Woman,” Beyoncé
  • “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
  • “Run the World (Girls),” Beyoncé
  • “Doubt,” Mary J. Blige
  • “Fight Song,” Rachel Platten
  • “Don’t Stop Me Now,” Queen
  • “Scars to Your Beautiful,” Alessia Cara
  • “Video,” India.Arie
  • “Estoy Aqui,” Shakira
  • “That’s My Girl,” Fifth Harmony
  • “Thursday,” Jess Glynne
  • “7 Rings,” Ariana Grande

 


Master The Subject

Learn How it Works & The Science Behind It
  • “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
  • 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?

Advocate

Connect to the Larger Movement
  • The Dove Self-Esteem Project: Resources for teachers, parents, youth, and more on subjects including bullying, body image, gender stereotypes, etc.
  • 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 human brain is both brilliant and resilient. Not only does it control the way we think, feel, and react to daily life, but it is also capable of undergoing major change. By working with the brain, we can change our experience to improve our personal, professional, and relational lives. Our goal is to empower you to do exactly that.

Link to The Viva Center

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The Resilient Brain Project (RBP) was developed in Fall 2017 by Viva Partnership LLC, with the goal of making mental health resources more accessible to the public.
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