Building Confidence

Building confidence is an ongoing work-in-progress for me, and many women, so it's easy to think that if you don't feel confident enough to have a boudoir portrait session, you never will.
Quite a quandary then, as our sessions are all about building your body confidence!

Luckily, confidence isn't something we either have, or don't have, and that's the end of it. It's something we can work towards and, even better, just deciding to do exactly that will immediately spark something in your brain that tells it "ok, we're working on this, now", and get you thinking about what your first step might be.

There are many resources around building confidence, and MIND UK might be a good place to start, with their article on self-esteem building.

Creativity for Building Confidence

One thing that comes up time and again is the theme of doing something outside of your comfort zone. The problem is, it doesn't sound much...fun, does it? Doing something you're not comfortable with. However, if you combine it with something creative (and doing things which are creative, not to excel at them, but just for the doing of them, is very confidence building), then you can choose to do something enjoyable.

A couple of things to look out for on a national level are:
Rock Choir - which is not about being an amazing singer, at all
and
Paint and Sip parties with The Paint Club which guide you through creating an artwork worthy of taking home. If they're not in your area, just Google 'Paint and Sip' to find something more local.

ps - if all that sounds waaaay to far out of your comfort zone, then doing pretty much any small thing, outside of your norm is a good place to start. Wear a colour you wouldn't usually choose. Get a different meal at the take-away. One tiny different choice in your day can make a difference.

Building Body Confidence

For building confidence in your body, you can follow body confident accounts on Instagram and other social media (and unfollow anything that isn't making you feel good).
Personally, I like Megan Crabbe (used to be bodyposipanda) and Harnaam Kaur, and I find Stacey Solomon pretty down to earth, too. I genuinely think you have to seek out those who you connect with, and make you feel represented.

Another thing I would highly recommend is watching the whole series of Naked Education. I binged it in a weekend, and loved it's body positive message so much, I even wrote a blog post about it.

I'll add a little plug here for our own, women only Facebook group, as it's all about helping women feel more body confident.

Connecting With Your Body for Building Confidence

If you're avoiding even looking at your body, dodge mirrors, and never have your photo taken, there are still ways to start connecting with your body. Essentially, treat it as though you like it, in whatever way that means to you.

Inviting in your sense of touch here can be a great way to get started. Think massaging a body lotion or moisturiser into your skin - a simple way to show your body that you care about it.

I mentioned in a previous post how women often don't treat themselves to wearing nice lingerie, so I'll reiterate it here - get measured. Knowing what size you are will be key to shopping for a body confidence boudoir session, so you may as well get it done. (And if you have no clue where to even start shopping, I'll talk not only talk through with you what to bring along, but you can even book an online shopping trip with me, where we browse together to find what you need).

Finally, remember - you don't need to feel body confident for a portrait session with us - that's what we're her for. You just need enough confidence to get here.

I look forward to seeing you at the studio soon!

Much love,
Anna
xx