When you are dressed well, you feel good, and the world notices.
Finding a style that suits your lifestyle is important.
If you’ve found your confidence has dipped lately, and you want some easy tips to regain your confidence and improve your style, keep reading.
Regain Your Confidence While Looking Stylish
We can easily get depressed and critical of ourselves because our bodies have changed, especially after becoming a mom.
As an affiliate partner of various brands, we earn commissions on qualifying purchases. Disclosure • Advertise with us
This is why it’s important to know that no matter what your size or shape, you can still be stylish and confident.
It is very possible to regain your confidence, but first, don’t be so hard on yourself.
If you’ve got it, then why not flaunt it?
Stop looking at your lumps and bumps and feeling like you have something to be ashamed of.
Your confidence will skyrocket if you ignore the latest fashion magazines with their photoshopped, unrealistic images.
Remember that you and your body are amazing just as you are!
Why Moms May Lose Style Confidence
As a busy mom I know you have a mountain of mommy duties and may lack extra time and money to splurge on a new wardrobe.
This can have a negative impact on your confidence. Which may cause you to look and feel frumpy.
It’s a shame, because people will judge you in an instant just by looking at you.
So if your style is not appealing to them you can be written off without them even knowing the true you.
They may not get that you’re a busy mom with a million and one things to do.
Who has time to maintain a six-pack and be stylish when there are so many things to take care like the kids, the hubby and the home?
Although this juggling is a constant struggle, it’s important that you take some time for self-care.
When you find time for yourself, you are in the best possible position to take care of everything and everyone else.
One self-care strategy is to exercise some simple styling tweaks
These will help you look and feel better so that you can regain your confidence. Clothes have the power to make us look and feel phenomenal.
The opposite is true if you get it wrong.
Research suggests that you have just one tenth of a second to make a first impression.
This is just one of the reasons why it is so important to get it right. When you look good, you feel good.
This is called the halo effect by psychologists. I call it the “WOW Factor”.
People around you just can’t help but stop and stare in either admiration or envy, or a little bit of both.
Image what this admiration will do for your confidence. You’ll be walking on cloud nine in no time.
So, how do you get the “WOW Factor”, even if you are a busy mom?
1. Have A Sense Of Style
You can have more style sense, not only about yourself but people around you, by taking inspiration from people in general whose style you admire.
Or from celebrities that you can relate to.
You may have seen them wearing a piece of jewelry you liked, or a particular item of clothes you were attracted to, or perhaps you just like their overall sense of style.
Style is about creating your own look. In contrast, fashion is about wearing what someone else dictates to you.
Great style doesn’t just happen; we need to plan, put in some effort, a little commitment and give ourselves some very important “ME” time that I referred to before.
It is knowledge that can be learned – it is an evolution, not a destination with an endpoint.
Your style will evolve and change as your life and body does. And as we all know, becoming a mother is definitely a life and body changing experience, so be flexible with your style as it evolves.
Sometimes we see other moms who look effortlessly stylish and we wonder if they were born that way.
No, they weren’t! They had to learn it along the way. So can you!
Style is easy once you know how.
Like those stylish moms you admire from afar, you too can have more confidence and look effortlessly put together.
Start by not being your own worst critic
A positive mindset can work miracles. I know that as a mom, you can be very critical of yourself, and as a woman, you can be critical of others.
However, things look different if you start to focus only on the positive things that you like.
Style is subjective. It’s what you think that matters.
If you feel stylish in what you are wearing, you act differently and feel more confident and comfortable about your body and yourself.
This is the start of having style sense. Love your look and love yourself!
Regain Your Confidence Excercise: Create A Mood Board
Next, begin collecting images of people wearing accessories (jewelry, shoes, bags etc) and clothes that you find appealing.
Then consider why you like their style. Don’t think about the price tag or where the clothes are from, simply collect images that you are drawn to.
This can be from glossy magazines, shopping sites or social media sites like Pinterest or Instagram.
The idea is to create a mood board of your personal style so you can have a quick and easy reference for inspiration that’s always accessible.
Over time, you will find that you will subconsciously start to collect the same type of items and styles.
When this is obvious to you, then you have discovered your style DNA.
When you discover your style DNA, don’t rush out and impulse buy.
Clever marketing has programmed and convinced us that if we do not shop until we drop, then we’re not stylish.
As a busy mom, who has the time or spare cash for that?
So, ignore this marketing tactic and the next time you see an image of something that you love, ask yourself if you already have something similar in your closet that you can create the look from?
You may be surprised by how much you already have if you shop in your closet first.
2. Think Positive!
It is important to believe that you are beautiful no matter your shape or size. So, begin to look and think about yourself and your body as a blessing.
Take baby steps at first because this transformed thought won’t happen overnight.
Make the most of your best bits and you will soon be confident and feel like every day is a special occasion worth dressing up for.
I remember when I was younger, I always experimented with different styles. Some were amazing, others, not so much.
But the idea is that I had the time to discover and learn about myself and enjoy being me. Have you had similar experiences?
Unfortunately, nowadays being a busy mom does not allow you the luxury of doing something for yourself as much as you would like. You need to spend time looking at yourself properly in the mirror.
Then you will realize what your best bits are.
You may have never noticed that you’ve got a great set of legs, or a lovely hair that you keep covering up. STOP IT!!!
Go grab yourself a full-length mirror and admire your best bits. Then show them off so others can admire them too.
Your confidence will soar and you will look and feel phenomenal.
Get Real About Self Care
As a busy mom myself, I know that there are loads of reasons you can give as to why it’s not important to spend a little time and thought on yourself.
You feel that your role as a mom is to concentrate on others while you are forgotten. I used to feel just like that.
Trust me, it’s worth giving yourself some love and TLC. This makes you better prepared mentally, emotionally and physically to give others all of that Mom goodness you have in abundance.
Ask yourself, “Why do I put so much time, money, though and effort into dressing for special occasions, like weddings, graduations etc?”
I believe it is because you know that how you look at those events will directly impact how you feel.
So why not make an effort every day to look and feel great?
3. Let It Go
Having a baby changes your body. Instead of bawling over this, why not accept and embrace this change?
Regain Your Confidence Tip: “Let it go…!”
Don’t hoard your “skinny” clothes from way back when you were size skinny.
Accept that you’re a little fluffier, or (as my 8 year old says), a little more “circular” and move on with your life.
So, if you haven’t been size skinny for a few years, then please stop punishing yourself every time you look in your closet and see those skimpy, skinny outfits that can no longer pass your ankle or your ears.
I know, it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but swallow we must if we want to move on with a positive mindset.
Remember, the worst the medicine, the better the cure.
Every time you see the skinny clothes in your closet, you are reminded of yourself at a different time.
This is an unrealistic image that you need to let go if you want to grow and move on.
The same concept applies if you have clothes that are now too big for you because you’re lucky enough to have lost your baby weight.
When you keep the big, baggy clothes, subconsciously you’re giving yourself permission to put weight back on.
Who wants that?
So, get rid of the old clothes and be positive about how you look today.
It’s best to be honest with yourself.
If you know that you really won’t go to the gym regularly, and live on a kernel of corn, then stop torturing yourself and get rid of the clothes from your skinny days.
Regain Your Confidence: Final Thoughts
When you start wearing clothes that you look and feel amazing in, you will be in a more positive frame of mind.
To maintain your ideal size why not use your clothes as a guide. When they start to feel tight think about what you are eating.
Forget the number on the scales and let your clothes be the decider. We call it ‘Our Clothes Diet’
Identify the lifestyle that works for you today.
If you are constantly putting your stylish life on hold for a diet, children, menopause or money, you are going to spend a long time saying, “when…”
We want you to make the best of your positive attributes right now and for you to feel that every day is a special occasion worth dressing up for, even if that means wearing jeans and a t-shirt we want you to wear the best jeans and t-shirt for you.
It only takes a little planning and know-how. Like all learning the more you do it, the better you get at it.
Remember to get the “WOW Factor”, even if you are a busy mom.
Have you lost your style or body confidence since becoming a mom? How do you deal with this?
What do you do, or need to do, to enjoy self-care?
—————
Ménesa is a mom of three, and blogger at CleverGlamourMomma. There you will find easy, actionable and effective ideas, advice and information on style, fashion & beauty, while saving time, money & excess energy along the way.
