Pretty Progressive
Society has convinced many women that their value lies in their beauty, and that value disappears with age. Not only is this incredibly untrue and harmful, but it can severely lower older women’s self-confidence. The first step to unlearning this damaging ideology is to improve your self-esteem and show the world that toxic social standards won’t define you. If you’re struggling to give yourself the love you need, let’s look at some strategies to help older women boost their self-confidence.
Do What Makes You Feel Beautiful
What makes one person feel beautiful will be different for the next person, but sticking to your personal brand of beauty is important. If there’s a certain way you’ve always wanted to dress or do your hair, now is the time to try it!
For some women, doing what makes them feel beautiful might involve changing some facial features or improving their skin with cosmetic skin-rejuvenation treatments. This might seem counterintuitive when we’re talking about self-acceptance—shouldn’t you accept your appearance instead of trying to change it?
Getting a skin treatment or wearing makeup isn’t an inherently negative or harmful adherence to beauty standards. No matter what you do to make yourself feel beautiful, the important thing is to have a candid conversation with yourself. Why do you want to do this, and why does it make you feel beautiful? If you’re truly doing it for yourself and not to live up to somebody else’s expectations, then do what makes you feel like the goddess you are.
Treat Yourself With Kindness
If you want to boost your self-confidence as an older woman, you have to remember that there are other versions of yourself living inside you. This may sound strange, but there’s a little girl, a teenager, and a starry-eyed young adult that still dwells within you. When you talk down to yourself, put limits on what you can and can’t do, or don’t allow yourself to feel good, you’re hurting those younger versions of yourself. If you have pictures of yourself at these stages, look at them. Remember that when you hurt yourself, you hurt them too, and just like every other part of yourself, they deserve the love, patience, and acceptance they’ve always wanted.
Get To Know Yourself
Many women are forced into roles they never asked for or really wanted to be a part of—mother, teacher, caregiver, doting wife. Of course, there’s no shame in wanting to be these things, but when the choice is taken away from us, it can create a dissonance between what we’re doing and who we want to be. Now is the time to ask some very important questions. Who are you? How do you define yourself, or how do you want to be defined?
Questioning these things may feel exhausting or arduous, but once you know who you are, what you want, and who you want to be, no one can take that away from you. Confidence is about having a steady sense of self as your foundation. When you have that firm grip on your sense of self, it can’t be questioned by people who judge you, not even yourself.
