Building Self-esteem And Body Image

by Rick Mattoon

Men and women alike are bombarded daily with media images of the "perfect" person who has been painted, sprayed, blown-dry and dressed to perfection by professionals paid to create the image of flawless beauty.

Great work if you can get it, but what does life offer the majority of us who want to look and feel great even if we're not supermodel material? A beautiful, golden tan from your local professional tanning salon may be just the enhancement needed to highlight your natural qualities.

First and foremost, a person must realize that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Everyone has a different idea of beauty, and what appeals to one person may not necessarily appeal to another. It's all a matter of taste--all you have to do is discover your unique qualities and make the most of them.

This is why indoor tanning has become one of the fastest growing personal-care services in the country. More and more Americans have come to realize that regardless of a person's shape or size, a well- maintained tan helps maximize a person's physical qualities. Consumers who utilize the service of a tanning salon are not afraid to get out and show themselves to their best advantage.

A Golden Tan Builds Confidence

What is confidence? Confidence is the way you feel about yourself based upon your perception of how effectively you deal with the world. Simply put, it is how you evaluate you. People with a great deal of confidence feel good about themselves and think that they are capable of accomplishing most tasks that confront them.

We first start to develop self-confidence early in life. It begins with parents helping their child to feel worthwhile and competent in mastering early childhood tasks. It then continues to be nourished as the person interacts with the "real world," constantly seeking the approval of others.

Self-confidence affects our entire life. In general, the rougher the going gets on the outside, the greater the need for self-worth on the inside. Your ability to overcome obstacles is enhanced if you have high self-esteem. You are who you think you are--no more, no less. That's why it pays to think, feel and look your best.

Confidence in adulthood is often an elusive quality. However, people know it when they see it, and it's totally irresistible. There is no person sexier or more beautiful than one with full confidence in themselves and their abilities.

Confidence from a well-tanned individual radiates like a light, drawing opportunities and admirers in miraculous ways. Expressing a sincere and honest belief in yourself and your abilities doesn't mean you are conceited. Just take a good, long look at yourself, finding your strengths and using them to project the utmost confidence.

Adults always have looked for ways to boost their self-confidence by physical enhancements. For example, if people compliment us on our great smile, we may consider whitening our teeth to make them even more noticeable. To even further enhance their smiles, women may use only the highest-quality lipsticks in flattering colors. They also keep their lips soft and supple with top-of-the-line lip balms.

Is thick, rich hair one of your best assets? To build self-confidence in this area, you may have considered highlighting your hair to bring out its natural beauty. Undoubtedly, you use only the best hair products and don't mind spending money on them. If hair is one of your best natural qualities, you have probably experimented with a variety of styles to find which are the most flattering and match your personality the best.

Maybe you have a trim figure. If so, you wear clothes that show it off. You have developed the self-confidence that allows you to strut your stuff without being afraid of looking good. While most people envy you, they also respect you for having the courage to live up to your greatest potential.

Maintaining Your Confidence-Building Tan

Now that you are working on developing or sustaining a beautiful golden tan--like your hair, teeth or figure--it is vital to maintain this asset. Reinforcing one of your greatest visual resources is simple. The indoor tanning skincare products your professional tanning salon carries will work wonders in moisturizing, replenishing and maintaining your bronze quality.

Moisturizers. Moisture is critical to good skin health because it helps maintain an effective skin barrier and creates flexible skin that is soft to the touch. Moist skin will tan better and more evenly than dry skin. Your skin knows that moisture is vital and uses a variety of methods to retain moisture in its surface. However, it only can do this efficiently with the help of moisture-rich products.

Accelerators. A quality tanning accelerator lays the foundation for building a rich, healthy-looking tan. Indoor tanning accelerators enhance the body's natural tanning process. When the skin is exposed to ultraviolet light, it stimulates production of a pigment found in the outer layer of the skin called melanin. It is this melanin that darkens in response to further ultraviolet exposure. Tanning accelerators typically enhance the tanning process by increasing the blood flow to the tanning anatomy, thus motivating the natural tanning process.

Self-Tanners. Not everyone has the ability to tan. And, because of this fact, manufacturers of indoor tanning products have developed self-tanners in order to allow these consumers the capability of developing a beautiful golden tan. These products also assist tanners to even-out tans in hard-to-tan areas. The key ingredient in self-tanners is Dihydroxyacetone, or DHA. DHA reacts with proteins in the skin to produce a bronze coloration on the top layer of the skin--in essence, a cosmetic effect that does not saturate the skin. So, just because you're a Skin Type 1--and can't develop a tan outdoors or in--doesn't mean you can't enhance your self-confidence with a golden tan from a self-tanner.

Starting Your Tan Is Simple And Private

Do you remember the first trip of the summer season to the pool or beach? Needless to say, wearing your favorite swimsuit for the first time, minus that golden tan, was less than confidence building. Well, those days are gone. Whether it's your first time at an indoor tanning salon or your 50th, the ability to develop and maintain your beautiful tan in the privacy of a tanning suite only adds to the confidence-building appeal of indoor tanning.

Starting a workout program in public often can be embarrassing and intimidating. Community gyms aren't for everyone. Some "out of shape" people would rather start with a home-based fitness program such as walking or mild exercises. That way you don't have to face the stress or embarrassment of a group setting. Indoor tanning provides the same advantages--reinforcing a person's self-confidence by allowing them to develop their tan in privacy.

People who worry about how their body looks often avoid the very things that can help them look and feel better, such as exercising and developing better coping skills. Once someone improves the way they feel about their body, they take better care of themselves, which, if necessary, helps them lose weight.

By enhancing your appearance with a tan, you may start to accept yourself in a better light. Instead of cringing every time you see yourself in the mirror, a tanned image of yourself will help you start to accept yourself.

After monitoring your tanning progress in the mirror, you'll become more comfortable with your reflection and realize that you have many positive physical qualities. You also will begin to realize that if you choose to further enhance your physical condition, your wonderful tan only will magnify any and all changes you make to your appearance.