How To Look (and feel!) Confident

Confidence is alluring.

Giovanna Battaglia in New York with Fendi bag

It walks hand in hand with success. Confident people are considered to be more desirable, happier, whether true or not they are thought to have more friends and lead more fulfilling lives.

Confidence has nothing to do with income or beauty or perceived success. After nearly 30 years as a makeup artist working with actors and models I can tell you that behind closed doors the exquisitely beautiful, body perfect, wealthy people that we think have it all are often wracked with self doubt and totally lacking in self confidence.

Giovanna Battaglia, fabulous with a Fendi Baguette

Wherever you are in life, no matter what you think you are lacking, you can learn to project confidence, develop the habits, and after exercising these habits everyday become someone who without even thinking about it, just exudes confidence.

How To look And Feel Confident

Posture

Walking with your head down, your shoulders slumped, with your body language reading threatened, defeated, humbled, tired or overwhelmed is synonymous with a lack of confidence.

Confident people stand tall.

They square their shoulders and their hips, and instead of letting their chin drop, they hold it parallel to the ground.

When they sit down, they don't slump over (in the position of the defeated) they maintain great posture, leaning back but sitting tall.

Take notice of your own posture, and get into the habit of adjusting it and mimicking the posture of a confident person.

Eyes Up

Rather than dropping their gaze, which again is a symptom of the humbled or the defeated, and can be seen as a mark of deference to those you consider to be above you, confident people keep their eyes up, looking forward at the world as if everything is going as expected, projecting a sense of knowing where they are going - both in terms of the street they are walking along, and where they are going in life.

Make an effort to look straight ahead instead of looking down. If your shoulders are squared and you are making an effort to keep your chin up, it's pretty easy to keep your gaze up and forward.

Walk With Purpose

image via Stockholm-Streetstyle.com

You don't realize how much you shuffle around and walk indecisively until you start making a concerted effort to walk with purpose. Even if you're lost, or walking into a meeting with an irate boss, or into a situation you are uncertain of, square your shoulders, keep your eyes and chin up, and walk as if you are going exactly where you are planning to go.

Walking with purpose makes you look like a leader, makes you look like you are in charge of your own being, and of course, makes you look confident.

Develop A Firm Handshake.

Whether you are a guy or a girl an insipid, flimsy handshake makes you look like a pushover. It speaks to timidity, wishy washy character, indecisiveness and lack of mental strength.

A bone crushing handshake makes you look arrogant and like a bully.

But a good, firm handshake says that you know who you are, you know your abilities and have full faith in them, you are completely comfortable in your own skin and are not even remotely intimidated.

Subliminally a firm handshake paired with winning posture, raised eyes and a purposeful gait tells people you are at least an equal, if not someone to be deferred to. It also implies honesty and strength of character.

Make Eye Contact.

Confident people look everyone in the eye. People who divert their gaze or look down or away appear either dishonest, disinterested or intimidated. You don't want to develop some kind of blink-free serial killer stare, but learn to look everyone in the eye when you are speaking to them.

It implies that you are fully engaged in the conversation, you are listening, paying attention, attaching relevance to the conversation, and it also makes you incredibly likeable. If you start paying attention to eye contact in the conversations you are having you will be surprised at how few people actually concentrate on you when they are speaking to you. They are always looking here, there and everywhere.

Resting Happy Face.

We all are familiar with resting b*%ch face, where someone looks anywhere from dissatisfied to angry while in repose, when in all likelihood they are actually probably relatively happy underneath that sour expression.

Confident people have mastered the art of maintaining a resting happy face. Not some dopey, giddy grin, but a resting facial expression that resonates a feeling that they are content with life.
Again it takes some work to develop this trait, but it is well worth doing on many levels. Yes, obviously you will look confident, but also you will find that it becomes increasingly difficult to be feeling discontent, irritation, boredom, anger, confused, jealous - any negative emotion, when your face is looking happy. You become a happier person. 
Win/win.

The images in this story are of Italian style icon and fashion editor Giovanna Battaglia.
The first image has been on a mood board of mine for a couple of years because I was coveting her Fendi Baguette, but after a while I started noticing how much confidence and self awareness just oozes out of the very essence of her being, so now I keep the picture there as a constant reminder of how to carry myself.
Career and fabulous wardrobe not withstanding, Giovanna Battaglia is the perfect example of a confident woman, embodying each of the traits in this post.

Beauty Tip Of The Week #11 ~ 5 Reasons I Love Yoga

Breathe in faith, breathe out fear.

image via chicagonow.com

I'm obsessed with yoga.
When I can go to class 5 days per week, I feel amazing.
Problem is I'm often working 60-80 hours per week, and just can't get to class. And I barely get time to practice at home.

But I am convinced that the regular practice of yoga is one of the greatest beauty tips ever.

5 Reasons I Love Yoga

image via higherperspective.com

                      1. The Zen Factor.
In a hectic, fast paced life, that hour or so of controlled movement and breathing is heaven. A peaceful,  zenned out, stress-free face is a thing of beauty.



2. Breathe it on in, love it on out.
An hour focused on breath is a wonderful thing. (90 minutes is even better). Total focus on the breath helps get oxygen to every cell in your body. Every cell in your body benefits from oxygen, and with yoga breathing your skin glows and you feel wonderful.





3. Shapely Shoulders

Consistent and faithful practice of yoga gives you lovely, shapely arms, shoulders and upper back, and everything looks great with nice shoulders! Dresses, blouses, tanks and tee's all drape beautifully from and look gorgeous with nicely shaped shoulders. Even if you are packing a little extra junk in the trunk, you can offset it and draw all the attention away from it with a lovely upper body.

image via www.3x30yoga.com

4. Posture Perfect.
Constant practice of yoga naturally gives you lovely posture.
Your shoulders square, your strengthened core holds you upright, your tight hips and pelvis loosen, your new sense of balance changes the way you move.
Great posture speaks to inner confidence and calm, both of which are incredibly alluring. 
You never see a truly stunning woman with bad posture. Virtually every major celebrity, model, and fashionista carry themselves with regal bearing.

5. Anyplace, Anytime
You don't have to go to the gym or to a yoga studio to practice yoga. At any time in any place you can drop and stretch, center yourself, calm yourself, give yourself balance, and get relaxed. 

Tell me what you love about yoga in the comments section below!

Namaste

How To Lose 5lbs Fast (Or Look Like You Did)

I'm always looking to either lose 5 lbs or to at least look like I just did.
Especially after spending the summer in Italy.

Anyway, I read this in a magazine ages ago, and as I'm heading out to the gym in a manic effort to kill (at least) 5lbs, it feels relevent....


1. Subdue Your Sweet Tooth

Cutting sugars from your diet is a no-brainer, but also cut sugar-alcohol sweeteners.
Low carb foods such as mints, protein bars, even chewing gum can contain sorbitol, manitol, xylitol (if it ends in 'ol' its a problem). As the 'ols' are not fully absorbed into the blood stream they can ferment in the large intestine, which is a major cause of bloating.
Read labels and see whats really inside the package.
A couple of carb free days filled with lean proteins and high water fresh vegetables can trim the bloat and make you look (and feel) 5lbs thinner.





2. Stand Like A Dancer

My best friend is a dancer. She always looks lean and immaculate (partly because she is lean, and quite frankly, immaculate). Her posture is always perfection too.
So many women stand with rounded shoulders and with their torso out of alignment, which thickens the waist and shortens the trunk. If you square your shoulders, align your hips with them, and then lift your chest you will elongate the torso, making you look longer and leaner. It also draws the abs in, thinning out the waist.
It also takes considerable stress out of your back, so you feel great too.

3. Adjust Your Fit

Your clothes should feel tailored, not painted on.
Avoid clothes that are too fitting (shows every flaw), pants that are too skinny (accentuates hips butt and thighs), too high waisted (stunts the upper body) or cropped (makes you look shorter).
Dresses and skirts in fluid fabrics will make you look leaner, and blazers and tops that hit just below the hip will help elongate your frame.
Rather than becoming a fashion victim, learn the shapes and cuts that work best on your body, and stick to them.
Have your clothes altered to fit your shape. A quick alteration on a killer pair of pants can make all the difference in the world. A nip and a tuck on a blazer or a dress, tailoring it to your body can be endlessly slimming.