Feeling Ugly and Unattractive

Feeling ugly and unattractive is a highly common problem that probably all of us have experienced at one time or another. Whether you’re male or female, and no matter how good looking you are in reality, there have probably been times when you felt low and unattractive. This can unfortunately have a big impact on our happiness and our success and has a lot of consequences.

First of all, feeling ugly damages our self esteem leaving us feeling genuinely less happy with ourselves than we probably did before. Then at the same time it makes us feel less capable. It is attractive people of course who find attractive partners and by the same token it is common for attractive people to get the more desirable jobs. If you feel ugly, then you aren’t going to want to pursue a career as an actor or actress, and you might feel like you can’t be as successful in an office based job either.

Perhaps more seriously, if you’ve ever heard of the law of attraction, you’ll know that feeling ugly can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you feel ugly then you’ll find yourself dressing less attractively (to draw less attention to you, and because you can’t ‘pull off’ more attractive clothes), you’ll find yourself walking with less confidence (and confidence is sexy) and you’ll take less time in looking after yourself.

The reality is that you most probably aren’t ugly. Apart from anything else beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but that aside even by conventional standards very few people are genuinely ‘ugly’. And even if you are there are things that can be done both about the way you look, and the way you feel. Here we will look at what to do if you feel ugly.

Change Your Thinking

First of all it’s time to change your thinking. If you feel ugly then no doubt you are probably focussing on a few key areas of you appearance that you aren’t happy with and that you think are ‘ugly’. Perhaps you have a double chin, or a large nose, or small eyes. In any case you shouldn’t focus on things you can’t change as it’s not healthy or helpful.

Instead what you should focus on is what you do like about yourself and what can be changed. While you might not like your jaw, or you might not like your ears, there will almost always be something you do like about yourself. Perhaps it’s your teeth, perhaps it’s your jaw line, perhaps it’s your eye color. In any case there will be something that you have going for you and you should focus on this instead. Next time you think ‘I don’t like my nose’ in your head, make sure that you follow this up immediately with ‘but I do like my jaw’. It’s a little psychological trick that can transform your perceptions.

At the same time you can also improve this area of yourself and make it your feature. If you don’t like your eyes but you like your lips as a woman, then you can start wearing a red lipstick to draw attention to them, and you can take care to keep them moisturized and great looking. Meanwhile if you don’t like your lips but you like your eyes then you can draw more attention there with eye makeup or by making effort to keep them wide. For men changing your eyebrows and growing a beard can draw attention to your eyes.

Spruce Up

One of the best cures for feeling ugly is to have a makeover and this can be a style makeover, a makeup makeover, or just a new health and beauty regime. In any case, dedicate some time to making the most of what you have and showing off your assets. If you dress to show off the best parts of your body, if you make sure your skin looks good and healthy, and if you try a new hair cut then you’d be surprised to find that it can actually transform your look entirely and make a swan out of even the ugliest duckling. The best way to achieve this is to turn to the professionals. Go and get a makeover, or spend a little more money on a haircut (you only have to do this once and then you can get subsequent hairdressers to just copy the style). Don’t be afraid to really mix things up either and to try bold decisions – maybe colored contacts, or how about blue hair? Another rather big change that can make a huge positive difference is to have cosmetic dentistry such as veneers or crowns.

One thing to remember is that no matter your physical features, there’s probably a look out there that will appeal to you and suit you, so make sure to experiment and to find it.

Workout

Working out is something that can improve your mood incredibly – a great way to get rid of those depressing thoughts – but at the same time it can alter your physique, your confidence and many aspects of your health giving you a great ‘glow’. This is one of THE best ways to make yourself into a slightly more perfect physical specimen in both body and mind.

Change Your Goals

When you feel ugly this is often a result of having unrealistic expectations and our role models have a lot to answer for in this respect. If you find yourself looking at the covers of magazines with a heavy heart and thinking you’ll never look like that, then you will likely find that you do indeed start to feel ugly. The reality though is that these celebrities are a) very rare in their looks and b) nowhere near as attractive in real life. Learn photoshop and you’ll quickly start to see the tell-tale signs of airbrushing and of warping to make hips look thinner and busts look bigger.

Better then is to have more realistic icons who have more interesting features that tell a story. Personally I want to look like Clint Eastwood. He has a face like granite that’s perfect for scaring bad guys. I’d rather look like a grisly man who’s lived a tough life than an airbrushed androgynous phony.

Focus on Other Things

At the end of the day, once you’ve had a makeover and gotten into shape, there is only so much you can do about your looks. Does it really matter though? At the end of the day there are things far more important than what society perceives as being good looking and in fact sometimes being incredibly good looking can be a curse if it leaves you overly dependent on getting buy with a flash of your white teeth. Instead focus on skills and abilities that are a little deeper and more important – sure you’re no Brad or Angelina, but maybe you could be an Einstein or a Mozart.

Likewise you should also try to be a little less shallow yourself. If you feel ugly then it means you have obviously judged yourself on your looks. If you do the same with others then perhaps that’s no surprise. Rather then, try judging people less on their physical appearance in general and this should hopefully spill over into your perception of yourself.