Mentally beating yourself up for your perceived shortcomings doesn't change anything and only makes you feel worse. Instead, identifying and focusing on your best features can help reduce stress. To help focus on your best features, practice self-affirmation -- the process of transforming your thoughts to de-emphasize the negative and instead focus on the positive. Remind yourself at least once a day that you love yourself no matter what, that you have made the conscious decision to accept your body, and that you have made an active decision to reach your goal of becoming comfortable naked. Acknowledge the vulnerability inherent in nudity. Exposing yourself -- literally and figuratively -- inherently makes you more vulnerable. But psychologists argue that you must be willing to be vulnerable in order to open yourself up to new opportunities and experiences. Recognizing that vulnerability requires great courage can help boost your overall self-esteem and make it easier for you to allow yourself to be vulnerable in the future. If you are uncomfortable or fearful of a situation such as being naked, you will tend to avoid it. This sets up a vicious cycle in which fear leads to avoidance which leads to more fear. Psychologists use exposure therapy -- gradual and systematic exposure to the situation or object you fear -- to treat people with phobias. Research shows that acceptance-based exposure therapy can even help treat body dysmorphic disorder, a serious mental illness that causes you to obsess about the flaws in your appearance. Exposure therapy can involve imagining the feared situation, being exposed to the situation through virtual reality, and eventually in real life. Exposure therapy is a psychological treatment that should be supervised by a trained therapist. However, you can apply the basic principle -- that the more often you do something you fear without negative consequences, the less fearful you will become -- on your own. You will find it easier to see the good points of someone else's body than it is to see your own good points. So will your friends. Instead of trying to identify your own best features, ask a friend what she thinks. Because this is such a sensitive topic, it may be best to wait for your friend to ask you to evaluate her before you reciprocate. Just because a friend is willing to help you feel more comfortable naked doesn't mean that she is ready to do the same. Instead of focusing on your appearance, decide that you are going to strive for a higher level of health and fitness. This will make it easier to motivate yourself to exercise because you will be focusing on a positive goal (better health) rather than a negative goal (less weight). One way to shift your focus from appearance to health and fitness is to exercise with the goal of developing tangible physical skills. If you can do 10 inverted yoga push ups, you will feel pride in your body regardless of what it looks like.
++++++++++
One-sentence summary -- Be kind to yourself. Be naked more often. Ask a friend to help you identify your best features. Emphasize health and fitness over appearance.

If a relationship ended, there's a good chance something just wasn't working. Go back through the course of your relationship and think about the signs of trouble. Did you two fight frequently? If so, you may just have not been compatible. While fighting is a normal part of any relationship, when you're fighting more than you have fun, that's a sign something is wrong. Did any of your feelings change during the relationship? Feelings may have faded. Even if you wanted to stay in the relationship, you may have been aware feelings were waning. This is a sign the relationship was coming to an end. Go over your biggest arguments. What were you disagreeing about? Sometimes, there are differences that just cannot be reconciled. Unfortunately, sometimes a relationship cannot be saved. Trust issues often tank a relationship. Was there infidelity at any point or even flirtation outside of the relationship? Maybe you two were just different people. Maybe you were more social than your boyfriend. He wanted to stay home a lot, while you wanted to go out with your friends on weekends. Some people get anxiety over committing to a relationship. A person with a phobia of commitment may be unable to differentiate between feelings of excitement at the beginning of a relationship and discomfort or anxiety. People who fear commitment long for the connection of a romantic relationship. However, when they begin to feel close and comfortable with someone, they get nervous. They may end things just as they begin to get serious. Look at your boyfriend's past. Has he had a lot of other girlfriends? How long did these relationships last? If your boyfriend has a habit of getting involved fast and then breaking things off, this is a sign he has commitment issues. Not everyone is mature enough for a romantic relationship. This is especially true if you and your boyfriend are very young. Think about whether your boyfriend actually seemed ready for a romance. When you're young, dating is about learning about yourself and exploring new experiences. If you and your boyfriend are still in middle school or high school, it's possible he wasn't ready for a long term commitment. Maybe your ex-boyfriend values you as a person, but he simply wants to explore other things.
++++++++++
One-sentence summary -- Consider what was not working. Think about any disagreements you had. Understand he may have commitment issues. Think about whether he's mature enough to date.

Hold a bundle of stalks under a stream of cool, running water. Use your fingertips to lightly scrub away any dirt and debris clinging to the stalks. Shake off the excess water, then pat the scapes dry with a clean paper towel. If you're washing a lot of scapes at once, it may be easiest to do it in a colander. Don't attempt to clean scapes by soaking them. This can cause them to absorb too much water, diluting their flavor and leaving them mushy. A cutting board or mat is essential for protecting your countertops, since you'll be making a lot of quick cuts. Because of the way scapes curl, and the fact that they tend to vary in size, it's recommended that you cut them one at a time. Cut away the tip of the scape just below the bulbous white neck. Do the same for the lower end of the stalk where it starts to become hard and woody. Toss both sections in the trash, or add them to your compost heap. You should be left with just the smooth, light green shaft. The top and bottom portions of the scape are tough and chewy, so it's best to just throw them away. Move the blade of your knife up and down along the length of the stalks with a smooth lever action, holding them steady with your free hand. It may be necessary to stop and reposition especially curved stalks as you go. Once sliced, your scapes will lend a burst of aromatic flavor to savory dishes in much the same way as scallions, leeks, or chives. The exact thickness of each slice will depend on your knife-handling skills and your intended use for the scapes. Toss a handful of sliced scapes into a stir fry or saute, or sprinkle them onto a salad or loaded baked potato. They also go well in sauces and dips like salsa verde, guacamole, chimichurri, and pesto. Instead of aiming for a fine slice, cut the stalks into 1-2 inch (2.5-5 cm) sections roughly the same size as broken green beans. In this form, they'll be perfect for adding a deep, savory note to soups, stews, and marinades. If you don't intend to eat the scapes, leave the stalks a little longer so they'll be easy to pick out of the pot or pan once you're done cooking. Try adding chopped scapes to a vegetable medley, or steaming them and serving them on their own. When cooked, they have a crunchy texture not unlike asparagus, with a mild onion flavor.
++++++++++
One-sentence summary --
Wash the scapes thoroughly. Place the scapes on a cutting board. Trim the ends off the stalk. Cut the scapes into thin slices. Leave the scapes in larger pieces for more flavorful cooking.