Empowering Yourself: 8 Tips for Developing a Positive Body Image
Body image refers to how you perceive, think, and feel about your own body. It encompasses your thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions about your physical appearance. Body image can be influenced by various factors including personal experiences, societal and cultural norms, media representations, and interactions with others. It can be positive, negative, or somewhere in between and can have a significant impact on your mental and emotional well-being.
Because you are in your body for life and it’s an integral part of everything you do, it’s important to begin cultivating a positive relationship with your body. Read on for 8 tips on how to develop a positive body image.
1. Self-Compassion
Developing a positive body image may start with self-compassion. Self-compassion means practicing kindness, understanding and acceptance towards yourself. Often, we are the most critical to our own selves and this takes a toll on our perception of our body. Practice recognizing when you are critical or unkind to yourself.
You may have self-deprecating thoughts or criticisms running through your head. Practice noticing those thoughts and letting them go while replacing them with positive affirmations that focus on your strengths.
If you often find yourself pushing yourself to the limit physically, overworking, or “punishing” yourself for mistakes, try catching yourself and treating yourself with the same kindness you would other people.
You also may try getting in touch with the child part of yourself. Often, we have parts of ourselves that seem to get stuck in a childlike state. These could be based on real experiences we had as children. Get in touch with the child inside you and show the child compassion. If you are hesitant to show that child compassion, ask yourself what is getting in the way and do some exploration. A therapist can also help guide you in this.
2. Focus on Health, Not Physical Perfection
If physical perfection is your goal, you may be continually frustrated and disappointed with yourself. It is not possible to achieve perfection in most things, but especially in your body. Your body is unique, and it will continually change over your life. So, focusing on achieving health instead of physical perfection is a good step towards developing a positive body image.
Focusing on physical perfection can go against health and take a toll on your physical and mental well-being. When you focus on health your goal becomes much more achievable and you tend to feel better as well.
Try noticing how the food you eat brings you nourishment and sustains your body. Aim for healthy and balanced meals that make you feel good without depriving yourself.
Try paying attention to how exercise can feel good and bring you strength and energy. Change the focus from burning calories to how the movement feels. If it doesn’t feel good try out a few different forms of exercise to find ones that you actually enjoy.
3. Practice Psychological Flexibility
Practicing psychological flexibility can be a good step to developing a positive body image. Flexibility means that we can bend and move under the demands of the world. In the same way, if we see our bodies from one rigid perspective it can create dissatisfaction and dislike for our bodies. Practice accepting that imperfection is a natural part of being human. This acceptance can help you let go of unrealistic body standards and foster a healthier and more positive body image.
Try recognizing the self-deprecating thoughts and urges, noticing they are just thoughts and don’t dictate how you live or act, and let them pass in their own time. Don’t try to dwell on them or even try to reject them. Acknowledge them, accept them and let them go.
Try acknowledging your own self and body, appreciating what it does for you and accepting whole-heartedly the details about yourself.
4. Challenge Negative Thoughts
Negative thoughts can fuel negative body image, therefore, actively challenging them can change your perspective to a more positive perspective. You may think that you can’t control the thoughts that come into your head. While sometimes thoughts do come into our heads automatically, we have much more control over our thoughts than you may think. The way of thinking, and subsequently the way of acting and living, can be shifted with intentionality.
Begin by noticing the negative thoughts that you have about yourself. Making a list can help you identify the individual thoughts. Ask yourself if those thoughts are true or just something your mind is doing. Ask yourself where those thoughts originated. Create a list of positive thoughts that challenge the negative thoughts. Each time you notice one of the negative thoughts in your head, actively challenge it with the positive thoughts you’ve picked. Through repetition and intentionality, the negative thoughts will be changed into more realistic, positive thoughts.
Don’t underestimate this tool. How we think about ourselves can have a powerful influence on what we do in life and our success or failure. It can be an important step in developing a positive body image.
5. Watch Your Media Consumption
While all types of media can influence us, social media especially can take a toll on our body image. It can be present hourly in our lives, a constant reminder of the ways we fall short or the unreachable goal. What we are accustomed to seeing on a regular basis becomes standard. Therefore, it is easy to become consumed with comparison.
Try giving social media a break and living in the moments of your real life. If your real life is boring, try a new hobby or get involved with a new activity. If not engaging with social media is too hard, try deleting the accounts that negatively influence your perception of yourself. Instead, find accounts that promote positive body image for all sizes or are encouraging to you.
6. Wear Clothes You Feel Comfortable In
Constantly trying to achieve a smaller size and trying to fit into smaller clothes can just create continual frustration and disappointment. Go ahead and pick clothes that are comfortable. Don’t get caught up in the size on the tag. Each company varies and clothes sizes are not universal. The size of the clothing is not as important as how you feel in it. So, pick clothes that feel good and support your positive body image.
7. Educate Yourself
Learning more about body image, society’s expectations, the physical properties of the body and health and nutrition can be a way to encourage positive body image.
Knowledge about what body image is may help you understand your own perceptions and feelings about your body. Gaining awareness in this area can help you set realistic expectations for yourself and see the unrealistic standards that are often portrayed in the media. Learning about how society views the body and how media influences you can be eye-opening in how you view yourself.
Understanding other cultural perspectives can also influence how you view yourself. The way society views the body in one culture and country varies and it can be relieving to break out of the narrow view that surrounds you.
Seeking education about nutrition can also help encourage positive body image. The body’s nutritional needs are different depending on age, gender and genetics. Therefore, having a better understand of how nutrition influences you can help you have a more balanced perspective of yourself.
8. Practice the Body Scan
A body scan is a type of mindfulness meditation that focuses attention on each part of the body one at a time. The purpose is to develop greater awareness of bodily sensations, promote relaxation, and reduce stress. The body scan can be a great way of promoting positive body image because it helps you relate to your body in a new and different way.
One aspect of mindfulness is non-judgement. As you do a body scan you would practice holding each part of your body without judgement, focusing on the sensations and allowing yourself to simply be, without expectations. A body scan can be as short or long as you want it to be. You can choose to scan your body for a few minutes at a time to get started exploring this new way of seeing yourself. Or you can choose to sink into a longer time such as 30 or 45 minutes. Whichever length you choose, a body scan can help develop a positive body image.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are many ways of empowering yourself in developing a positive body image. From self-compassion and flexibility, to challenging negative thoughts and doing a body scan. Each of these tips will aid you in becoming more comfortable with yourself and living more fully in your own body.