Building a Healthy Body Image
Feel Great About Your Size And Shape With These Tips
Building a healthy body image means you'll be confidence in your appearance, no matter what your size and shape. Here's 5 ways to build a healthy body image.
Building a healthy body image takes practice, time, and patience – but before you know it you'll be setting amazing but attainable goals and taking exciting risks! Here's how to build a healthy body image and be confident in your size and shape.
Building a Healthy Body Image: At War With Our Bodies
The textbook definition of body image is: the inner perception of physical appearance, or size and shape. When you've built a healthy body image you feel good about yourself no matter how you look.
A more well-rounded definition of healthy body image is: how we perceive our bodies to fit (or not fit) the expectations of our culture and ourselves. It's all about what we "should" look like and how slim we "should" be. We learn to be at war with our bodies, fighting them to be thin, flawless, smooth, unblemished, and perfect. This is where unhealthy or bad body image comes in, and why it's important to build a healthy body image.
Building a Healthy Body Image: How Bad Body Image is Created
To build a healthy body image, you need to know how a bad body image is formed. A bad body image is built in part by our experiences with other people. Parents, teachers, siblings, spouses, children, family, and friends can influence bad body image with a look – not to mention comments about our weight or various body parts. Bad body image is influenced by the pictures we see in magazines and on tv. We constantly compare ourselves to flawless models, and we come up short every time. Building a healthy body image is crucial to a healthy, happy life.
A bad body image can develop into body dysmorphic disorder, which is a psychological condition. This is another reason to build a healthy body image.
Building a Healthy Body Image: Women Versus Men
Women are literally more in touch with their and other people's bodies than men are, which often develops into bad body image. We may be more sensitive to our physical selves because our daily lives are more focused on bodily functions – ours and other people's – than men's. We get our periods, ovulate, get pregnant, and give birth. Men don't really notice their bodies the same way. This could set the stage for a bad body image. Building a healthy body image involves accepting our whole bodies.
Women are more likely to take care of the natural functions of kids (the contents of diapers, potty training, vomit, snot, blood, and whatever else oozes out of their bodies). Women are also more likely to be nurses, home care givers, and other professions that involve taking care of ill or elderly people. Again, this could be the start of a bad body image. Building a healthy body image is about taking care of and honoring our own bodies.
Builidng a Healthy Body Image: Accepting Your Size and Shape
Many women have a distorted image of their bodies, or bad body image. Specifically, we think we're fatter and uglier than we really are - which could develop into fear of intimacy. We tend to focus on what we don't like about our bodies and selves, which is the basis for a bad body image. Other people don't see what we see; they're usually less critical of our bodies than we are.
Building a healthy body image is about focusing on what we like about our size and shape - even if we're not perfect.
5 Ways to Build a Healthy Body Image
Different people will find different tips helpful when it comes to building a healthy body image.
- Focus on your strengths and positive qualities.To gain confidence in your appearance, notice what you love about your body! Building a healthy body images means dwelling on your strengths.
- If your friends or family comment on your flaws, consider limiting the amount of time you spend with them. Boosting a bad body image includes looking out for your best interests.
- Figure out who you are and what you want out of life! What are your dreams, passions, and goals? Concentrate your, and worry less about your body image. This, ironically, will help build a healthy body image.
- Get healthy. Move your body around, learn how hunger works, try new physical activities. Enjoy the confidence movement and fresh air brings! Building a healthy body image is about being strong and active.
- Learn to be comfortable – and fearless! – when you're naked. Building a healthy body image means enjoying your nudity.
If you found Building a Healthy Body Image helpful, you may also like:
- Body Dysmorphic Disorder
- Fear of Intimacy in the Bedroom
- Naked, Not Nervous
- Do You Have an Eating Disorder?
- How Hunger Works
