Body image & feeling great about your body isn't just about weight. You'll feel fantastic regardless of your shape & size with these 10 tips! Love the skin you're in.
When you feel great about your body, you don't notice the wrinkles, cellulite, or varicose vains. You love the skin you're in simply because you're alive. You don't feel self-conscious or afraid.....you just live fully.
Feel Great About Your Body
According to a Psychology Today study most of us are dissatisfied with at least some of our body parts – but there are several ways to feel great about your body no matter what you look like (and developing a healthy body image won't hurt):
10 Ways to Feel Great About Your Body:
Having sex - but only the good kind; bad sex will make you feel worse
Being in a good mood makes you feel great about your body and everything else, too
A partner who thinks you look great helps you love the skin you're in
Practicing gratitude for your natural assets will help you feel great about your body
Knowing what makes you feel good helps you feel great about your body
Eliminating people & media images that make you feel bad
Participating in activities that you enjoy helps you love the skin you're in
Exercising not for weight loss, but for fun and adventure
A balanced perspective of your abilities, talents, achievements, and self will help you feel great about your body
Accepting that nobody is as perfect as those air-brushed models in magazines and on television
Pick three or four tips that work for you, and focus on them to help you feel great about your body. When you’re rolling with those, pick a couple more. Before you know it, you’ll be swaggering around the beach in a bikini or speedo!
Here are two more tips that can help you feel great about your body:
Nude beach. On our honeymoon in St. Maarten, my hubby and I got nude on the beach and played in the waves – and it was a blast! There were fat people, short people, attractive people, unattractive people, skinny people…and not a single perfect person in sight. There were at least 50 nude people on this beach, and they felt great about their bodies. Their various body parts bounced, jiggled, swayed, and rippled (and not in a good way); and they didn’t care. Self-acceptance – self-love – regardless of appearance was the overriding theme of that beach.
Pilates. This exercise is about developing your mind-body connection as you strengthen your core. Learn to stand taller, breathe deeper, and feel great about your body – this positively affects how you feel naked. Try a new fitness class; you may be surprised at how good it is for your self-image. Be patient: I’ve taken Pilates for 9 months now and still occasionally feel fat and uncoordinated in class, especially when beautiful, fit women join. Ah well, what can you do? Keep going, that’s what – and learn to love the skin you’re in!
If you found Feel Great About Your Body helpful, you might like to read:
The copyright of the article Feel Great About Your Body in Psychology is owned by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen. Permission to republish Feel Great About Your Body in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Comments
Oct 20, 2006 1:52 PM
Pink :
. There's a lot of people who run and hide if they're caught naken in
public view. . You can notice it here at Suite101.com. They don't
like it when they expose themselves and so, they run and hide. .
Oct 20, 2006 1:54 PM
Pink :
. I was thinking it would be good to have a discussion thread on why
people run and hide when they're caught naked. . Your article
gives us an opportunity. .
Oct 25, 2006 6:27 AM
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen :
It's so hard to be yourself in front of others - I think that's why people
run and hide. We learn it from childhood, elementary school, to cover up
our true feelings and opinions - especially if we're men!
Oct 25, 2006 9:07 AM
Pink :
. Hey, Laurie! . I know this isn't a site about religious
issues per se; but, I think of the biblical account of Adam and Eve who ran
away and hid when they discovered that they were naked. . The
whole story comes across as an analogy to me in which the <b>naked
truth</b> about a person is laid bare for others to see and the pair
runs and hides in the bushes. The consequences of their hiding result in
the sacrifice of an animal so its skins can cover up their nakedness. You
don't have to be a rocket scientist to get the symbolic interactions in
that. . But, the amazing thing about self expression and the
naked truth is that it is the only way we get to know our own self on a
personal basis So much has been said and written over the centuries about
the truth and self discovery that it seems the lessons would have blown up
in our face by now. So many of us are so afraid to open up and say what
we're really thinking on any particular subject. .
Oct 27, 2006 2:07 PM
Lura Seavey :
This is so true, I notice how few people like to really expose themselves.
Myself included, I am no exception! From a physical point of view, I
know that age has impacted my comfort level with myself - although I have
gained weight, I'm far happier with "me" than I was back when I
was perhaps closer to a model-perfect figure. (Youth is wasted on the
young?)
Oct 29, 2006 10:59 AM
Pink :
. Ain't that the truth! .
Nov 1, 2006 5:45 AM
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen :
Adam & Eve hid because they were ashamed before God, because they
"ate the apple" when they were told not to. They realized they
were naked after they sinned, and God made them clothes so they wouldn't be
ashamed.
There's lots of symbolism there - covering up, shame,
hiding - but I think the difference is doing something wrong versus just
being yourself.
Perfectionism is also a factor -- we want to be
seen as together, attractive, happy people, and sharing our thoughts and
opinions may end up in rejection or disdain...ouch. Well, it's a factor for
me, but maybe not everyone.
Nov 1, 2006 5:47 AM
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen :
I just read a study that showed the older we get, the happier we are! More
content, peaceful, and relaxed. Our bodies may age, but our spirits and
minds may grow stronger and more healthy.
Nov 3, 2006 12:25 PM
Pink :
. I can vouch for that. . I've put away 75 big ones so
far. .
