How to Embrace Body Acceptance and Kick Negative Body Image to the Curb
Negative body image is a global concern affecting individuals worldwide. Societal pressures, unrealistic beauty standards, and media portrayals are just some of the factors that have caused negative body image to skyrocket among youth across the globe. The Covid-19 pandemic caused mass isolation and displaced everyone to online platforms. The impact—huge increases in body image dissatisfaction, worsening mental health, and social disconnection. Let’s face it, staring into a screen where you can judge your appearance for months at a time will begin to weigh on any healthy individual, especially in the age of thinspo, a popular eating hashtag focused on losing weight and clean eating. In the digital age, the cards are stacked against us to have a healthy relationship with our bodies. If we want to feel good in our skin and prioritize our mental health, we need to be part of the counterculture movement: body acceptance.
But where to start? In this post, you’ll learn helpful tip to relinquish negative body image and build body acceptance. The body acceptance train is leaving, are you on board?
It's essential to recognize the prevalence of negative body image and work towards promoting body positivity, self-acceptance, and a more inclusive definition of beauty. Open conversations, education, and media literacy are crucial in addressing and challenging the societal factors that contribute to negative body image.Improving body image involves cultivating a positive perception of your body and promoting self-acceptance. Here are some tips that may help:
Focus on Health, Not Appearance: Shift your focus from achieving a certain appearance to maintaining good health. Engage in activities that make you feel good physically and mentally.
Practice Mindful Awareness of Your Thoughts: Notice what you pay attention to and how you speak to yourself. Are you focusing on other’s appearances rather than listening to what they’re saying? Are you stuck in your head ruminating about how your body looks in your outfit? If you can catch these distractions or judgments, then you can begin to change them.
Challenge Negative Thoughts: Our negative beliefs often stem from past traumas or challenging experiences. Our adaptive brain causes us to overthink as a means to protect ourselves, but this adaption oftens goes on overdrive, causing us to think more negatively about a situation than the reality calls for. So ask yourself, does your belief match up with the reality of a situation?
Consider Your Values: Our values are beliefs that motivate us to act one way or another and represent what’s important in our lives. Determine your top values based on your experiences of happiness, pride and fulfillment. Then focus on doing activities that align with these values. Overtime this will boost your self-esteem and offset how much body image was playing a role in self-esteem.
Let Go of Body Checking: Body checking is anything you’re doing to check your body, like looking in the mirror, squeezing a body part, or comparing photos. Whether it makes you feel good or bad in the moment, it maintains a belief that you can only be happy if you meet the standard.
Loser the Rigidity on Your Goals: Your goals might not seem rigid to you, but check yourself. Are you able to meet them without feeling miserable? Are they sustainable? More often than not, our body goals are based on other’s standards and are not intuitive to what our bodies need. Bodies are not made to be equal, so what goals are you holding on to that sacrifice your mental wellbeing?
Limit Exposure to Unrealistic Images: Research has shown time and again that media influences have a huge affect on how we feel about ourselves, especially body image. Notice the accounts you follow on social media and whether they cause you to feel better or worse about yourself. Follow supportive accounts and unfollow the others. Spend less time consuming media and more time IRL.
Engage in Joyful Movement and Body Experiences: As infants and toddlers, we experience the world through sensations and emotions. Our bodies are the vessels that allows us to feel, learn, play, and experience joy, laughter and pain. By judging our bodies, we rid ourselves of the pleasurable experiences life has to offer, which often makes us feel worse. Appreciate your body for what it can do rather than how it looks. Engage in activities that make you feel joy, pleasure, strong, and capable.
Stop Weighing Yourself: The truth is, weight is measuring your gravitational pull towards earth’s center. Simplistic measurements of health, like weight, body composition, and the BMI don’t factor in one’s genetics, athleticism, health history, etc. People are not one-dimensional, so we shouldn’t be using tools that are one-dimensional.
Practice Self-Compassion: Be kind to yourself and treat yourself with the same kindness you would offer to a friend. Understand that everyone has imperfections, and that’s what makes you human.
Surround Yourself with Positivity: We are a product of our environment. If you’re around others who criticize their bodies, you’re more likely to do so too. Invest in those relationships that uplift your spirit and appreciate who you are for more than just your body.
Remember that improving body image is a journey, and progress may take time. It's essential to be patient and consistent in practicing self-love and acceptance.
If negative body image is significantly impacting your well-being, consider seeking support from a mental health professional. At Cypress Wellness Collective, we’re trained in practical tools and methods to help you rid yourself of painful thoughts and embrace the body that you were gifted with. Call us today for more information.