Steps to a Positive Body Image
Learning to love your body is not easy. Expectations of looking a certain way are everywhere in the media, making it hard to find satisfaction with your appearance. Many of us settle for discontentment, and this is unnecessary. We are all capable of loving our bodies. With a bit of self-care and rethinking, you can take steps to develop a positive body image. Read on; you deserve to love yourself.
1. Let Go Of Numbers
When it comes to the body, numbers only lead to unhelpful judgments. Start ignoring the size of your clothing, the number on the scale, or any other strict measurement that represents the body. You are not a number, and your weight will always fluctuate; this is part of being human.
Ditch the numbers and start enjoying yourself. If you want to make physical improvements for yourself, go ahead and pursue those wellness courses, that tummy tuck scar treatment, or that new diet. There’s nothing wrong with making changes to improve your body image, and it just matters that the desire to change comes from YOU and no outside influence.
In addition to losing weight, loose and hanging skin adds another layer of insecurity to your self-esteem. Getting a tummy tuck wherein a tummy tuck surgeon to remove stomach fat and tighten skin can give you a confidence boost by removing loose skin around the midsection and tightening it to give you that toned look you want.
2. Write Down What You Love About Your Body
Appreciation is a practice. When we cultivate gratitude and appreciation for ourselves, we’re relying on self-created gratitude lists to begin. You can do the same thing to produce a positive body image. Get out a piece of paper and write down three things you love the most about your body.
This should feel like an actual self-care practice, so to keep things fun and effective, writing it out by hand is essential. Challenge yourself to this practice every day to see how many new things you can come up with over time. After a while, you’ll see that there are many reasons to love your body, and this will help you improve your self-esteem and create a more positive body image.
3. Stop Comparing Yourself
Comparing ourselves to others is a normalized, unhealthy habit. Many of us are addicted to our smartphones and spend way too much time scrolling through pictures of perfect-looking people in perfect-looking places. It’s no wonder that spending too much time on social media is associated with an increased risk for depression and anxiety. If you need to step away from social media, then do so. Stop comparing yourself!
Letting go of comparison frees up space for you to focus on how you look, and how the way you look makes you feel about yourself. From this place, you can decide on your own if you want to make healthy changes to improve your body image or if you’re already happy just how you are.
4. Use Positive Affirmations
Dubbed by some as an unusual approach to improve mental health, positive psychology has shown time and time again how powerful positive affirmations are for developing healthy thinking habits. When you focus on positive statements, you shape neural pathways that strengthen self-belief. Soon enough, you will learn to love your body.
Gradually, your mental outlook can change for the better, provided by the positive statements you use to fuel your mind. Although positive affirmations can be applied to anything, to love your body and develop a positive self-image over time, go through positive body statements over and over until they’re stuck in your subconscious.
Allow The Image To Unfold
Society places unreasonable and unfair expectations to look a certain way. You do not need to give in to these demands, and the only person you need to listen to is yourself. Be kind to yourself and allow a positive body image to unfold using the steps above.
