Pretty ProgressiveDo you sometimes feel a little iffy about your body? If you don’t feel great, then don’t worry. As it turns out, lots of people don’t feel 100% good about their body. It’s one of the most common modern-day problems. We are constantly bombarded with images and advertisements of so-called ideal body types no matter where we are and what we’re doing. Whether we’re on social media or surfing the net on our phones, watching television, or just walking down the street. There are lots of stimuli all around us that can make us feel bad about our bodies.
This is especially true for university students, who are normally the target for ads about body products and images showing the ideal body type. College-age is also part of the period where many of us are still learning to accept ourselves, physically as well as otherwise, making us particularly susceptible to body image issues.
The best way to counteract this negative stream of stimuli is to work on building a positive body image.
So what is a positive body image?
According to the National Eating Disorders Collaboration, a body image is the perception that someone has of their physical selves and the feelings and thoughts that come about as a result of that perception. There are also many definitions of body image given by essay writers around the world.
As you can see from that, body image isn’t one dimensional. It consists of a number of dimensions. These include how you see your body, how you feel about it, and how you think about it, as well as how you behave as a result of all of that.
When you have a positive body image, you can accept, respect, and even appreciate your body. This doesn’t strictly mean that you won’t have any insecurities about your body, but rather that you will recognize insecurities as what they are: mere insecurities, and that your body is perfect for you and separate from your perception of it.
There are at least 3 aspects of a positive body image:
High self-esteem
For you to have a positive body image, you must be able to value yourself and believe that others appreciate you and enjoy your company.
Positive attitude
You should also be able to accept both your strengths and weaknesses. Having a positive attitude also means being able to avoid having a negative attitude. There are lots of negative attitudes that you should weed out from your mind. One is perfectionism, which forces you to hold standards and ideals that are practically impossible to achieve. Another negative attitude is the compulsion to make comparisons between yourself and others. Yet another one is the tendency to be judgmental or critical. The more judgmental and critical you are of others, the more likely you are to be judgmental and critical of yourself.
Emotional stability
Finally you should be able to maintain a healthy connection between your feelings and your thoughts, while also being capable of expressing yourself and sharing your experiences with others.
How do you improve your body image?
To be honest, improving your body image is going to be hard work. It requires you to change the way you think about and approach lots of things. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s not doable. With the right set of activities, and consistency in taking part in them, you can easily turn around your body image and be fully confident in yourself.
1. Focus on the positive
No matter what your body is like, you are bound to have certain positive talents, skills, and qualities. This is true of everyone. We are born with a set of strengths that no one is better than us at.
These are the qualities you should be focusing on, as they will help you to realize just how much you have to offer to the world, whether it’s writing the best essay or doing the best craft. It will also allow you to focus on the best of you that you have to offer. Think about all the great people in the world that have achieved massive success in some field. Not all of them had the perfect body, and you can be sure that they all had their insecurities too. However, because they focused on what they were good at, their life’s mission, they were able to be the best version of themselves that they could be. You can do the same.
2. Set positive health-focused goals
A lot of us are focused on either losing weight or gaining weight when we feel that we don’t have the body that we’d like to have. While this seems like a good idea, it’s got the wrong motivations.
Losing weight in and of itself is not the right goal, because then you’ll be tempted to do it at all costs. However, there are certainly healthy and unhealthy ways to lose weight. For example, if you starve yourself in order to lose weight, you put your body at a serious health risk, and also your mind, because you might end up developing an eating disorder that you didn’t have before. The same dangers are present when you focus on gaining weight to improve your body image.
Instead, your focus should be on developing healthy habits, such as eating healthy, nutrient foods that are filling and low in calories. You can also do exercises, such as jogging or going to the gym, or try your hand at a sport. All of these have the same final effect, which is to improve your weight and body image, but they allow you to get there in a healthy and sustainable way.
3. Engage in hobbies that help you remain healthy
Speaking of sports, one way to improve your body image is to engage in sports and hobbies that you enjoy and that help you to maintain a positive body image. These sports will not only help with your weight, but they will also add enjoyment to your day, helping you feel more confident and in tune with yourself. As you do them more and more, you will also improve your skills, which will help you to grow as a person.
4. Avoid negative self-talk
We are often our own worst enemies. If you find yourself being your biggest critic, then you should stop. Remember what we said at the beginning of this article: you are deserving of love and respect, especially from yourself. Try to replace the negative self-talk with positive self-talk and see how things improve drastically.
5. Remind yourself that the media is a smoke show
The media, whether social media or traditional media, is often the greatest instigator of a negative body image for most people. To help yourself avoid this pitfall, you should remember that most of the images portrayed in social media and other places are both unrealistic and unattainable for the vast majority of people. Sometimes they are unrealistic and unattainable for the subject of the image themselves, thanks to image editing software like Photoshop. In my essay writing reviews I have covered topics on how to cope with the negative influence of social media.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, you should remember that your body is perfect for you, and no one, not even you, should try to convince you otherwise. A positive body image is the first step to a happy, healthy, and wise life.
Author Bio
Jacob Dillon is a highly skilled freelance writer and proofreader from the UK who currently works at Custom Essay Service, offering dissertation help and essay writing service reviews. Being interested in everyday development, he writes various blog posts and discovers new aspects of human existence every day.
