What You Need to Know About Body Image
We all have different bodies, and most of us have had a point in time where we’ve felt like it wasn’t enough. So, that begs the question, what do we really know about our bodies? How do we feel? How can we feel better about ourselves and take better care of our bodies? Looking all around us there are many answers to those questions, but we first need to understand what we’re looking at.
Body Negativity/Shaming
Body Negativity is exactly like it sounds, it’s being negative towards your body and most people suffer for it. There are two different versions of this, the first one is when the negativity and hate come from yourself and the other comes from others (also known as body shaming).
Starting with the first one, this can be so very difficult to deal with and the mindset you develop never really goes away. It does sometimes start with others but most of the time you just seem to notice things on your own. You start comparing yourself to others and it takes a toll on your mental health. Some people even suffer so much that decide eating just isn’t an option because if you eat you get fat, and society doesn’t like fat people. I don’t feel very justified to talk in depth about Anorexia or Bulimia and other the other eating/mental disorders that can develop from body shaming and negativity, but I just want to say that everything society says about what they believe is a beautiful body type is completely wrong. But I’ll get to that later.
But what about the mental aspect of it? How can we try to push past a negative mind or habits?
Body shaming is just as bad as body negativity. It isn’t quite the same as the war you can have against your mind and habits, but sometimes just hearing a comment from someone can knock you back into square one. I have had some personal experience with body shaming, mostly from when I was younger. I was shamed by my family and even my own doctor, who compared me to her daughter. And it hurt, it takes a toll on your confidence as well as your over-all self-esteem. The worst part is in quite a few unlucky cases it comes from your own friends and family. Now the easy solution is to just cut them out of your life, but for some people cutting family out isn’t the option. The best solution to this negativity would be to talk about it with them. When I talked with my family it helped a lot and they no longer make the comments they used to. They might just need to be told how hurtful they’re being and if they value your friendship/family then they will consider your feelings.
But what about the mental aspect of it? How can we try to push past a negative mind or habits?
Body Positivity
First of all, what is body positivity? Body positivity is loving your body no matter what it looks like. As long as you’re happy and healthy (and healthy does not mean thin) you should love the body you were born with.
There are several issues with this mindset, one being that not everyone can stay positive about their body all the time. Yes, we all have off days where we just can’t seem to get anything right or even be capable of feeling happy, and that’s okay, but what I’m talking about is some people can’t keep the positive mindset to stick. And that’s okay too.
It is amazing that so many people have found peace and comfort in learning to love themselves, but it just isn’t working for lots of people anymore. That leads us to question, what now?
Another issue is that it has become a sort of buzzword/phrase. People use it and don’t fully understand it, not to mention the difficulties that people face when they see how body positivity has been flooded with people who are healthy and beautiful (by societies standards) and then feel like they can’t compare. This makes it lose some of the importance and dare I say magic that came with this mindset. Is there a problem with having so many people following this movement? Of course not! It is amazing that so many people have found peace and comfort in learning to love themselves, but it just isn’t working for lots of people anymore. That leads us to question, what now?
Body Neutrality
A good middle ground to consider is Body Neutrality. A growing movement of people deciding that they may not love their bodies, but they don’t have to hate it either. Some people just don’t have it in them to be overly positive all the time, and for others habits of comparing and belittling oneself are hard to kill. This allows someone to acknowledge that their body isn’t perfect and has room to improve while still avoiding self-deprecation. This was actually started by some of the same people who started the body positivity movement but as it grew and went on they found it didn’t quite fit anymore. It isn’t a perfect fix, just like body positivity isn’t a perfect fix. But it may just help others to realize that they don’t have to hate or love their bodies, what really matters is how you take care of it.
Self Care
It may help to know you don’t have to hate or love your body, what really matters is how you take care of it
You see, everyone is built different. That’s the beauty of humanity. And healthy as I’ve stated does not mean thin. Sometimes thin can signify that you are unhealthy because you aren’t getting what you need to survive. And going back to body negativity, that’s the whole problem. People grow up believing that to be healthy you need to thin and it hurts lots of young children as well as adults, teens, literally anyone can and probably has been hurt by this mentality. The important thing to do is to just make sure that your healthy and happy by actual scientific standards, and that will look different on everyone. Making sure to take care of your mental health can also be a huge factor in taking care of your physical health as well.
The Mental Health Foundation has cited that people with high levels of self-rated distress are 32% more likely to die from cancer, and people with depression have an increased risk of coronary heart disease. They also found that long-term stress can result in Psoriasis.
This just further proves that taking care of yourself doesn’t just include physical health, it also includes mental health. So take care of yourselves, you only have one body, and it loves you.
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Sources:
Kessel, Anna. “The Rise of the Body Neutrality Movement: ‘If You’re Fat, You Don’t Have to Hate Yourself’.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 July 2018, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/23/the-rise-of-the-body-neutrality-movement-if-youre-fat-you-dont-have-to-hate-yourself.
“Physical Health and Mental Health.” Edited by Mental Health Foundation, Mental Health Foundation, Mental Health Foundation, 27 Aug. 2018, www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/p/physical-health-and-mental-health.
Rooney, Anne Marie. “Forcing Myself To Love My Body Didn’t Work. Here’s What I Did Instead.” Mindbodygreen, Mindbodygreen, 8 May 2017, www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/what-is-body-neutrality.
Images (in order of where they appear in the article):
“Body Image.” Good Therapy San Diego, www.goodtherapysandiego.com/body-image.html.
Letitia. “03 Jun June 24th: Body Positivity 101.” Live Yoga Now, 3 June 1970, liveyoganow.com/body-positivity-101/.
“Physical Health vs Mental Health.” Therebelworkoutliveeditauroracom, 25 Mar. 2016, therebelworkout.com/blog/2016/03/25/physical-health-vs-mental-health.
