How to Practice Positive Body Image/Neutrality to Achieve Self-acceptance
Daily, you encounter various experiences and situations that actively suggest that your Body Image translates to either healthy or unhealthy mental health conditions. The impacts of either of these conditions cut across all spheres of your existence.
Your Body image is about your attitudes, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions toward your physical appearance. This includes how you view your height, shape, weight, and size, as well as your mental image of your overall appearance.
Constituents of Body Image
- How you see your body known as Perceptual Body Image
- How you feel about your body known as Affective Body Image
- What you think about your body known as Cognitive Body Image
- Your attitude due to Body Image known as Behavioral Body Image
Factors Influencing Body Image
- Cultural and Societal Factors
- Peer and Family Influence
- Personal Experiences
- Psychological Factors
- Biological and Genetic Factors
Negative body Image, Positive body image and Body neutrality
- Negative Body Image
- Positive Body Image
- Body Neutrality
- Guidelines to Body Neutrality
Practical you can achieve overall well-being through positive body image
Conclusion
Questions and Answers
Constituents of Body Image
The idea of Body Image is multiplex and multifaceted in nature; in this article we will try to explain the situations that create body image which falls into four major constituents.
How you see your body known as Perceptual Body Image
This constituent of Body Image notes that you could either have the right or wrong perception of your own body. This, means that you could see yourself in some ways that are totally different from your true image. If you have the condition like body dysmorphia, you would experience some distortions that would make you see yourself differently from what you actually are. For instance, you might see yourself shorter when you are actually taller or larger in size when you are actually smaller. The perceptual body image often encourage how you feel about your body.
How you feel about your body known as Affective Body Image
This constituent of the Body Image relates to the emotions you have about your body. You could see yourself with some sense of satisfaction and pride or could see yourself with some sense of embarrassment and shame. These emotions are often fueled by external validations like social comparisons, personal experiences and cultural worths. These external validations could make you feel either accepted or dejected, consequently you feel happy or sad which answers to what you think of your body.
What you think about your body known as Cognitive Body Image
This component of Body Image reckons on the beliefs and thoughts about your body. You could either think that you are attractive and fit or even think you are unattractive and overweight. These thoughts often result to either impaired or healthy self-esteem which would determine your level of confidence as that case may be. These, influences on self-esteem and confidence, as well as determine on how you act/behave due to your body image.
Your attitude due to Body Image known as Behavioral Body Image
This constituent of Body Image is about your actions based on your conviction of your physical appearance. At this, your body image influences some attitudinal changes as well as informs some behavioural patterns, thereby emphasising particular actions and inaction to save or improve your body image. Due to these body image concerns, you could unconsciously either stick to the mirror always to revalidate yourself or you could refrain from the mirrors to avoid self-shame.
In some circumstances, you could either deliberately develop the attitude of seeking complements about your looks from others; or could consider any complement from people as offensive and would caution those around not to insult you in the guise of complements. Behavioral body image can make you decide to wear certain types of clothing, maintain certain type of diet or engage in rigorous exercises; all to improve your body image.
However, some considerations can affect your body image.
Factors Influencing Body Image
The above-mentioned constituents or components of Body Image are driven by diverse factors that are responsible for influencing your body image and they include the following:
Cultural and Societal Factors
Every culture or society have their own unique way of expressing and appreciating their norms and standards. For instance, the traditional African beauty standards are quite different from the Asia, Europe or American standards and so also, the body image differ at these places. The traditional African standard regards being chubby as evidence of good living, thereby encouraging weight gain.
There are other cultural standards that regard light skinned persons as beautiful and by so doing encourage skin bleaching. On the other hand, there are intergenerational differences in body Image ideas. This implies that the cultural standards of a society could change due to new knowledge and intercultural exchange of ideas as they move from one generation to another.
These happen in all spheres of life but more in science, health, entertainment and fashion trends. The social media could also play some significant roles on your body image perception as you try to look like what you perceived on social media; yet these standards often set unrealistic ideals for your body image.
Peer and Family Influence
People often take comments and validations of those around them seriously. For instance, it can affect your self-perception when peers and family members comment about your body shape, weight or state of skin. This level of influence can be very intense as on one is an island, therefore you are often in constant communication and in relationship with your peer and family, as such cannot runaways from some influences.
Personal Experiences
This play a significant role on self-perception; as minds are often fashioned by experiences. Compliments, bullying or social comparisons are some of the experiences that can shape your body image. These pleasant and unpleasant experiences are often registered in your memory such that they are often recalled at every given opportunity knowingly or unknowingly to affect your current body image actions and decisions.
Psychological Factors
The conditions of your mind like anxiety, depression or eating disorder can seriously influence your body image by a way of distorted self-image and negative thoughts about your physical appearance leading to further distress and worsening your mental health.
Biological and Genetic Factors
Biologically, stages of growth and development, as well as gender contribute to varying physical appearance. For instance, from the period of adolescent to young adulthood; individuals, male and female alike experience some body changes that amplifies their gender.
When these changes appear quite early or late on some individuals, they become reasons for body image concerns for these individuals in relating with their peers and beyond. Other body image concerns can happen as result of body changes due to pregnancy, mid adulthood weight gain or loss, late adulthood muscle loss and other changes due to ill health or treatment.
More still, every living thing pick up resemblance of their ancestry in shape, size and weight to determine their physical appearance. Therefore, your genetic makeup can dictate your body weight and shape, which consequently affect how you feel about your physical appearance.
For instance, individuals those parents are huge in size have a grater tendency to be huge in size due to their genetic makeups and other predispositions similar to that of their parents.
These factors are the key influences to body image and could appeal to you negatively, positively or neutrally.
Negative body Image, Positive body image and body neutrality
Negative Body Image
This is a situation where you feel dissatisfied with your body; which could make you engage in excessive exercising, rigorous dieting or even opting for unnecessary surgeries. It could also lead to mental health conditions such as body dysmorphia or eating disorders.
Positive Body Image
This is a deliberate effort to accept and appreciate your body as it is; as well as recognizing that beauty exists in multiple forms, sizes and shapes. Then, having the will to maintain a balanced and healthy attitude towards body changes.
Body Neutrality
Body Neutrality is a mental state that helps you to move away from aesthetics and focus on what your body can do. While body positivity encourages you to love your body no matter the shape or size. Body neutrality promotes acceptance and respect without the pressure of feeling good about your appearance all the time.
Guidelines to Body Neutrality
Value Function over Form: Instead of appreciating your body for how it looks, appreciate your body for what it can do (walking, breathing, healing, and putting you through life).
Practice Self-critic Reduction: Do not harshly judge your appearance and know that you are more than only your body.
Indulge in Less Affection with Looks: While the body and looks matter, focus more on health, ability and overall well-being.
Noticing Changing Emotions: You do not have to feel in love with your body all the time, but you can still give it the gentle care and respect it deserves.
Practical ways of achieving self-acceptance and overall well-being through positive body image
- Counteract the criticisms about your physical appearance with qualities beyond your physical appearance such as your skills and attitude.
- Love and praise your body abilities and functions every day such as your awesome strengths. https://mindsoulmap.com/ways-to-practice-body-positivity
- Deemphasize your body aesthetics and emphasize on the incredible tasks your body can perform every day such as breathing, eating, walking. https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/ways-to-practice-body-neutrality
- Avoid unrealistic contents on social media, go for real and positive contents. Don’t get pressured by looks you see on social media.
- Expand your media intake to have a balance perception of body types and beauty such as improving your media literacy. https://mindsoulmap.com/ways-to-practice-body-positivity
- Get involved in enjoyable exercise and forget about how they look on you such as exercise moderately and not allowing your physical appearance prevent you from participating in the exercises you love. https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/ways-to-practice-body-neutrality
- Wear clothes that make you feel good, confident and comfortable.
- Get involve in positive activities with individuals with positive body image. https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/blog/finding-activities-that-uphold-positive-body-image
- Spend some time frequently to practice mindfulness, meditation and self-evaluation to achieve self enhancement. https://www.healthshots.com/how-to/how-to-practice-body-neutrality
- Body Image concerns can pose serious mental health challenges, so consult a therapist or a Counselor
Conclusion
More of these practices will help you establish a healthier relationship with your body, paving the way to body positivity and neutrality alike. However, this is a personal journey where you find out what works for you to achieve the desired goal.
Body image is about much more than physical appearance; it affects mental health, relationships, career, culture, spirituality and technology. Having a balanced and positive body image is so important for self-confidence, well-being, and living a fulfilled life.
Q&A
My daughter, who is a young adult considers her self to be over weight and she is worried about it, but her body mass index (BMI) according to assessment is neither over or under weight. How do I handle her image ideation?
Her situation is about what she sees, feels, and thinks which is giving raise to her attitude towards she body image. You would need to assess her to find out the factors influencing her body image e.g., peer and family influences, cultural and societal influences or any other influence. Then, let her apply the above-mentioned practical ways of achieving self-acceptance and overall well-being through positive body image. Considering that she is a young adult with normal BMI, let special note been taken on piratical ways 2, 4, 5, 7, & 10 among others.
I gained some weight during the pregnancy of my second child and till this moment my weight has not reduced; unfortunately, my mother in-law is picking on me about my weight and this is giving me some body image concerns. What should I do?
Your question presupposes that your body image concerns were not originally triggered by how you see, think or feel about your physical appearance; but these concerns were influenced by personal experiences and family influences. To this end, have a dialogue with the person that is most concern about your body image such as your mother in-law; hear her out and allow her to make her suggestions. Assign her the role of a care supporter and set boundaries as you align her suggestions with and apply the above-mentioned practical ways of achieving self-acceptance and overall well-being through positive body image. If her intentions are genuine, she will patiently give all the necessary supports otherwise she will walk away quietly.