What size are you in? Oh! The plus size? I’m in xs you know. Come-on you can’t wear crop-tops, they don’t fit you. Bodycons are not for you babe!
Yeah and you guessed it right. I’m talking about body imaging. This is what we usually hear from friends, family, but let me introduce you’ll to something called BODY IMAGE POSITIVITY.
Body Image is “The perception that a person has of their physical self and the thoughts and feelings that result from the perception” (National Eating Disorders Collaboration)
In simple words, Body Image is how one sees their body, how each individual process his/her emotions towards their physical appearance and how they believe others see them.Body Image is made up of four aspects:
Body Image is made up of four aspects:
- Perceptual body image: how you see your body.
- Affective body image: you feel about your body.
- Cognitive body image: how you think about your body.
- Behavioral body image: the way you behave as a result of your perceptual, affective and cognitive body image (NEDC, 2017)
Sometimes body image is not only about weight, it can be things like:
- Comparing shapes, body types with friends or people that you follow online.
- Struggling to love and accept your body as it is.
- Trying to hide your body, because you feel ashamed.
- Feeling you’re not attractive enough etc.
Let’s add word “POSITIVITY” to body image and see BODY IMAGE POSITIVITY. Basically body image positivity is accepting whole of one’s body, including how it looks and what it does.
One of the major goals of body image positivity is to address some of the ways that body image influences mental health and well-being.
By the influence of social media and people that we follow online, we put certain restrictions on ourselves and try to be who we are not. Forcing ourselves to fit in the world of perfection, we forget how beautiful and blessed we are in our own different ways.
Putting pressure on oneself just to attain something you see online is like harassing yourself.
Developing of positive body image is accepting, one’s body, both good and bad about it.
Body image positivity is all about celebrating your natural size and shape and how incredibly it can work.
Having a healthy body image plays a role in how people feel about their appearance and even how they judge their self-worth.
People with positive body image understand that personal appearance has very little do with ability or character. They don’t waste their time worrying about body appearance.
Researchers suggest that having a negative body image is associated with an increased riks of mental conditions including depression and eating disorders.
Things that help to cultivate body image positivity,
- Self-esteem: valuing ourselves, taking control over inner voices and avoiding negative thoughts against appearance and body image
- Don’t make comparisons: what we see online isn’t always true, it is easy to fall into the trap of comparison.
- Appreciate all that your body can do, like dancing, dreaming, jogging, running etc.
- Self-love is the key: self-love is very important, tell yourself things that you love about you. Tell to your inner image how bold, beautiful and brave you can be
- Look at yourself as a whole person: don’t look at your body parts in the mirrors. Look at you as a whole, think of who you are, your potential and incredibilities.
- Stop being judgemental: try not to judge yourself or others.
Also as a society let’s encourage women and celebrate womanhood, teach our young girls that it doesn’t matter how they look, or what skin color they have. Let them be size zero or plus size, let’s not put restrictions on them, lets break ideal thoughts/standard references. Let’s set them free to make their own rules and references.
