Have you ever noticed that how you feel about your body seems to reflect on how you feel about your life?
Your feelings about your body can either be an asset or a liability in your life. When you are feeling positive about your body, you have more energy, you feel confident, optimistic, and tend to be more open to things. It puts you in a “positive energy zone” where mind, body, and soul are open to attracting good things into your life.
When you are feeling negative about your body, it can manifest in ways where you feel depressed, anxious, lethargic, and/or unhappy. You may also have feelings of being inferior to others.
Our body image comes from many different sources; our family, friends, culture, the media, and our own standards of what we deem attractive.
So what can you do to keep your body image from sabotaging the rest of your life? The first thing to do would be to make a list of the things you do like about your body. This will help you learn to value your body instead of focusing on the negative aspects. Next, make a list of the things you don’t like about your body. After you write this list, take a moment to ask yourself where this negative outlook came from? Where did these thoughts originate? How are these thoughts influencing you current behavior?
Take time to explore these feelings. Notice if these negative thoughts are distorted or unrealistic (i.e. “my thighs are huge!”) when in reality you have great muscular legs!
We all tend to blow things out of proportion from time to time when we’re not feeling we look our best. It’s okay to have a bad day here and there. However, when it starts to become obsessive and it’s affecting your day to day life, you know you have to rein things in and put those negative thoughts into perspective.
The bottom line is that we should give thanks every day to the bodies we have. They get us where we want to go and give us the fuel and energy to get us through our daily activities! Giving thanks to your body can be the first step in changing that negative outlook into a positive one!
janahollingsworth 