By: Amit Kothiyal
Submitted: 2010-02-11 01:30:53 | Word Count: 572
Body image is an integral aspect of our experience of being human! We each live in a body that uniquely identifies us, to others and to ourselves.
Many people find it hard to accept what they look like and society's over emphasis on appearance, weight and beauty only make it more difficult for people to accept the skin they are in.
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Being unhappy with your body image lowers your overall self-esteem, leading to a negative body image and self-consciousness.
Just for today...
Pick one of these tasks and practice it daily..
• Focus on the parts of your body you like and less on the parts you don't like.
• Start to record your body- image experiences in a diary to monitor certain negative body-image thoughts and emotions. What situations and events Trigger your body image vulnerabilities? What Beliefs, thoughts and conclusions fill your mind during these situations? And finally, how do you React emotionally and behaviorally? This short diary will be a useful self-awareness tool and promote change from within!
• Write positive body affirmations affirmations about yourself and stick them up on the wall or on the mirror focusing on the aspects that you like for example,
• " My eyes are beautiful, My eyes give light to the world, I am thankful for being able to see! Repeating these positive body affirmations daily reinforces positive feelings about our bodies by emphasising things that we like already.
• Body and mind relaxation combines muscle relaxation, visualisation, breathing deeply and positive self-talk. The power to relax physically and mentally is a very powerful coping strategy to deal with challenges related to your body image and also other stressful events.
Today's helpful tool.
Situation: On the verge of a binge
You are on the verge of a binge and are deciding what to eat and how much you will eat. You promise yourself you will stop at reasonable limits although you rarely succeed in keeping this promise.
Action:
Hold on. Now record your experience of the just concluded hour in your diary. Jot down the activities you performed, how you reacted to those activities and finally your feelings, thoughts or any other expression regarding those activities. Do all this even if you have experienced or are reminded of something frightful or hurting. Daily activities like walking the dog, washing your hair, hanging up the phones or misplacing your shoes may seem to you as ordinary events, but if you think hard you will surely realize that there are some hidden painful feelings that you deliberately prefer not to feel.
• Think of how you might comfort yourself to ease these uncomfortable feelings. What could you do to either delay or distract yourself from bingeing. Write a list of 3- 5 alternatives quickly. For example, you may call a friend, you may repeat out loud a positive affirmation, continue to record your journal or listen to music. The important thing is that you are now safe and moving further away from carrying out a binge.
• Write what you are thinking and feeling now.
• Read it out loud.
• Read it out loud a second time in front of a mirror.
• Smile and praise yourself.
Just For Today....
Accept that recovery is a process and does not happen quickly
Author Resource:-
Are you over concerned about your body image and have an intense fear of gaining weight?
If YES! Look over this list of warning signs of eating disorders.
Kildare Street Clinic is a specialized eating disorder treatment center offering effective Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for treatment of eating disorders.
