6 Ways to Boost Your Body Image

Body Image

By Margarita Tartakovsky, MS

For many of us the image we see in the mirror doesn’t line up with the image we want to see. And that’s when our inner critic starts chirping. But you don’t need to change your physical appearance to feel better about yourself. Everyone deserves to appreciate and love their bodies and themselves – just as they are, at any size, shape or weight. Here are six ways to boost your body image right now.

Margarita Tartakovsky, MS, is an associate editor at Psych Central and authors the body image blog Weightless. She writes about everything from anxiety and ADHD to creativity and couples to mindfulness and stress. You can learn more about her work at her website.

Be Grateful for Your Body

Our bodies are magnificent machines with amazing abilities. Think about all the things you can do thanks to your body. You can hug your loved ones. You can write a thank-you note. You can bike while enjoying the breeze. You can laugh. You can cry and release emotions. You can cook a meal for your family. You can dance with your spouse. You can walk on the beach, and feel the warm sand between your toes. Even these seemingly small actions require a lot of different functions from our bodies. And the biggest capabilities, of course: Our bodies let us breathe. They give us life. Every day list three to five things your body helped you do that day.

Perform Physical Activities You Love

It’s hard to appreciate your body when exercise becomes just another chore or punishment – or worse another method to manipulate your body into being thinner. When we engage in this kind of exercise, we start to resent our bodies. Why isn’t this working? I’ve been doing this stupid exercise for weeks now, and I’m still not losing weight. Why isn’t my stomach more muscular? When we exercise for the sheer enjoyment of it, we begin to view our bodies differently. We begin to be thankful that we can practice the activities we love – and we stop beating our bodies into skinny submission. The resentment softens. There’s no disputing that physical activities are a boon for our health. But the key is to find activities that inspire and empower you along with activities that teach you to be kinder to your body (yoga is one example).

Bask in the Beauty of Everyday

The more we nitpick at our bodies, the smaller our worlds become. The more we focus on our supposed flaws, the less we see the genuine beauty in our daily lives. We might skip events because we don’t like how we look. We might forget about the great people surrounding us because we’re too busy feeling miserable over our hips. In her book Taking Flight: Inspiration and Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings, author and artist Kelly Rae Roberts includes a valuable exercise to helps us see the extraordinary, the sacred, in the everyday. All you need to do is complete these sentences:

In my everyday life, I may be overlooking things that I want to see more of, such as:

I find small moments of gratitude at these times, at these places and/or with these people:

I see beauty in:

I can capture the sacred in the ordinary by:

Fat Talk

Even if you’ve never heard the term, you’ve probably engaged in fat talk many times. My thighs are huge. Oh, I can’t eat that; it’ll go straight to my stomach. I look disgusting in this dress. I need to lose 10 pounds yesterday. How we talk to ourselves – whether in private or in public – affects our body image. Negative self-talk slowly chips away at our self-image. To stop fat talk, first become aware of how often you criticize yourself. Also, consider what triggers this criticism. Are you with certain people, or at certain places? Are you doing certain things? Then consider how you can work through these triggers. If your friends start criticizing themselves (or others), change the conversation. Don’t get sucked into a cycle of negative chatter. It’s just not worth it. Building a positive body image is a process. Figure out what tips resonate with you, and take the first step.