Hello and welcome back to week #7 of Keystone’s weekly wellness blogs!
Fitting the theme of the month of February (the month of love), I wanted to dedicate this blog post to something a lot of us struggle with, that being loving ourselves and developing a healthy relationship with our body image. Teenagehood is marked by quick and drastic physical and emotional changes, as well as dealing with the pressures to fit into peer groups and society’s expectations of how you’re “supposed” to be. In this blog post, we’ll take a deeper look into the importance of self-love, ways to develop a healthy body image, and why embracing and loving YOURSELF is a necessary step in navigating your journey through teen/adulthood.
The Societal Lens
Societal standards and even cultural norms, carefully shape the lens in which we view our own bodies. From magazine covers to film and curated social media pages, the media chips away at our self-image and self-worth and sets (most often) very unrealistic or unattainable expectations for what is considered to be perfect and beautiful. These “subtle” (sometimes not so subtle) takes on what perfection looks like seep into how we view ourselves on the day-to-day. The media doesn’t offer or suggest standards to match, but it demands conformity. It is all too common to compare ourselves to the images we are bombarded with every day. Our subconscious mind takes these images and sets them as the “norm” for how we and others should be and look like. This gap between who we actually are and what society wants us to be can lead to a very distorted image of ourselves. With this twisted view of ourselves, self-love faces a big crisis! It not only changes the way we look at ourselves in the mirror, but damages the foundations of loving ourselves.
Recognizing these outside influences and patterns in the media we consume is the first step to breaking free from societal expectations.
The Internal Dialogue
We know from past blog posts that how we speak to ourselves, our thought patterns strongly influences how we view our bodies and self-love. This is where the push and pull comes in, battling being accepting of ourselves and being too critical. Constantly put in positions to compare ourselves to others, we get stuck in a cycle of self-judgment. Our internal thoughts and comments, shaped by what society expects of us, team up to do some pretty serious damage to our self-worth. The journey to self-love means consciously reframing these thoughts, shifting from self-criticism to self-affirmation. Positive thoughts in this journey act as bits of sunlight peeking through a storm! Celebrating our uniqueness, strengths and flaws drowns out all the hateful talk that may try to take over. Reframing this way of thinking, as we know, isn’t a quick fix. It’s a skill to practice and a gradual transformation that requires patience. Feeling nurtured, accepted and enough is what makes it all worthwhile.
The “Feedback Loop”
Think of the connection between self-love and body image as a continuous loop, constantly influencing one another. When we are able to create a positive relationship to our bodies and body image, it deepens our ability to love ourselves. Simply just appreciating our body for the good it does us is enough to boost our confidence and stand taller in our own skin. On the flip side of this, when we nurture self-love, it becomes a turning point for reshaping negative body image. They’re married hand in hand. Our journey towards self-love and positive body image is not a straight path, but an up and down process of self discovery, acceptance and celebration! These two things are difficult to practice without one another – together they create harmony in our minds and our bodies.
Recognizing the ties between self-love and body image shows us a story that is different for everyone. Knowing how much they influence one another gives us the power to break free from what society wants to see. Like I said, this journey does not look or feel the same for everyone, but by committing to the journey, we can unlock a more confident and appreciative relationship with OURSELVES!
“I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.”
