Negative body image: something I think we’ve all dealt with at some point in our lives.
But where does this negative body image come from, and how exactly do we get rid of it?
The self-love movement is strong right now, but it can still feel out of reach to fully love ourselves.
That’s because there’s two different sides tugging at you.
- The diet society that keeps you constantly insecure about your body. Preying on the fact that you’re not happy with a certain part of your body. So, they encourage you to try {and keep trying} new diet plans, programs, shakes, cleanses, etc.
- Old habits, thoughts and beliefs that you haven’t cleared out from your subconscious. This is keeping you stuck where you are. Falling back into the diet trap of #1.
Where does negative body image come from?
You may already know off the top of your head where your negative body image comes from.
Many times, it comes from our parents. As little kids we soak in everything our parents not only say, but also do.
If your parents stood in the mirror and jiggled their stomach and said, “ugh, this is disgusting”, you’ve internalized this visual and emotional cue.
It’s not always our parents we have to take into account. Our body image issues can also stem from a specific occurrence.
Maybe from bullying in school. Or an old boyfriend or girlfriend who made back handed comments about your weight.
You might not have thought much about it at the time, but you’ve once again been internalizing these thoughts and feelings. Those thoughts and feelings have become your belief system about yourself.
These old stories are keeping you stuck.
How to combat negative body image
There are a few tips and tricks I’ve come across while working on learning to truly love myself.
1. Stop dieting
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, your diet is keeping you stuck and in a perpetual state of dislike for your body.
When you stop dieting and make the movement to intuitive eating, a practice to help you achieve food, body and mind freedom, you’ll begin to see and feel an internal shift.
A shift towards learning more about your body’s wants and needs. A shift towards becoming more comfortable in your own skin.
When I first made the shift to intuitive eating, this was one of the biggest ways I started to see more body acceptance and self-love.
I want to mention that this is shift is meant to make you feel good in your own skin, no matter your size.
If you want to gain or lose weight, the intuitive eating practice helps you start from a place of love for yourself.
2. Recognize where your negative body image comes from
When you begin to recognize where those negative body image thoughts and feelings come from, you can start to make a conscious effort towards shifting those thoughts.
Digging deep and looking back on these old stories. It can be difficult and scary work to do sometimes, but it’s absolutely necessary when it comes making major shifts.
3. Rewire your old body beliefs into new ones
This step can’t truly be accomplished until you do step number two. When you don’t do that deep inner work, you’re going to never close the loop.
Once you’ve taken a hard look at where those negative body image issues come from, you can start to create new body beliefs.
Beliefs that will begin to serve you in loving yourself.
Beliefs like:
- I trust in my body’s needs and wants
- I’m learning to love my body
- I appreciate and accept my body
The last step in this process is finding that body acceptance.
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4. Finding body acceptance
Now that you’ve done the inner work and have started creating new beliefs, you can begin to find body acceptance.
Body acceptance means being comfortable in your own skin. Appreciating your body, no matter what size you’re at.
No longer making comparisons of your body to any one else’s. It also means not comparing your body to a previous body weight of your own.
Body acceptance doesn’t mean you have to love your body every single day. You will have moments where you don’t love what you see in the mirror. But those days are few and far between.
This work your doing could be fast or slow. It just depends on how far down you’re willing to dig when it comes to old stories and rewriting them.
If you need additional help when combating negative body image, make sure to check out the August 2020 Training: How to Combat Negative Body Image and the corresponding workbook.
Both of those will help take you through the process of the inner work and rewriting the story.
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