Do You Have A Distorted Body Image?

by Hope Wilbanks on June 30th, 2008

My first poll here asked the question Do you feel good in your own skin? Of those who were brave enough to participate in the poll, the majority answered Sometimes.

I’ve been chewing (pun unintended) on this tidbit for a few days. I’ve thought about those of you who visit here regularly and feel this way. I’ve tried to come up with an article worthy of inspiring and motivating you. But the truth is, your body image will not change unless and until you are ready to change it for yourself.

The question then, is how does one change their distorted body image? Perhaps more importantly, how do you know if you have a poor body image?

What is body image?

The first thing we need to do is explore what the term “body image” means. In essence, your body image is the way you mentally perceive the way your body actually looks. It is how you view yourself (in your mind), rather than how you actually look (when you look at yourself in a mirror).

The problem so many of us have is that what we think we look like is not always what we actually see when we look in the mirror. For some this is a good thing. For others, it’s not so good.

Poor vs. Good

This stark difference is where poor body image and good body image comes into play. In general, people who have high self-esteem and possess an overall positive feeling about themselves usually think they look better in the mirror than they imagined. On the flip side, those who feel bad about themselves anyway, usually see something worse when they look in the mirror.

A poor body image commonly presents itself in a variety of ways, including:

Hating the body you have.
Wishing you could look more like ___________ (you fill in the blank).
Fantasizing about all the things you might do, if only your body weren’t so ugly.
Thinking about plastic surgery, extreme weight loss surgery, or any other similar thing.

If you have a good body image, more than likely you

Love the way you look.
Embrace the body you have.
Like trying on clothes.
Prance around in front of the mirror to see what you look like.

Putting it all together

Have you ever been around someone who obviously loves the way they look? Let’s set up a scenario, for the sake of argument. You see a curvy, full-figured woman, wearing a form-fitting dress. She’s with a group of friends, laughing and having a great time. She obviously feels great about herself and is totally uninhibited. To top it off, guys seem to notice her, approaching her one right after the other.

There you sit, feeling jealous, and wondering why in the world she is so happy. If you had her body, you probably would have bought that dress two or three sizes larger. You certainly wouldn’t be so “out there” with yourself, because after all, she’s got more curves than a test track.

AHA!

There’s the difference between a poor and good body image. Where all you see are the imperfections of this woman’s body, she has totally embraced them–loves them, even–and is enjoying her life. It’s not that she doesn’t care what she looks like. She cares very much. Rather than focus on those particular “flaws” though, she finds ways to accentuate them. She has embraced who she is, and loves herself, curves and all.

Changing a distorted body image

So now we come down to the nitty gritty of it all. How do you change your body image? How can you see yourself in a more positive light?

I personally believe a huge part of this falls to perspective. If you continue looking at yourself with the same eyes you always have, you will persist in seeing a distorted image of yourself. You have to begin today with a fresh perspective.

Honestly, none of us are 100% happy with the way we look. Even those with the best body image still struggle with something they don’t really like about themselves. The big difference is they don’t allow that one little thing to shout louder than everything else.

So you have a little junk in your trunk. Is that really such a bad thing? There are women (and men) who go under the knife to obtain a fuller derrière. The things you see as flaws and wish you could rid your body of are the very things other people wish they had.

Start by embracing one thing at a time that you don’t like about yourself. Purposefully pass by a mirror, stop, look at that one thing, then smile at yourself and say something like, “Hope, you have the prettiest eyes!” Make it a habit to start pointing out the things you do like about yourself. Before long, you will start focusing on those things, and all the things you think you don’t like will fade into the background.

Tags: body image, diet, diet blog, fatblog, fatblogger, fatblogging, healthy weight loss, lose weight, poor body image, weight, weight loss, weight loss blog

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