There is usually something that a person can’t stand about their own body. Whether it is big feet, sticky outty ears, spots or blemishes we could all benefit from learning a few techniques to focus our thoughts about body image in a positive direction. In this article we focus on developing techniques to help you cultivate a positive body image, instead of resorting to plastic surgery, fad diets or just staying in hiding instead of living life!
Understanding where Negative thoughts come from
When you hate your body you are poring a lot of energy into something that is destructive. You can learn to reverse this pattern with positive thoughts.
The first step in turning the tide of negativity in relation to body image is to understand why you feel negatively about your body. You should sit down either by yourself or with a trusted friend and talk about your body image. Where does it come from? And, what were the key influences in your formation of your own self image? You might be self critical. You might have a partner who is critical of your looks. Your parents might have always affectionately called you ‘podgy’, without realising that it hurt you deep down. Whatever it is you need to face it and deal with it. Once you have identified the reasons behind your negative body image you can start to discipline your thoughts in relation to your body image.
Positive thoughts
Positivity can be learned through practice. Scientists have studied the topic of positivity and it is something you can create from within. People are not born positive or negative. You must therefore believe that you can change patterns of negative body image and banish negative thoughts. When you have decided to feed positivity instead of negativity, the battle for a positive body image is half won.
Positive thoughts led to positive actions, like taking care of your appearance using nifty little tools www.MyShowCase.com.
Repetition
Once you have identified your body gripes through thinking and talking about these, write them down in a list. Your list might have things like “I don’t look good naked”; “I hate my nose”; “I hate my boobs”, or “I feel fat”. When you have your list of negative things, you can look and see how to reverse the negativity and create something positive. So, if you truly believe you are fat, why not say “I am not happy with my weight, but I have the power to change that in a healthy way starting today”. If you don’t like you nose, you could say “I don’t like my nose but I can learn to love it and I am never going to criticise my nose again because this is destructive”.
Substitution
When you have framed your thoughts in a positive way, make an effort to substitute every self criticism with something positive. In this way you can discipline your mind to love and accept your body, or bring about changes in a realistic and positive way.
