Posted on January 15, 2020 by Johnna Terris

“You’ve been criticizing yourself for years & it hasn’t worked. Try accepting yourself & see what happens.” – Louise Hay

5 Ways to Help

Having a poor body image is common but doesn’t mean you have a mental health concern, but it can trigger an issue. It can be a trigger for anxiety and/or poor self worth. This is important for all ages, 4-74. Here are a few ways you can help improve both. 

1. Movement! More times than not, exercise and movement alone can positively affect mental health. It can reduce anxiety and depression which has been proven to help with body image. Find what movement feels good to you and your body and have fun with it. It goes back to the saying, “feel good, feel confident."

2. Do a form of self-care related to your body. Maybe that is yoga in front of a mirror to recognize the strengths in your body or journal to compliment yourself and your body. Remind yourself that you are worthy in your own skin.

3. “Spring Clean” your social media by unfollowing any pages that reduce your body imagine and mental health and do follow pages that increase it. Start small and just do whatever feels right! 

4. Write and leave positive notes around your room to remind yourself of your worth and inner/outer beauty. Mirrors are great places to leave these kinds of notes. Personalize them to yourself and try to write multiple!

5. You are already taking the first step by reading this blog! These weekly blogs will hopefully empower you to fight that internal message that is telling you that you aren’t good enough. Doing the activities and the challenges will put those positive words into action. However, it’s not an overnight switch, it will be something that you work on. Everyone’s timeline is different and the challenge is real. “Practice makes progress.”

Activity!

Grab a piece of paper and pencil! Draw a heart, with 5 lines through it, like the example below. In these spaces, write what you appreciate about your body. There should be about 12 empty spaces. Try to focus on 3 emotional, physical, intellectual and social qualities. If you can’t fill all of the spaces, come back to it the next day. Reflect on this throughout the week.

Heart Picture

Challenge!

Complete at least 2 of the 5 ways to help! Grab a friend and do it with them or do it on your own! Personalize it to yourself and do what will help you most!