Physical Self-esteem: Accept Your Body

You don’t want to look in the mirror, taking photos is awful, and you even end up editing your photos on a computer to fix “ugly” parts of your body. Fashion, social pressure and comparison are all enemies that do a lot of damage and take away the love you have for your body.

The body, the physical entity that allows you to function in the external world, is an extremely important part of you yourself. Your body, your feelings and your thoughts form a whole that sets you apart from everyone else. Today’s beauty ideals and distorted perspectives on health have made you hate the shell where you live.

Understand your body

To give your body all the respect it deserves, start by understanding it. It is not an opponent who wants harm to you. In fact, it behaves perfectly most of the time, and you can find a great partner for yourself in all its complexity, especially if you know how to read its signals.

Even when you don’t take good care of it, your body acts as a shield that protects you from outside attacks. You’re probably the one who usually hurts this particular friend by eating unhealthy foods, losing too much weight, or neglecting exercise.

The body you hate so much that you don’t want to look in the mirror, that you hide from your partner by putting the light out when you’re naked together, or that you cover with certain clothes, is the body that will accompany you for the rest of your life. You have the power to change or improve it, but sometimes this is not compatible with what you want.

Body and fashion

The media, commercials, and society are so powerful that they can get girls to stop eating so they can look like top models, or get boys to go to the gym to lift weights so they can be as attractive as Hollywood Actors.

However, the definition of “beauty” in relation to the body is quite relative and will change over time. For example, during the Renaissance, beautiful women were larger in size. In Arab culture, men don’t look for girls that are too skinny for their wives. And there are a dozen other examples.

The body is the best technological achievement we have. Do you want to change part of it? Of course, anything can be improved. But that doesn’t mean you should despise what it already is.

Do you like your body?

Most people are dissatisfied with their bodies. Skinny people want to be more curvy, while at the same time others want to be slimmer. Tall people are tired of looking at the world from above, and short people would like to be taken more seriously.

If you don’t like your body, you’re like most of the population. Think about the following questions: Why don’t you like it? What are you dissatisfied with? How could you improve it? Do you have any parts that you like?

If you want to change a part of your body, think about whether this modification is really necessary. Identify the reason why you want to make this change. Is it because you just don’t like it, or because you compare yourself to other people? Anyway, if you’re really that serious about changing it, you might want to seek advice from a professional.

Start accepting your body

Accepting your body doesn’t mean you sit idle and don’t change anything. It means you start the day by loving yourself and understanding your beauty, inside and out.  Here’s one exercise that might help you: stand in front of a mirror without clothes. Analyze every cent, paying close attention to what you see and how you feel.

You may fight this first, but in a few minutes you will get used to it. Attach your gaze to your hair, face, body and legs. Procrastinate in the places you like the most (your nose, shoulders, eyes, etc.).

Then look at the parts you don’t like. But this time, instead of criticizing them, try something else: accepting them. It may sound easy in theory, but not necessarily in practice.

Do you have eyes that allow you to see? A mind that allows for evaluation? A nose that helps you breathe? Feet that walk where you go? Skin that feels touch? A heart that beats? Look at your body from a fair perspective, not according to reviews defined by the media.

In addition to observation,  another way to give your body a helping hand is to pay attention to what it does. This means that you are aware of it in the shower, without letting your mind wander into what you are going to do after the shower. When you exercise, you feel your heart beating, or when you walk, you feel freedom of movement.

Finally, don’t forget all those people who would like a body like you, because they certainly are. Accept your shape, your irregularity, your size. You are more than a tank holding you; you are also your thoughts, ideas, and feelings.