10 Tips to Say Goodbye to a Bad Body Image
1. Use it, don’t think about it. Our bodies are gifts. Partake of all the marvelous things we can do with our bodies — run, jump, skip, dance, leap, walk, swim, cartwheel, sing…you name it. How much more fun it is to use our bodies, than it is to think about our bodies. How much more energizing it is to engage with our bodies, instead of draining away our life force with petty obsessing over the slope of our stomach, the size of our breasts, the shape of our arms, and…you get the picture.
2. Know the why of why you use it. Unfortunately, just getting out there and using our bodies is not the magic bullet. Why? — because too often we are “using it” for the wrong reasons. We’re working out just to be thin, thinner, thinnest. As with so much in life, intention is the crux. If we bring a sense of unworthiness to our workout, if it’s just about looking good in that new sweater dress, we will never be satisfied. If instead we bring an intention to be healthy, in body, mind and spirit, we are ripe for happiness. The bonus — we will feel better about our bodies.
3. Stop talking about your body. Yawn. Boring. No one really wants to listen to you enumerate your flaws. Think about it. Really, do you like to listen to other people criticize how they look? No. Not to mention that such talk just reinforces those negative neural pathways in our brains.
