When it comes to one’s personal body image, everyone will have a different opinion. Some people may look in the mirror and love their bodies. They might be so proud of their accomplishments in achieving – in their eyes- the perfect body. But others don’t exactly feel the same way. Body image is all about perception. Everyone has different views on how much they like the look of their own body and others’. There will be times in your life where other people, like family or friends, relationship partners and even strangers will look at your body and analyze it. Sometimes the analysis may be positive, but other times it could be negative. One thing that is certain is no matter what others say about your body, the only view that should matter is your own. Once you learn self-love and confidence techniques and begin to disregard others’ negative comments regarding your body, your life will feel so much easier.
Being a young woman, there is an astounding amount of pressure to look a certain way due to social media. Social media can be an outlet to show off your body if you’re proud of it, but at the same time, it can be hateful and diminishing if others comment on the way you look. You may find a picture that you love and are so proud of or you may think you look the best you’ve ever looked, but all it takes is for your photo to get one negative comment and all of your views will be skewed. You may start to doubt yourself about how good you look or how proud you are of yourself. This causes stress and sadness, both of which are not good for your mental health. Negative comments from family like, “you should eat more” or “you should eat less” can also be diminishing and influence your own views. In a perfect world, these comments get ignored and people just go on with their day, but society isn’t perfect and many people, mainly young women, take these messages to heart.
Your view of your body image should be the only one that matters. When you look in the mirror, you should be able to disregard all of the negative comments you’ve received and love yourself. But this is a struggle for many, and it doesn’t help that it takes years of building your self-confidence. When you learn to you love yourself, negative comments and hate go right in one ear and out the other; they don’t spend more than a second in your brain, swirling around and making you overthink. That’s the beauty of self-love, it doesn’t influence you to change your goals just because someone else tells you too. You are able to focus on yourself and love yourself. Young men or potential dating partners can be diminishing and disrespectful. They may have a “type,” and if you don’t fit the category, you can be judged for it. Many people can be a reason for the difficulty of achieving self-love, but it is important to focus on developing your concept of self-love, no matter what. Once you’ve reached the point where you look at yourself and don’t see any flaws, your life will become a million times more enjoyable.
This is not to say that you can’t change your views on your body goals (by all means, go for it!), but doing so in order to please someone else is never the way to go. Your body is important and beautiful, and once you are able to see that you’ll be unstoppable.