How to Cultivate a Positive Body Image In Our Social Media Age

Some people are comfortable with who they are, especially when it comes to their bodies. When you gaze at yourself in the mirror, do you like what you see? As winter draws to a close and the summer months set in, do you feel comfortable as you shed those heavy coats and snow boots for t-shirts, shorts, and pool/beach wear? If there’s a camera around, do you feel comfortable and confident to have your picture taken?

Our bodies are always with us, and we can have a positive relationship with them or we can have a negative relationship. What shapes our relationship with our bodies, and can it have a negative effect on our overall well-being?

Understanding issues about body image is important, particularly when we are constantly bombarded with images that keep us hyperaware and hyper-focused on the bodies of others as well as our own.

Definitions

The American Psychological Association (APA) describes body image as the mental picture a person forms of their body as a whole, including its physical characteristics and one’s attitudes toward these characteristics. Your body image is how you see your body, how you feel about your body, and the thoughts that come to mind when you’re considering your body.

You could also say that your body image is the self-talk that you engage in about your body, a sort of ongoing dialogue with yourself. This complex dialogue can also include other people, as you express your feelings and perceptions about your bodies with other people such as your friends or even a stranger helping you find the right size of an article of clothing.

We all have thoughts about our bodies and feelings we associate with them. Not only do we have thoughts, but many of us have ongoing concerns about our bodies, including about our hair, skin, the size or shape of certain body parts, weight, and height. Your body image is about all of these, as well as how you sense and experience your body.

A person can have a positive or a negative body image, and this is shaped by several factors. Negative body image is when your overall experience, attitude, and feelings toward your own body lean toward dissatisfaction, and you want your body to be different. You might feel uncomfortable in your own body, and unhappy about one or multiple aspects of it. If you have a negative body image, you want to change your body.

There are varying degrees of negative body image, and these can influence the behaviors that flow from that dissatisfaction.

A negative body image can result in dieting, disordered eating, or other behaviors to attempt to remedy perceived or real issues with one’s body. Some people engage in substance abuse, excessive exercise, or smoking to manage weight. Other concerns may be anxiety or depression that can accompany or precede eating disorders, not to mention how a negative body image can also contribute to body dysmorphic disorder.

While the data suggests that women are more likely to struggle with body image than men, that doesn’t mean that men are free of body image issues.

Positive body image is when your overall experience leans toward satisfaction and acceptance. You are okay with what your body is like, with its capabilities and its look. A person with a positive body image has the peace of mind of being comfortable in her own skin.

What influences and affects body image?

Several factors influence how a person perceives themselves, and these include:

Socialization from the people in our lives

We learn to appreciate ourselves as people in our lives respond to us at an early age. If a parent or caregiver comments on your weight or your skin, that can shape how you see yourself, whether positively or otherwise. This underscores the truth that “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18: 21, NIV)

Social and other media

Print media, commercials, and more recently social media can shape our perceptions of beauty standards and what’s considered normal. With most of us carrying phones in our pockets and apps that connect us to influencers and other people, social media can have a huge impact on body image as it promotes certain definitions of beauty and attractiveness.

Certain images get hearted, liked, retweeted, and that can quickly tell you what people find attractive and unattractive. There’s enormous pressure to conform to certain notions about bodies that abound on the internet.

Personal life experiences

Apart from socialization at an early age, experiences in later life can shape self-perception. Having a mastectomy for breast cancer, developing a skin condition such as psoriasis or acne, or losing a limb can change one’s self-perception.

Similarly, experiencing discrimination, rejection, or bullying because of an aspect of your body such as your size or skin color can shift self-perception and promote the development of a negative body image. Other experiences such as encountering Jesus can also shift self-perception toward a positive body image as you learn how precious you and your body are.

The Benefits of having a Good Body Image

To some extent, we can control the messaging we receive regarding bodies and what others think they ought to be. We have much greater control over how we respond to that messaging, though we can’t minimize how difficult it is to overcome negative messaging and self-perceptions.

However, there are many benefits to having a positive body image, including:

• It helps you to be comfortable in your skin, and it helps you to enjoy your life.
• Insulates you from unhelpful societal messaging about your body.
• Fosters an appreciation for what your body can do, and leaves you more willing to try things out that may challenge your physical limits
• It’ll make you better disposed to take steps to care for your body in healthy ways. If you have a positive outlook toward yourself, you’re more likely to take care of yourself in a fulfilling and healthy manner.
• Creates a broader understanding and appreciation of the different types of beauty out there, including your own.

How to Flourish and Cultivate a Positive Body Image

Society at large will always have opinions about everything, including what looks beautiful and what you should look like to be considered beautiful or ideal. Having a positive body image means that you can feel good in your skin, regardless of whether your body meets the standard or definition of what people around you consider the ideal.

Try these six things to flourish and cultivate a positive body image:

Accept yourself

No one lives with you more than yourself. Being able to accept yourself is the first step toward loving yourself, warts and all. Acceptance is about taking yourself as you are and seeing value, dignity, and worth in your person, regardless of your real or supposed flaws.

Practice compassion toward yourself and positive self-talk to change your ongoing dialogue with yourself about your body. Self-acceptance is also about seeing yourself as a whole person and not just an imperfect body part or an aspect of yourself. Appreciate what your body can do, like create, laugh, or dance.

Have realistic expectations of yourself

Body image can be shaped by entirely unrealistic expectations. If you’re older, your body won’t look like or be capable of the same things as a younger person’s.

It’s important to recognize that being healthy and looking ripped aren’t synonymous. Your body can be flexible, cardio-fit, strong, and durable under strain without needing to look a certain way. It’s hard to live up to the curated unreality of photoshopped and filtered images on magazine covers and social media feeds.

Unplug from unhelpful influences

If you find that your positive body image is getting eroded by spending time with certain people, or by being on social media, then unplug from them for a time or for good where necessary. Social media bombards us with images constantly, and these can hurt our body image.

Where social media is generating helpful conversations that bolster your body image, leaning in may be helpful. Spend time with people that cultivate a body-positive outlook. The key is to become a critical and discerning consumer of social media and other content or messages.

Focus on being healthy rather than looking a certain way

Instead of working out to have a particular look, strive to be healthy, strong, and flexible. You don’t always see gains immediately, especially in the looks department, and that can demotivate you on your fitness journey.

Focus on your skills and capacities rather than your body image

Cultivate the content of your character with the recognition that beauty is about more than just your appearance, especially before the Lord (Proverbs 31: 30; 1 Timothy 2:8-10).

Avoid the comparison game

Instead of comparing yourself to other people, appreciate your body for what it is. If you find yourself envying someone else, remind yourself of your positive character qualities, and focus your attention on activities that take you outside of yourself, such as volunteering.

For some people, it may be hard to love themselves. A great first step is to move toward being body neutral. You can still respect, be grateful for, nourish, and be attentive to your body even if you don’t love it. This can be a move in the right direction as you cultivate a deeper appreciation of your whole self.

A Parting Word on Counseling

Counseling can help with finding out what shapes your body image and exerts a huge influence on your self-perception. Through individual or group counseling, you can unearth unhelpful and unhealthy thought patterns that feed into a negative body image while undermining a positive body image.

Christian counseling, in particular, can help you positively relate to your body by recovering an appreciation of your body as fearfully and wonderfully made by God (Psalm 139). All kinds of bodies can serve the Lord and bring Him glory, and they are all bodies that are destined for resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).

If you struggle to accept and love your body, consider speaking with a counselor to help you. Call our office to get started.