In honour of International Women's Day, I gave a talk this week on Body Acceptance. It's a topic I'm quite passionate about as it aligns with my motto "life's too short". Interestingly, it's a theme I often see crossing over into both of my jobs - stylist and radiographer. But more on that later... Rather wonderfully, following my talk this week a number of the attendees felt comfortable enough to share their stories and experiences of their journey towards body acceptance. It's such an emotive subject and such an individual thing but at the same time often seems to be something which brings people together collectively as there can be shared experiences.
So, with this in mind, I thought I would continue my theme of body acceptance and share some facts and tips if this is something you'd like more information on.
As I'm sure you can appreciate this is a vast topic but I'd like to at least start a conversation on it.
Why is body image important?
Well, let's start off by looking at some statistics around this. A survey by the UK's Mental Health Foundation [1] was undertaken in 2019 of over 4,500 adults. Some of the findings are quite stark but possibly unsurprising:
1 in 5 adults have felt shame due to their body image
Over a third said they have felt anxious or depressed due to their body image
In another survey of teenage boys in 2016 it was found that 10% of those surveyed would consider taking steroids in order to change their physical appearance. [2]
Why is this important? Well, it has been shown that those with a healthy body image are more likely to benefit from good physical and mental health. Put another way, those with a higher body dissatisfaction are at risk of a poorer quality of like and psychological distress. [3]
What affects body image?
This is not an exhaustive list but here are a few of my suggestions on this. I'm sure many of these won't come as a surprise to you.
Media - the ever present pressure to align with an unrealistic vision of what is an ideal body.
Family - so often this comes up with clients. A flyaway remark by a family member years ago which has stuck in memory.
Health - illness, surgery, pregnancy, a change in health circumstances can all impact our bodies and therefore our body esteem.
Advertising - especially pertinent currently with the increase in marketing around weight loss injections and diet pills.
Shops - the frustration of not aligning with brands' sizings and fittings can lead to negative thoughts around body image.
So what can we do?
Here are some things I've come across as suggestions to help work towards body acceptance:
Explore the concept of body neutrality. This is something I've written about before and as it focuses on making peace with one's body as well as the function of the body it can be a good first step.
Linked to this, you could try a "Compassionate Body Scan" - these are available on Youtube and Spotify. They're essentially a 10-20 minute meditation where you focus in on your body, practicing self compassion.
Spring clean your apps and social media. If there are accounts you follow which leave you feeling down or anxious, unfollow them. Be aware of how these accounts make you feel and if you find they leave you feeling negative about your body take a stand. This is something you can control and over time the algorithms will follow suit.
Be aware of your inner dialogue. A tricky one at times as we can be so used to speaking negatively or unkindly to ourselves. But if you hear that negativity creeping into your mind, try to stop it in its tracks. It's not big headed to give yourself a compliment.
Be mindful of your language at home or in front of others. Something I have heard a few times from clients is how their Mum was always on a diet when they were growing up and this has in part contributed to their issues around their body. Similarly, I now try to be mindful of my language at home when watching tv with my son - and I try not to comment on peoples' bodies as I don't want that to be a takeaway message for him.
Lastly, a more "involved" step, but I'll throw it in anyway. If you see something in a magazine, tv or online which you feel is promoting an unhealthy body image you could complain to the Advertising Standards Authority. Told you this was a bigger step! I sometimes wonder who complains to these sorts of authorities but in researching this topic I now feel this is something I would do in the future if necessary.
Thank you for reading this piece and I hope you have found this enlightening and/or thought provoking. As I wrote previously, I'm aware this is a sensitive topic so please feel free to reach out if you'd like to chat further.
To wrap up I'll leave you with a lovely affirmation a client recently shared with me:
“Imagine what a 90 year old version of you would say looking at your current self in the mirror. Celebrate what you’ve got right now.”
[1] Mental Health Foundation "Body Image: How we think and feel about our bodies" 2019
[2] Credos. Picture of Health? [Internet]. 2016.
[3] Griffiths S, Hay P, Mitchinson D, Mond J, McLean S, Rodgers B, et al. "Sex differences in the relationships between body dissatisfaction, quality of life and psychological distress". Aust N Z J Public Health. 2016 Dec;40(6):518–22.
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