Embracing Your Unique Beauty: How Positive Body Image Fosters Mental Well-Being
By Danielle La Rose
What if appreciating your body and learning to have a healthy relationship with it could improve your mental health?
Recent reports have shown that “85% of women and 79% of girls opt out of important life activities — such as trying out for a team or club, and engaging with family or loved ones — when they don’t feel good about the way they look.”
In addition we have stats like this…
“Around 53% of 13 year old American girls reported being unhappy with their bodies.”
“7 in 10 girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way.”
“95% of women are currently on a diet.”
“80% of 10 year old girls have been on a diet.”
In Canada, “The percentage of girls who believed their body was too fat was far greater than the percentage of girls who are actually overweight or obese….26% of Grade 6 girls think their body is too fat, compared to 26% of Grade 7 girls, 35% of Grade 8 girls, 38% of Grade 9 girls, and 39% of Grade 10 girls.” *
The fact that the majority of women and girls struggle with their body image is clear but how does that affect mental health?
Those with a negative body image are more likely to struggle with anxiety and depression, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and body dysmorphic disorder.
As devastating as this can be for us to learn as women, especially women who have a deep desire for the next generation of girls to grow up more body confident than we did, it’s also an opportunity to ask ourselves “what can we do about it?”
Like most women, I also struggled with my own body image. Since sixth grade I refused to wear shorts because of my cellulite — in 100 degree temperatures in the middle of summer I would wear jeans. With all of my high school graduation money I bought into a service with 12 treatments that guaranteed to lessen my cellulite. It didn’t work. Through most of my teen/young adult life I tried every diet you could imagine, took weight loss pills, tried extreme measures, counted points, ate less than 1200 calories and still kept looking in the mirror hating what I saw wishing I could just be smaller and prettier.
Desperately wanting to live in my body and mind peacefully, I decided to start approaching food and fitness in a different way while at the same time prioritizing my body image. Soon I realized that the most important thing I needed to do in order to feel better was NOT to love my body but to appreciate my body by expressing body gratitude.
See — loving your body isn’t a goal to reach, it’s a daily CHOICE.
The good news: you have CONTROL right now, in this moment, to LOVE your body.
Bad news: it doesn’t come “naturally” to any woman so you get to DECIDE to work towards it.
Here’s one of my favorite tricks to loving & appreciating your body — but first here’s a quick reality check about self love & body image.
Your body is perfect as it is. Right now. The only reason you think something is wrong with it is because society told you to. They showed you the “perfect body” on tv and in magazines and you believed them.
It’s okay to not love your body. That was hard for me to write because it’s really NOT ok that we live in a world where the majority of women do not love their bodies. It makes me sad and angry. BUT I also realize we live in a world where we are preached at to LOVE ourselves and our BODIES and we are literally feeling BAD for NOT loving our bodies and we are beating ourselves up over it. So if you are reading this and you are struggling with WANTING to love your body & not being quite there yet, I want you to know it’s ok to have those feelings and to be patient with yourself.
Losing weight doesn’t increase your love for your body. The workouts & healthy eating that lead to weight loss definitely help you have APPRECIATION for your body and what it’s capable of but the simple number on the scale doesn’t give you self-love. Quite the opposite — when you learn how to love your body as it is and appreciate it for what it’s capable of FIRST, then you will find you naturally want to take better care of it, leading to possible weight-loss. But the scale doesn’t determine your self-love.
So how can you LOVE your body today especially when you find yourself constantly looking in the mirror and hating what you see? This is how we do it…
What you FOCUS ON E-X-P-A-N-D-S.
If you focus on the negative, you see more negative. If you focus on the positive, you see more positive.
So to answer the question of “what can we do about it?” when it comes to our body image — we practice body gratitude. Together, let’s do one of the most powerful exercises that can help us create more body appreciation…
Grab a pen and piece of paper and answer the following…
My Body Allows Me To:
What does your body do for you right now that’s important?
Some of my clients have said:
- Feed my babies
- Go to work
- Be intimate with my partner (ok maybe they didn’t use those soft of words but I’ll keep it PG)
- Run after my kids
- Hike mountains
- See beautiful places
- Eat delicious food
I Love that My Body Can:
What can your body actually do that you may take for granted?
- Run (if I want it to)
- Type messages to my friends I met on social media
- Hear nature
- Hold growing babies
- Jump in puddles on the playground
- Take care of itself
- Keeps going even when my mind doesn’t know if I can
My Strong Arms Allow Me To:
What do your arms do for you on a regular basis that you don’t even pay attention to?
- Push a stroller and carry my babe
- Snuggle my wife/husband
- Lift weights
- Reach for good food high up in the cabinets
- Write letters to my favorite humans
- High five kiddos
- Ski, play tennis, go bowling, slam dunk a basketball…
My Strong Legs Allow Me To:
Your legs put in so much work each day, let’s celebrate what they do for us!
- Walk the dogs
- Climb the stairs at home and at work
- Run to catch my flight when I’m late
- Bounce my baby
- Play duck duck goose
- Jump high
My Body Feels The Strongest When:
Pay attention to the times when your body feels really good and do more of that!
- I am dancing my heart out
- I eat healthy foods
- I am in a big bear hug with my family
- I’m running
- I give myself enough sleep
Momma Tip: Do this with your kids! Having your kids focus on their bodies & APPRECIATING them for what they can do, can help long-term with body image issues. Start them young focusing on what their bodies can DO more than how they LOOK!
Ok go ahead…get to writing.
It’s time to start encouraging yourself & the people around you to stop looking for “self-love” from outside sources and start looking within & focusing on what you want to expand.
YOU ARE PRETTY POWERFUL and body appreciation is where it’s at and how you start developing a love-your-body mentality to feel good mentally, physically, and emotionally.
Author Bio:
Danielle La Rose is a Sociologist & Body Confidence Wellness Strategist, author, speaker, motivational fitness instructor, and founder of Pretty POWERful – a company on a mission to create a world where every girl, and woman, looks in the mirror and loves who she sees.
Find more fabulous body image information from Danielle at www.daniellenicolelarose.com
Click these links to follow Danielle on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok.
If you want to shift your approach to food, fitness, and body confidence join Danielle’s 75 Day Healthy program at www.75healthy.com
* Source: “The Health of Canada’s Young People: a mental health focus – Healthy Weights.”
