Today, many women struggle with social pressure to maintain a certain weight, size, or body shape. Those struggles to conform can hinder self-esteem, self-acceptance, and a positive appreciation for the body that you have. Keep reading to learn how embracing body positivity can empower you to live comfortably and confidently.
What is Body Positivity?
Body positivity is a way of shifting your perception of your body away from an exclusive focus on physical appearance or a stereotypical body shape and weight toward something more positive. Today body positivity focuses on seeing your body as a beautiful thing and loving your body. This movement helps people evaluate self-esteem, self-acceptance, and self-love as it relates to the physical body and individual therein.
Body positivity shifts your focus away from exclusively caring about your physical appearance and caring more about what your body is capable of, how it supports you day in and day out, and what things you are able to achieve when you take good care of your body.
Embracing body positivity has a ripple effect: when you promote a positive body image toward those around you like friends and close family members, it has a positive impact on how you view your own body as well.
Embracing Body Positivity
So, how can you go about embracing body positivity if you are struggling with your self-image, an eating disorder, or other social pressures that are hurting your self-esteem? Keep reading to discover tips on celebrating body positivity in your life.
Learning to Recognize Signs
One thing you can do to embrace body positivity is to learn how to identify the signals your body sends for needs like exercise, sleep, and food. Anxiety, depression, and even poor sleep quality can interfere with your ability to recognize the signals your body is sending to indicate a certain need. Participating in professional treatment services like those at Casa Serena can help you learn how to identify these signs so that you can be kind to yourself and to your body, giving it the food and nutrients it needs as well as needed rest, appreciation, and movement for a healthy lifestyle.
Reconsider Social Messages
Another thing you can do as part of embracing body positivity is to take a step back and consider where your beliefs about your body, size, and shape have come from. It’s very likely that you’ve received messages your entire life about things like:
- Exercise
- Food
- Diet
- Weight
- Health
- Shape
You might have received these messages indirectly, hearing your mother while you were growing up talk over and over about her own weight and not realizing that you grew up to have those same thoughts about your own body. You might have received these messages from advertisements or social media, not realizing the impact that your viewing or scrolling habits have had on your own perceptions. It’s not uncommon for women to find themselves acting on messages they weren’t even consciously aware had been influencing their habits.
Professional Treatment with Casa Serena
At Casa Serena, our women’s mental health treatment center provides a place for women to come together and recover from eating disorders and other mental health disorders. We offer several therapy groups as part of our eating disorder program, including body positivity.
Each of the therapy services we offer is designed to change your perspective toward your own body, recognizing that you don’t need to apologize for your shape or size and that you are perfect as you are. Improving things like your mind-body connection, healthy relationships with food, and emotional intelligence can offer support for clients who are focusing on embracing body positivity and making lasting changes.
Contact Casa Serena today for more information about our women’s eating disorder program.