Worried or confused about yours?

Diane Southam offers a few suggestions

Busters 

Getting caught up in fashion and media projections of beauty and assuming that everyone else is too. Body fashion isn’t fixed. Petite and chubby were fashionable not so long ago

Avoiding exercise

Buying into the belief that when you achieve your ideal physical appearance you’ll love yourself and others will love you too

Doing yourself and others a disservice by displaying tense, unfriendly body language e.g. crossed legs; folded arms; clenched hands; fidgeting; biting nails; shallow breathing; avoiding eye contact

Comparing your body and looks to those of others

Obsessing over diets. They only work short-term and treat the symptoms of overweight not the psychological or emotional causes

Giving in to cravings and going overboard on comfort consuming. Alcohol and chocolate may work a treat at the time, but run the longer-term risk of lowering your energy and self-esteem 

Becoming bodily dysmorphic – having part of your body rectified through cosmetic surgery, only to have your dissatisfaction transferred onto another part…then another…then another…

Boosters

Reprogramming your unconscious mind through repeating out loud positive affirmations such as: 'I'm totally at ease with my body. I'm healthy and energetic'

Finding a good nutritionist

Utilising your body’s extraordinary potential to communicate. You have around 700,000 body language signals for your conscious and unconscious mind to choose from – as opposed to a mere 40,000 words and sounds

Reminding yourself to use relaxed, affirmative body language e.g. open body posture; relaxed hands; slow, deep breathing; making comfortable eye contact

Exploring healthier alternatives to bingeing when you’re feeling low. e.g. a walk in the park; yoga; a head massage

Respecting your personal space by allowing an eighteen inch 'intimacy zone' around your body that only those closest to you are permitted to enter

Remembering that advertisers have a vested interest in making you feel uncomfortable about various parts of your body

Appreciating your body as a wonder of creation – a sacred citadel which houses your unique, precious, innermost self

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