Body Image & Self-Compassion

Body Image and Self-Compassion

Concerns around body image are a major source of stress for a lot of us. When university students were polled about their body image, more than half of them said that their weight or shape had an extreme influence on their feelings of self-worth.

This is huge - and not necessarily shocking considering how many images of unrealistic beauty standards we are bombarded with daily. This negative body image often leads to unhealthy approaches around food and exercise.

What is body image?

Body image concerns can manifest in a few different ways including body dissatisfaction, negative evaluation of our own body; body shame, the notion that one is a bad person if our body fails to meet societal body standards; body surveillance, the continuous body monitoring and preoccupation with concerns around how our body appears to others.

Although we always seem to be fighting an uphill battle against the pervasiveness of cultural messaging promoting thinness and other standards of beauty, there are some practices we can adopt to promote healthy body image.

What can we do?

Self-compassion training might be a good start! Believe it or not, self-compassion has some real research to back it.

The value in self-compassion practices stems from the assumption that it is better to approach our imperfections with care and kindness rather than with harsh self-criticism.

What is self-compassion?

Self-compassion encompasses three elements: mindfulness, self-kindness, and common humanity.The mindfulness piece promotes a sense of non-judgemental awareness of our thought’s and emotions. We have to notice how we feel in order to respond to it!

Kristin Neff, a key researcher in the field of self-compassion, says that this awareness has to be balanced - we shouldn’t ignore or exaggerate the painful feelings we experience.

Self-kindness promotes us giving ourselves care and understanding versus criticism, while the element of common humanity shows us that imperfections are part of being human and that these flaws help us connect to each other.

Adopting a practice of self-compassion can help us counter body dissatisfaction, surveillance and shame. This can have drastic impacts on how we approach our other aspects of our lives and greatly impact our happiness!

Kristin Neff has a great website full of free exercises as well as a book that can also be really helpful. If you need more support with your mental health or body image, consider booking an appointment with one of our naturopathic doctors or psychotherapist to explore how self-compassion can be a part your treatment plan to support well-being.