Healthy Body Image: Appreciating Your Inner Beauty

How is your body image?  Do you truly feel you appreciate yourself every day? It’s so easy to look at a model in a magazine or an actor on TV and feel badly about yourself. It’s important to learn how to develop or improve your healthy body image.

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The Trouble with Images

The trouble is that a lot of the images that females and even males are comparing themselves against now are unrealistic for a healthy female or male. For example, a model in a magazine might be Photoshopped to make her look thinner than she actually is or to make him more muscular. An actress in a movie might have an eating disorder or an actor may be on steroids or performance-enhancing drugs. When we compare ourselves against images, we can’t know if the females or males behind the images are healthy. Your goal should be to have a healthy body and a body you love.

An Exercise to Help You Appreciate Yourself Every Day

Whether you have your ideal body or not at this moment in time, you can still love yourself. Here’s an exercise to help you appreciate yourself every day:

Every morning, look in the mirror and think of one thing that you love about yourself. It could be your eyes, your intelligence, your smile.  It can be anything about you. Look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I love my _______ (whatever you chose for the day).” Do this exercise at least once a day (more often if you like). You can even find multiple things you love about yourself each day.

The more you do this exercise, the better you should feel about yourself. Don’t  worry if what you feel is more of a “like” than a “love” at first, but the love you feel for yourself should get stronger over time.

More Healthy Body Image Inspiration

How to Accept Vitiligo and Other Imperfections

Body Image Free Printable – “True Essence of Beauty” Word Art

“Vitiligo is a Blessing in Disguise” Word Art {FREE Printable}

5 Changes that Helped my Low Thyroid and Health in General

For more posts about healthy body image, see my mom’s roundup post at Bits of Positivity: Helping Mothers and Daughters Have Healthy Body Images and her many great body image posts.

Having a Healthy Body and a Healthy Body Image

You can change your body for the better through an extremely healthy diet and a regular exercise routine. Adding new exercises to your workouts, educating yourself on nutrition, and adding healthier habits  to your diet by completing the 30-Day Nutrition Challenge are fantastic ways to improve your healthy body image. The healthier lifestyle you live, the better you will feel and the better you will typically feel about your body image. The keys are to appreciate yourself wherever you are in your body-image journey, to live a healthy lifestyle, and to appreciate your inner beauty.

I always find my body image about myself is at its best when I eat my healthiest, am consistent in my workouts, and when I really take care of my body and my self. When I’m doing what I believe in and when I feel I’m doing my best, I feel much more confident.

How will you improve your body image?

Have fun!

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Stock Photo by Anna Yakimova.