As you may or may not know, May is Mental Health Awareness month. Mental Health Awareness Month was established by Mental Health America in 1949 to increase awareness of the importance of mental health and wellness in Americans' lives, and to celebrate recovery from mental illness. 1 in 5 people lives with a mental illness in a given year. May is a time to raise awareness of those living with mental or behavioral health issues and to help reduce the stigma so many experiences.
Being someone who has struggled with different mental health issues over the years, I wanted to shine a light on one of the earliest issues I struggled with: body image. While body image issues are not mental health problems in and of themselves, they can be a risk factor for mental health problems. For instance, just over one-third of adults said they had ever felt anxious (34%) or depressed (35%) because of their body image. Research has found that higher body dissatisfaction is associated with a poorer quality of life, psychological distress, and the risk of unhealthy eating behaviors and eating disorders.
Here are 3 things you can do to kick body image issues to the curb:
Ditch the Scale
You are allowing a piece of metal to dictate how you feel about yourself. When you allow a scale to dictate your self-worth, you allow it to take away your inherent power as a human being. Waking up to this reality may be the kick in the butt you need to throw your scale away.
Getting rid of your scale enables you to focus more on how your body is actually feeling, to really hone in on your body image as a whole. That can be scary! It will force you to confront why you feel the way you do in a way you might not be used to. And that’s OK! It can be scary as hell to give up the sense of control that the scale gives you. By not worrying about the number on the scale, you will free your brain to focus on things that actually matter, hopefully leading to a more body-positive outlook.
It may sound scary, but getting rid of your scale is one of the quickest and easiest things you can do to make peace with your body, no matter how you might feel about it or your relationship with food or your weight. As soon as you stop relying on that number to dictate your feelings about health, beauty, and happiness, you’ll make one giant leap towards body acceptance. This all takes time, of course.
Develop a Movement Practice
Use your body as an entry point to determine your wellness and health. Nurture your movement practice so that it has the element of a non-competitive environment that focuses on the quality of mind, ease of breath, and integration of mind and body.
A movement practice based on presence and self-reflection (like yoga) offers helpful tools to become more in tune with your own needs at any given moment, giving your body the right kind of movement medicine, in the right dose, at the right time.
This kind of “movement practice”, different from a punishing workout, allows for a way more nourishing experience. Health and body image are enhanced by physical activity. We can focus on the good feelings associated with moving our bodies rather than on our appearance. Far too often, however, we think of our bodies as vessels to be viewed by others, and our attention is on how others experience our bodies. When we move our bodies solely for the purpose of changing our appearance, we lose a valuable opportunity to connect with and to nurture ourselves.
Give it time
Establish a practice of gratitude for your body. In the shower, for instance, take your time washing each individual body part. As you wash that body part, consider all the reasons you are grateful for that body part, all the things that body part allows you to do, etc. Practicing gratitude for your body is a huge step forward in self-acceptance.
Include mindfulness practices in your routine. We discussed mindful movement above. Mindful eating is another excellent technique for diminishing the risk factors for body image issues. I recommend starting with the Raisin Exercise.
Learn to get quiet and listen to your intuition and inner body compass as a measure of health instead of some external source of validation. In my experience, many of these learnings have come with time, age and experience. Be patient, trust the process and practice self-compassion along the way.
While many of these steps are not overnight fixes, they will provide transformational long-term effects if applied correctly as consistent practices over time. If you are struggling with body image and mental health issues, you are not alone. Mental Health American provides excellent resources to navigate each person’s particular experience. If you are experiencing an emergency, crisis response contacts can be found here.