What is the difference between self-esteem and body-image?
Self Esteem: all about how much you feel you are worth and how much you feel other people value you.
Body Image: all about how you view your physical self, including whether you feel you are attractive and whether others like your looks.
For many people body-image can be closely linked to self-esteem, which is why it is important to focus on addressing both when discussing a healthy self.
Ways to improve self-esteem:
- Identify healthy vs unhealthy responses: “Hey, I’m human” vs. “I’m such a loser”
- Appreciate things you like about yourself: It often seems socially unacceptable to appreciate things about ourselves. Once we can state out loud what we like, we can begin to take ownership and find confidence in knowing that there are aspects ourselves that we genuinely like.
- Maintain healthy lifestyle: It is truly amazing how sleep, regular exercise, and healthy eating can set your mind up for success.
Knowing what makes you happy and how to meet your goals can help you feel capable, strong, and in control of your life.
Ways to improve body image:
- Recognize your body is your own: Your body is unique and remembering that YOU get to identify aspects of yourself that you can realistically change and what you cannot.
- Use negative thought stop: When you hear yourself negatively commenting on your own body- tell yourself to stop and try to identify one positive thing you like about your body.
- Try doing a power pose: (Arms straight up in the air, Arms at hips/Superman pose) Research shows that how we communicate with our bodies determines our level of confidence. Studies have proven that just by “power posing” for two minutes, your testosterone levels increase and your cortisol levels decrease. Our body is so powerful that we can convince ourselves that we are confident. Imagine how that can translate to how we feel about our self esteem and our bodies? If you allow yourself to use the power of your body, your mind will reap the benefits.
Confidence, healthy body-image, healthy self -esteem does not come overnight. It takes a lot of endurance and practice, just like anything else, but if we are confident in what we can do daily, imagine the improvements you’ll see simply on how you view yourself.
