Our body feeling influences how we experience the world and what relationship we have with ourselves and others. Therefore, a healthy body feeling is important. You can find out how you can improve it here.
The name actually reveals it: Your body feeling is the feeling that you have in relation to your body. It includes awareness of how you can move in your body, how parts of it feel, what they are capable of and what needs your body has. The body feeling is important because it affects how you deal with your body and how you experience the world in it.
The body feeling develops from infancy. In doing so, the interaction of physical experiences, sensations and interactions with the environment influences whether your body feeling is rather positive or negative. In the further course, for example, beauty standards, religious worldviews and the ethnic and social background influence our body feeling. But even as an adult, you can still improve your body feeling and build a healthy relationship with your body.
What does a positive body feeling look like?
With a positive expression of your own body feeling, you just feel comfortable in your body and are satisfied with him. Dealing with and the relationship with your body is familiar, safe and pleasant.
A positive body feeling is the basic requirement for a strong self -confidence, i.e. your own conviction of your skills and your value as a person – regardless of how ‘beautiful’, fit or young your body is common ideas and ideals, according to the psychologist Dr. Kristine Luce. You are confident in your wishes for social, emotional and physical contacts and can derive from your physical sensations how you are and what you need.
Improve body feeling: That’s why it is important
A “bad” body feeling, on the other hand, shows itself in a very critical attitude towards your own body. It is difficult for you to accept your body as it is. Perhaps this means that you do excessively exercise – and not because you enjoy it, but because you mean not to meet physical beauty otherwise.
Such body-dissatisfaction can lead to you retreat and (body) contacts to avoid your uncertainties. Dr. In this context, Luce speaks of “self-handicapping”, a strategy in which people do not perceive an opportunity to protect her self-esteem from the possibility of failure. For example, if a person assumes that she will be discriminated against because of her body, she may not strive or dating.
A negative body feeling can also prevent you from properly perceiving your body’s needs or even leading you to deliberately ignore it – for example, if you disregard hunger signals while you are doing a diet. According to Medical News Today, a negative body awareness can also contribute to the development of mental illnesses such as depression.
So you can improve your body feeling
According to the psychologist Dr. Luce is dynamic body feeling and changes constantly in the course of life. People tend to move in different stages of life along a continuum of their self -awareness. Rarely is a body feeling only “positive” or “negative”.
If you find that you don’t feel so comfortable in your body and want to build a better relationship with him, you can try to improve your body feeling. A study from 2021 suggests that you can develop a more positive body feeling if you dissolve and learn from beauty ideals not to set up the body’s appreciation.
In the following you will find five tips that can help you implement this.
1. Align your actions on your values …
… even if that can be uncomfortable at first. This means, for example, that you go swimming because you enjoy it – even if you have a negative self -conviction regarding your body (and therefore feel uncomfortable in swimwear).
This practice provides Dr. According to Luce, it is a “cognitive dissonance intervention”. It is based on the theory that increasing the tension (dissonance) between the thoughts and actions of a person can lead to new beliefs. In this case, you could convince yourself for a better body feeling that it is much more important to you to feel the sun on your skin or to enjoy swimming than to worry about your appearance.
2. Quiet what is shown to you as “beautiful”
If you see only flawless faces and bodies on advertising boards and Instagram, characteristics of your own body that differ from these pictures can occur. The vast majority of the images shown in the media are not representative of the average body type. In addition, images are often heavily edited and reproduce a quasi -unreachable ideal of beauty. For a better body feeling, make yourself aware that there is no such thing as the “perfect” body.
There are now many accounts on Instagram that show what is behind the photos edited with Photoshop, for example the account of journalist Danae Mercer.
3. better body feeling: distance yourself from ideals
A more critical understanding of ideals of beauty can also help not to emulate them anymore and to develop a more positive body feeling. Keep in mind that the ideals of beauty are constantly changing and do not focus on the individual needs of people. After all, we all have different physical prerequisites and should learn to appreciate them more than all tirelessly chase after a set idea and neglect our own needs.
For example, the beauty trend of the “Clean Girls” has currently been established. This is very problematic on different levels. He implies that flaws are something “dirty” and is also criticized to be classistic, racist and “fatphobic”.
4. Learn to appreciate your body differently
For example, you can do that through more movement. According to Medical News Today, physical activity can strengthen trust in one’s own strength and mobility and contribute to mental and physical well -being. It should also be able to reduce feelings of fear and depression.
It is important that you do not pursue the goal of visually changing your body with sports or other physical activity. Instead, focus on learning and improving physical skills. For example, you can do it to master a handstand, to be safe in a difficult yoga pose or to learn juggling.
In 2015, researchers found that people who do sports for functional reasons (for example for fitness, flexibility or equilibrium) have a positive body image. Those who train to improve their appearance would have a less positive body feeling.
5. Choose your words carefully
In casual conversations with friend: inside or the family, it is often negative about your own body or that of other people. You can almost drop critical body -related comments. When people talk about how “fat” they feel or what “problem areas” they have, these are only a few small words, but they can have a great impact. Often they contain a pejorative attitude towards your own body and are therefore a form of body shaming that influences body feeling.
According to studies, this “Fat Talk” can lead to further negative feelings, poor mood or problematic eating behavior. On the other hand, compassion with your own body is in connection with improved eating behavior.
So practice not commenting on your own body and body of other people in conversations and not to comment on yourself – especially if it were derogatory comments. You can also redirect pejorative body -related thoughts: Instead of saying that your arms are “too thick”, you can try to describe them in terms of their other properties: your arms are also strong and allow you to do many things that don’t matter how they look.
Read more on utopia.de:
- Body Pos up: 5 steps to more self -love
- Train balance: 4 exercises and tips for good body balance
- Bodyscan: This is how it works when meditating
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