Bad Body Image Essay

528 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How social media effects body image

Many people do not like themselves, more specifically many people do not like their bodies. In the age of social-media and a perfection obsessed society, people are exposed to how the ideal body should appear constantly. When people cannot live up to the standards of Hollywood or Instagram models they start to feel bad about themselves. Self-hate can have a negative impact on a person's life by leading to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses. Research shows a bad body image can also “impair academic performance and reduce sexual pleasure” in all types of people (Breines, 2017). Self-compassion can lead to a healthy body image, which not only reduces the risk for many problems, but also has benefits. Images of picture perfect models on social media can make some people …show more content…

When people are worried about how they look they are less likely to notice how they feel. Feeling of pain or hunger can go unnoticed as well as feelings of pleasure of hunger. Not being in tune with our bodies can cause us to miss many health warning signs detrimental to our well-being. Being comfortable in one's skin can help show them just how amazing the human body is. Self-compassion ties in with a sense of care and concern for the person as a whole. Knowing all the miraculous functions our bodies can carry out can help people take pride in themselves. One study even shown that after three weeks of self-compassion people reported a spike in body appreciation (Breines, 2017). Self-compassion might not take away all negative feelings one has towards their body, but it can reduce the extent of those feelings. This can reduce self-punishment, which can take many forms from self-deprecation to denying food. Sometimes self-punishment can lead to an even worse body image, or eating disorders. Practicing self-compassion can be effective in working towards reducing these

Show More
Related

  • Pros And Cons Of Self-Compassion, Stress And Coping

    418 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the article “Self-Compassion, Stress and Coping” I found that self-compassion can have many positive outcomes when dealing with a negative situation or event. The article looks at the ways in which people who have high levels of self-compassion versus people who have low levels of self-compassion cope with stress, in doing this the researchers show the positive effect of self-compassion. As Denise mentioned compassion and mindfulness as a coping strategy come from the teachings of Buddhism.

    Read More

  • To Be Or Not To Be Therapeutic

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    Next, Small discusses how we can fall into the habit of letting our own feelings interfere with the patients’ proble...

    Read More

  • Wearing Spanx By Jamie Santa Cruz Summary

    1561 Words  | 4 Pages

    I was immediately overcome with self-consciousness about my appearance.” (Fanning 217) Sometimes it isn’t a good thing we let stuff like that get to us, because then we start asking our self a lot of questions to bring our self esteem go down. We can change our body by working out hard and dieting but those hurtful words you hear coming out of someone else’s mouth will stick in our minds forever. Fanning says, “You can diet and exercise to address physical things to varying degrees, but how do you fix the mental thing?

    Read More

  • Social Media's Negative Effects On Body Image

    1353 Words  | 3 Pages

    These days, more and more people are affected by low self esteem and a negative body image because everyone is trying to look just like the photoshopped models and it’s just not realistic. I don’t think it’s fair that so many people have to suffer through this and not everyone knows how it feels. It’s just terrible that people can’t be happy in their own bodies anymore. We need to learn how to self love more. Self love is so important in a growing kids life. You need to know how to accept and love yourself before anyone else can. I know so many amazing people who are going through such a difficult time learning to love all of their imperfections and flaws. I know it’s so worth it to finally love yourself, but the process is so difficult and many people don’t ever get to that

    Read More

  • Body Image Essay

    1763 Words  | 4 Pages

    Before understanding the effects of body image on contemporary women, one must first comprehend the term that is body image. According to Psychology Today’s definition, “body image is the mental representation one has for themselves. It is the way one sees their physical body. However, this mental representation may or may not always be accurate.

    Read More

  • Negative Body Image Essay

    1608 Words  | 4 Pages

    The way a person see’s oneself and imagines what they look like is one’s body image. One can either have a positive or negative connotation regarding their own body appearance. A positive body image means that most of the time one is comfortable and satisfied about the way they appear. In a sense, that means they feel good about the way they see themselves in mirrors or pictures. Having a negative body image is a common struggle for individuals. This means they are unhappy with their physical appearance and constantly want to change something about him or herself. Negative body image leads to serious mental problems such as anorexia or bulimia. Not only do we have a personal view on our body image, but society also has an input. Society

    Read More

  • Necession In Jasmine Syedullah's The Abolition Of Whiteness

    1302 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Jasmine Syedullah “The Abolition of Whiteness”, she confesses to her readers that “one of the things that had drown me into buddhism was the notion of no self. I was fascinated by the prospect of being Jasmine and not being Jasmine.” (16) Most of the times we suffer so much with trying to find ourselves that we become something else. We lost the feeling of wholeness, the feeling of belonging to our own bodies, and the feeling of happiness. Self compassion can often be misunderstood as not being aware of anything else rather than our own dignities. But the importance of self-compassion is treating ourselves gently instead of being harsh and self-critical to please others expectations for them. It’s common to beat ourselves up for faults big and small. But being kind to yourself is not only providing comfort in the moment, it is also committing, whenever possible, to acknowledging that some things are past our control, we become better at coping with failure and whatever consequences our actions may have caused because we learn to have compassion towards ourselves no matter the

    Read More

  • Self-Care in the Social Work Profession

    1783 Words  | 4 Pages

    Radey, M., & Figley, C. R. (2007). The social psychology of compassion. Clinical Social Work Journal, 35(3), 207-214.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Kindness In Catholic Schools

    1827 Words  | 4 Pages

    Self-kindness and self-compassion also results in an increase in well-being (Neely, Schallert, Mohammed, Roberts, & Chen, 2009). A study by Hoffman, Grossman, & Hinton (2011) supports this by proving that loving-kindness and compassion meditation not only results in increased positive affect, but also results in a decrease in negative affect.

    Read More

  • What Is Body Image

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    Having a lack of self acceptance can cause men and women to spend a meaningless amount of time loathing on their imperfections, which can also degrade their self-perception on their bodies. Women who have a hard time looking at themselves in the mirror are in a constant battle with their inner demons, telling themselves that they are not beautiful enough. For example, in the article, "Out-of-Body Image" by Caroline Heldman, she says how, "[Women] are more likely to engage in "habitual body monitoring"-constantly thinking about how their bodies appear to the outside world . . ." (65). Women can spend a futile amount of time feeding negative comments to themselves about their appearance, which can heighten their chances of becoming bulimic and anorexic. Once women start to over-analyze their bodies, it can become difficult to reverse their mindset to generate positive feedback about themselves. Likewise, when men lose their confidence in their self-image, their self-perception can get misconstrued and suddenly they can only recognize their flaws. For example, in the article, "How Men Really Feel About Their Bodies," the author mentions how in general, men are in a constant competition against other males to improve their bodies so that they can survive in the male society ( Spiker, 73). Men are always under intense scrutiny regarding their bodies because they are engendered to be physically strong and built, and that is where the stigma begins in the male society. In order to sustain in the male domination, men are constantly trying to rebuild their bodies to match perfection. When men see others that are more built, their self-perception slowly starts to degrade their confidence, and that is when they have the difficulty of accepting themselves. As a result, men and women who lack self acceptance start to obsess over their

    Read More

  • Compassion Meditation Paper

    2296 Words  | 5 Pages

    Compassion cannot be confided to just a feeling or emotion of empathy, or the antidote to pleasure of peace. Compassion is a vehicle to improve one’s being, physically, mentally and emotionally. Even without the desire to reach Buddhahood, everyone can benefit from employing and expressing compassion as it is one of the few things one can do that benefits oneself as much as others.

    Read More

  • Self Compassion Proposal

    1891 Words  | 4 Pages

    (2013) found that low self-compassion paired with fear of self-compassion may impede eating disorder treatment. Gilbert (2009) developed compassion focused training (CFT) as a way to help shame-prone self-critical individuals develop self-compassion and to explore the barriers within themselves that they have built against it. CFT uses a variety of exercises to teach self-compassion including visualizations, cultivating self-kindness through language, and demonstrating self-compassionate behaviors and habits (Neff & Germer, 2013). According to the CFT model, it is only by developing self-compassion that patients with disordered eating can break out of the maladaptive cycles towards complete recovery (Goss & Gilbert, 2002). While CFT is used successfully with clinical patients to treat eating disorders, Neff and Germer (2013) developed a similar program called Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) that could be used to enhance self-compassion in both clinical and non-clinical populations. MSC teaches self-compassion through formal and informal meditation, experiential exercises, homework assignments, and loving-kindness skills. The resource-building format of the program helps participants develop a variety self-compassion tools to integrate into their lives in a meaningful way. Results of a pilot program for MSC revealed significant increases in the domains of self-compassion, mindfulness, life satisfaction, and happiness as well as decreased depression,

    Read More

  • Dalai Lama Compassion

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    When there is a greater understanding of others’ feelings and faults it could create good relationships with all sorts of people in the workplace. Taking the time to get to know the people you will be working with, whether they are co-workers or clients, is something to consider. That person will appreciate your interest in them and create a sense of comfort ability. The use of compassion could give you a better perception of things in life and allows you to react to different people and situations in a more positive way. Recognizing certain characteristics about yourself that could potentially hurt people or make situations more difficult for them is a good way to figure out how not to act when it comes to others’ feelings is also compassionate, which would help in maintaining good

    Read More

  • Importance of Compassion

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” ― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness. This quote said by the Dalai Lama has a great meaning to it. Most just see compassion as another word in this world, when it’s so much more than that. Compassion bring people together, makes the world a better place, and most importantly allows you to connect with others. Compassion is necessary to the human experience because it keep the world emotionally connected.

    Read More

  • Essay About Pain

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    I believe that one of the strongest feelings of pain one can experience is when one see’s someone suffering from disease. It is in this moment that one of the most powerful, driving, and compelling reactions from pain is derived. Compassion is that driving force. Compassion drives us as humans to make choices, to make decisions that would make our own selves suffer to relieve the pain of others. To suffer so that others can feel relief is an awesome feeling. Though the self-sacrifice that is so often associated with compassion is one of the most wonderful feelings there is most people aren’t; willing to make the commitment needed to gain the

    Read More

More about Bad Body Image Essay

Open Document