Women and Body Image Exercise

Body Image Therapy in Philadelphia: Women and Body Image: How to Restructure Your Thinking by Nurturing your body

When it comes to our own perception of our body image, many people tend to submit to negative thoughts, rather than the positive ones. It is easy to get stuck on what you don’t like about your body, or how you want to improve what you find to be flaws, and not appreciating and enjoying what you do have. The Women and Body Image: How To Restructure Your Thinking by Nurturing Your Body exercise is designed to help you redirect your thoughts and your focus towards what is good about your body, and allowing yourself to be fully present and aware of these feelings as well as how your body responds to the positive attention and care. The following categories are the primary building blocks to begin to improving how you feel and think about your body image.

Showing your body care by finding your healthy.

This is not about comparing your body to others, or taking on a lifestyle that work for someone else. This is about what you consider to be healthy for YOU, and carrying that out. This could involve taking a daily walk, or taking yoga once a week, or receiving 10 minutes of touch from your partner everyday. Or your version of healthy could involve getting 8-10 hours of sleep every night. As you explore your version of healthy, the two significant things that makes this your own definition of healthy, is that’s feasible for YOU, that it fits your way of life, and that it helps you feel good. Healthy isn’t just about exercise or food, it’s about how you feel, and how you take care of yourself. To be carrying out y criteria of healthy means that you are taking care of yourself, and you are doing the best you can. For those of you still working on carrying out your own version of healthy, we are all works in progress, and managing this takes time and practice. A large part of how we treat our bodies is about how we feel. If we feed into our inner critic and continue to self-loath, we will continue to feel hopeless and negative about our bodies, which will have a negative impact on how we treat and nourish our bodies (such as giving ourselves too much sleep, or not enough sleep, or not giving our bodies the right types of food because of dieting). Once you begin working to carry out your definition of healthy, the rest progress is up to you and your thought process. The healthy factor is just one small component of addressing your body image, but it is the first place to start in restructuring your body image. We all take care of things we are proud of, and we show love and nurturing to others we care for. Why would your body be any different? Again, this is not about weight, or fitness, This is about you showing pride in the physical gifts you have been given and taking care of these gifts. Showing pride and appreciation for yourself and your features is about treating yourself, and following through on self-care.

Showing your body care by focusing on your gifts.

This Women and Body Image: How To Restructure Your Thinking By Nurturing Your Body Exercise developed at The Center for Growth / Body Image Therapy in Philadelphia is about only giving focus to your strengths. What do you identify your assets to be? This could be your smile, your shoulders, your ass, or maybe you love your long legs. There are tons of little things that contribute to your natural and unique beauty. Once you’ve identified these assets, work with what you’ve been given. Play up your assets! This could be wearing shorts because your proud of your muscular legs, or wearing long pants because it covers your spider veins and emphasizes your waste, or maybe wearing a specific color of earrings because you like how they look on your, or how they compliment your many positive features, or wearing your favorite sweatshirt because it feels good. Stay aware of what you are doing for your body and why. Focusing on your gifts or assets doesn’t necessarily mean dressing up in high heels and mini skirts. For some it will, but most importantly, it’s about pulling that confident women from within and bringing her with you everywhere you go. Feeling comfortable and confident in your clothes and your skin can help you connect with your inner confidence. You may like how you feel in soft breathy materials, or you may love how you feel when you are out doing errands in your workout clothes because you feel strong and athletic. You may feel most comfortable in your favorite pair of jeans, or maybe your oldest pair of college sweatpants helps you feel most productive or confidant. A good rule of thumb is dress the way you would want to be seen if you were to run into an old friend, or the person you just started dating. Remember, the ideas being presented here are about you and how you connect with your body and how you feel in your body with what you are wearing. As you continue to redirect your focus and energy to what you do love about your body, your confidence will grow. This is about giving back to your body so that in time you become comfortable in anything that you wear, or even being comfortable in wearing nothing at all, i.e., simply being you!

What’s your self-care routine?

When therapists from The Center for Growth /Body Image Therapy in Philadelphia talk about self-care, you will often hear us focus on getting enough sleep, or eating well, basic tasks for self-care. When it comes to rethinking your body image and paying attention to what your strengths are, it’s also important to practice self-care in terms of body image. Developing routine of self-care specifically for your body image can produce the same mental impact as carrying out your version of healthy. Create a routine that you can take pride in. From taking care of your skin, teeth, hair, feet. This shows appreciation to your features, and helps you connect with your body at it’s best. Just like discovering your version of healthy, or discovering your assets, this routine of self-care is entirely up to you, and meant to fit your lifestyle and personality. For some, this routine may include treating yourself to a massage, or seeing your chiropractor, or even indulging in nail care. These activities are what you consider to be showing yourself good self-care and appreciation. These activities will not help you feel confident in your body, or solve your insecurities about your appearance. These activities are merely a stepping stone to you having a positive outlook and being able to look within and carry yourself on the outside with pride and confidence. These activities are to remind you that your body deserves positive attention, and in turn YOU deserve positive attention. Keep in mind, how you treat yourself today or tomorrow may not show instant results, but if you continue to develop your own approach to self-care for you body, it will pay off, and the impact will be obvious in time.

This approach “Women and Body Imagine: How To Restructure Your Thinking By Nurturing Your Body” is just one of the many exercises developed at the Center for Growth / Body Image Therapy in Philadelphia to help you learn to rethink and restructure your body image. These 3 steps not only help you take care of yourself and give your body what it deserves, but these 3 steps also take your energy and focus away from focusing on the negative about your image. Our body is made up of thousands of little things, just because we may have issues with a few areas of our body, it does not mean our appearance as a whole is bad. Think of your best friend living in Center City Philadelphia, or your partner. As time went on in that relationship, both of you must have found aspects of one another that you didn’t like, but you continued to remain friends or in the relationship because there were many other positive aspects that outweighed the negative.

You may struggle to like or even accept certain parts of your body, but the rest of you does not have to suffer by missing out on appreciation, or receiving self-care and nourishment. To learn more, feel free to schedule an appointment with one of our counselors at The Center for Growth / Body Image Therapy in Philadelphia / Ocean City / Santa Fe / Mechanicsville. Body image therapy help is available. 215 – 922 – 5683 x 100

COMPUTER GENERATED THERAPY ANSWER TO THE STATEMENT: WOMEN AND BODY IMAGE EXERCISE . . . .

Body image concerns and negative self-perception can be a significant issue for many women. Exercise can be a powerful tool for improving body image and self-esteem, as well as promoting overall physical and mental health.

Here are a few ways that exercise can help improve body image for women:

Exercise can improve physical health: Regular exercise can help to improve cardiovascular health, increase muscle tone, and promote weight loss or maintenance. These physical changes can lead to increased confidence in one’s appearance and overall sense of well-being.
Exercise can promote self-esteem and self-worth: Engaging in regular physical activity can help to improve self-esteem and self-worth. As women begin to see the positive changes in their bodies, they may develop a more positive body image.
Exercise can be a form of self-care: Engaging in regular exercise can be a form of self-care and self-compassion. It can be a time for women to focus on their physical and emotional well-being, which can help to promote positive body image.
Exercise can help to challenge negative thoughts: Negative thoughts and self-talk can be a significant barrier to positive body image. Exercise can help women to challenge these thoughts and learn to focus on their strengths and abilities.
Exercise can be a positive distraction: Instead of focusing on how the body looks, exercise can be a positive distraction that allows women to focus on how the body feels and the pleasure it brings.

It’s important to note that while exercise can be a powerful tool for improving body image and self-esteem, it should not be used as a means to achieve an unrealistic body type. Women should engage in exercise that feels good and supports overall health, rather than focusing on weight loss or body shape.

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