How Healthy is Your Body Image?

  What do you see, when you look in the mirror? Are you happy with your looks, or do you pick yourself apart?  Does it take you a long time to get dressed, or do you find an outfit to wear immediately?  Do you know that your response to these questions can tell whether or not you have a good body image of yourself? 

So many of us, me included, do not realize how critically we judge ourselves and each other.  We criticize ourselves more than we should and we are never happy with our bodies.  One of the hardest thing for us to do, is to totally accept what we look like without fault!  I'm going to be honest and own that.  It is difficult not to want to have the perfect body, perfect hair, the perfect smile.  And because of the way women are portrayed in the various Mediums:, magazines, news articles, videos, online sites; having large breasts, a tiny waist, long gorgeous legs, pouty lips, gorgeous hair, and these days the ever popular, a big derriere!  It is no wonder we are left feeling bruised and confused!


The NYTimes.com Well blog in the Health section, Tara Parker-Pope wrote an article entitled, "Signs of a Bruised Body Image".  She asked the same question, "How healthy is your body image"?   She mentioned that the PsychCentral Web Site began a new blog about women and how they see their body images. On PsychCentral's blog "Weightless", they try to help women identify when they had a poor body image by knowing what to look for. 

One of those "identifiers" is when it "takes you forever to pick out an outfit"!  Well, that's one of my common practice!  It just depends on where I'm going and what I want to wear, is that so wrong?!   But, that's not the only identifier.  "You have a tough time taking compliments" is another one.  I have no problem with that!  However, if you do, you can't be all that bad now can you?  You might just be a little picky, so stop being picky!  While that is easier said than done, however, by learning to identify our bad habits, we can make the changes necessary to help ourselves which will in turn lead us to become more confident.  So, have you decided yet - how healthy is YOUR body image?

You can read Ms. Parker-Pope's article, linked at the top of this blog and also visit PsychCentral's web site from her link.