I have a confession to make – I am not particularly fond of my body. It’s not the exact shape I’d like it to be. It doesn’t look like all those size 4 actresses on television and I’m not as tall as I’d like to be. One of my eyes squints funny when I smile and my teeth are not all straight. As a youngster, my parents invested in eyeglasses and eye surgery rather than dental work.
So like many women, I fall into the category of hating my body because I was not taught to love it and I wasn’t taught to appreciate myself. We can look at all the pop culture images around us and blame them, but most of the time – those women we see on television and in magazine ads are more like us than we might care to admit.
Understanding Negative Messages
We’re conditioned from childhood on our body image. Our parents set the bar when they comment on our appearance. Did your parents tell you how beautiful you were or did they criticize everything from the clothing choices you made to the size of your body?
Were your parents conscious of their own appearance to the point that while you thought they were the most beautiful people on the planet, they dispelled that as you being silly? I remember telling my mother once that I thought she was really pretty and she laughed at me and told me that I was biased. At the time, everyone we knew used to tell me how much I looked like my mother, since she dismissed how she looked, I figured I couldn’t look that great – after all – didn’t I look just like her?
Changing The Way We See It
It’s important to not look in the mirror and hate yourself. It’s even more important when you are a parent. Remember, your little ones are looking up at you and they know they look like Mommy and Daddy – so if you are so convinced about how bad you look – chances are you are teaching your son or daughter to hate how they look too.
So think about changing the way you see it – and remember – beauty is not skin deep – it’s a combination of who you are and who you want to be that determines how beautiful you are – not just what you see reflected in the bathroom mirror.
Do you hate your body?
Related Articles:
Mom’s Diet Can Make Kids Body Concious