Change your thoughts, Change your body image.

“Turn your mid-life crisis to your own advantage by making it a time for renewal of your body and mind, rather than stand by helplessly and watch them decline.” – Jane Brody

Does looking in the mirror make you cringe? If so, you are not alone. Studies have shown that most women, regardless of age group, report dissatisfaction with their body image. We can reverse this trend, but it takes time and dedication to your own, individual commitment. 

Once we can recognize how we feel about our bodies and understand our emotional obstacles keeping us from achieving our goals (too fat, too old,  I’ll start walking tomorrow, etc) we can actively work to influence the internal, judgmental voice that constantly nags us and make positive changes to increase our self-worth.  Change your thoughts that creates your negative feelings about yourself to achieve the positive results you deserve!  

You can do this! We are in this together!

Something to think about:

Connect: Look in the mirror at yourself and your body, what’s the first thought that springs to mind? How does it make you feel?

Clarify: Are those thoughts helpful or do they undermine your self-esteem? What are the feelings these thoughts create?  What do you like that you see?  What would you like to change? 

Commit: Find an alternative way to rephrase what you initially thought and turn it into a positive or action-oriented thought. For example, if your first thought was “I have a fat body.”  Change that thought to “I have a body” and accept that.  That’s a start to a positive change.

Then, Make a simple, achievable action plan to turn your negative thoughts into positive results.  Commit to your first step to improving your thoughts about your body image.