DECREASING NEGATIVE BODY IMAGE

Negativity associated with ones body image is a normal part of everyone's life. With so many 'diets', 'fads' and 'trends' associated with health and fitness, it is no wonder why people suffer with how they perceive their own bodies. The reasons people feel such frustrations, and yes, sadness, can be associated to a multitude of reasons. Feeling unhappy with how you look is a problem as old as people themselves. For as long as man could see his own reflection he has been faced with the realities of his appearance.

Such negativity can have lifelong impacts on a persons mental state and can affect every facet of their life. No matter what age we may be, the way we perceive ourselves and the happiness or unhappiness we feel has a bearing on how we live our lives.

Negative body image can start at an early age. Proper nutrition and exercise habits are not taught to young people in schools and these problems only get worse the older they get. Many people get to adulthood having poor eating habits and little to no education on how to both cook and eat well or exercise correctly. This can lead to lasting trauma. Now more than ever people are looking at themselves with a finer microscope and feeling worse and worse about the way they look.

So, how can we fix this and increase our own body image.  

Start Moving

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Exercise is necessary for many reasons. Yes, being active can shrink your waistline and get you those abs you've always wanted. However, exercise can also help with ones mental state as much as the physical state. Exercise releases endorphins; these endorphins are the 'happy chemicals' that elevate your mood and make you feel good. By starting to exercise, you will initially start to feel better. After this point, the physical results will come, resulting in a happier, healthier person.

Write it Down

Putting pen to paper and analysing what we are doing is the most important factor in understanding why someone is not achieving the body of their dreams. By writing your habits down, it allows you to see what you can improve on and give people the opportunity to help you attain better results. Also, by writing your these down you will become a more accountable person.

Start Verbal Positivity

With social media these days and the opportunity to air your thoughts it gets extremely easy to be negative. We live in a society where someone's post about 'feeling fat' will actually get "likes" from other people. Some people fall into the pitfall of constant, daily negativity, via social media and in their everyday lives. By correcting such behaviour and having a more positive outlook, you can almost overnight change not only your outlook of yourself, but other people's outlook on you. Be more positive.

Seek Motivation and Surround yourself with Positivity

If you are in a funk and feeling down, the best thing to do is surround yourself with positivity. Be it a group fitness class, a wellbeing group or a different set of friends, you can help improve your image of yourself by surrounding yourself with likeminded individuals. Exercising by yourself can be a lonely process. Even being in a gym, surrounded by a thousand people, you can still be miserable; you may not be exercising correctly and more often than not you will not exercise at your best. At other times, negative friendship groups may be sabotaging your mental state. By being around other negative people you may find that the group dynamic is always negative. Feelings can be infectious. Surround yourself with positive people and more often than not you cant help but feel better.

(MPT sisters Sue and Jean always train together- this keeps them motivated every week +

they get to have a catch up and giggle every session)