Women and Body Image

I know, serious post title for Etc by Ash!

Almost every morning I flip on the Today show and listen to it as I get ready for the workday. I rarely ever actually sit down and watch it, I just like to hear the news and human interest stories while doing my makeup and getting dressed. This morning one of the featured segments was a survey done by Glamour magazine called, "Hate your body? Most do, at least once a day." My ears instantly perked up.

They conducted a survey of 300 women of all sizes and found that on average women have 13 negative body thoughts a day, that's almost 1 for every waking hour. Basically they asked these women to start documenting every time they had one of these thoughts. None of these women were surprised by the numbers, but what they did find surprising was the intensity of their thoughts. It's not just our beauty and image obsessed culture that has fueled this way of thinking, but mostly that it's an ingrained pattern of thinking.

My cuticles suck!

Naturally this prompted me to think about my own thoughts and perception of myself. I relate with 28 year old Maureen from Washington DC. She always thought that her negative thoughts were a way of improving herself, calling attention and being aware of what she needs to work on. Almost like a mental "weigh in," I weigh myself regularly not because I'm obsessed with every little pound but it's easy to let it get out of control if you don't keep an eye on it.

So in attempt to bring to light the shallowness and absurdity, here are some of my negative thoughts that I have regarding my appearance and body:

*The universal I'm never skinny enough*

*My teeth aren't straight enough (my top retainer broke and I went awhile without it before having a new one made and my teeth shifted some) nor are my teeth ever white enough for my liking (Whitening strips make my teeth SO sensitive)*

*My pale, freckle covered skin. What I would give to not have to live life in the shade (Yeah I know that was dramatic)*

*And pale skin shows cellulite more uggghhh cottage cheese! gross :-( *

*I feel like my head shape is too oval and my forehead too big*

*If I had $6,000 to spend on whatever I wanted, I'd get a boob job tomorrow*

Alright I'll stop there before I get completely out of control. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that although I don't clearly think, "I just hate my forehead" while putting on my makeup everyday, it's so ingrained in my thinking that it contributes to my overall view of my self, and in turn my self worth, without me even realizing it. Kind of scary. And I consider myself to be a pretty confident person who is aware that constantly obsessing about appearance is just ridiculous. So I'm not looking for any kind of affirmation (No "You're so skinny and pretty, Ashley!" comments), but just putting myself out there because it seems like almost every woman battles negative thoughts about their bodies and looks.

Ways to combat the thoughts and live a more positive, healthy and productive life:

*Get to the core of the issue. The article said that the more harsh the thoughts, the stronger correlation there was with career and/or relationship dissatisfaction.*

*Be aware of your circumstances. There was also a pattern found in where women found themselves thinking negative thoughts. When I'm around certain people or an unfamiliar environment I am more likely to be critical of myself, like when I was in a trendy neighborhood in NYC I felt like the frumpiest person on the planet.*

*Exercise! Endorphins :-) And it being good for your heart and all that.*

*You are what you eat. Half the time I get upset when I eat crap not because I'm so worried about gaining weight but I just hate feeling like I'm not taking care of myself.*

Raw veggies, my fav

*Get perspective. All it takes is seeing a homeless or disabled person and I'm immediately put in my place.*

*Give yourself a break. Knowing me I'm likely to get down on myself for getting down on myself. Like my mom says when I'm complaining about my weight or how much I've eaten and the cheesy Matchbox 20 song they play in spin class all the time, "Look how far you've come!" (It's always the last song that we end on) By focusing on the positives, positive things are more likely to happen. You can quote me on that pearl of wisdom.

K I think that's enough rambling on the issue. I by no means consider myself an expert but as always like that keeps me from sharing my random thoughts ;-)

Really ABC Family?