Therapist Blog

self-harm

The Body Positivity Movement

There are a few tenants to the body positivity movement, including encouragement of youth and adults to reconnect with their bodies innate wisdom for more balance in not only they way they treat their bodies but also the way the see their bodies. This movement is focused on creating a world in which people are liberated from self-hate, and value their unique beauty.

Body positivity goes beyond just your body size, its means loving all ages, sizes, sexual orientations, genders, ethnicities, abilities, and socioeconomic levels with a whole-person, non-shaming approach to the mystery and miracle of living in a human body.

This message in valuable, because negative body image is linked to poor overall life quality.  Leading to poor self-care, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, self-harming behaviors (e.g., cutting, suicide), substance abuse, weight cycling, and relationship violence. There is true concern about these harmful behaviors in teens and young adults, which is why it is imperative to everyone create positive relationships with their physical selves in order to achieve their full potential.

So what would it look like if you reimagined beauty? How would you feel about telling yourself that you are beautiful in the mirror everyday for the next 5 days? You may think its radical to even attempt to believe it, and yet its true. 

Vulnerability Factors

In life we are constantly being presented with opportunities, whether we see them that way or not. Each of these opportunities allows us to make choices of how to behave, think and feel. Again, we may not think we have a choice in how we behave, think or feel, but we do. Our choices are effected by what are called Vulnerability Factors. If we are engaging in unhealthy behaviors, patterns of thought, or are in a toxic environment your ability to make healthy choices for yourself generally goes out the window, so those opportunities than look a whole heck of a lot like problems. Areas of vulnerability to look at are:

  • Physical illness

  • Unbalanced eating and sleeping

  • Injury

  • Use of drugs or alcohol

  • Misuse of prescription drugs

  • Intense emotions being your baseline

  • Stressful relationships

If we learn to manage and regulate these Vulnerability Factors we can have a change of perspective from being situations as "problems" and a lot more like opportunities.

Utilizing coping skills, attending support groups and receiving counseling can all be ways for you to gain more awareness and skills to mange these Vulnerability Factors.