“Society taught me that no matter what size I am, I will never be good enough. I’ll always be too skinny, too fat, too short, too tall. Too this, too that.”
– Unknown

People from all walks of life, battle different forms of insecurities every second of the day. Insecurities basically sprout when all the broken fragments of society i.e. us, force other people to adhere to the so called norms of the society to ‘fit in’.

One of the biggest insecurity people encounter is with regard to their body and looks. The fact that beauty is absolutely subjective, seems to escape our minds while establishing the perfect body type , nose and lip shapes.

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Body Image

Body image refers to the subjective idea that a person has of his own body, it may or may not be actually the way he/she appears. According to Psychology Today, “Body image is subject to all kinds of distortions from the attitudes of one’s parents, other early experiences, internal elements like emotions or moods, and other factors.”

Negative body image may start forming when you notice, say, a minor flaw in your body and then overthink it out of proportions, so much so that it leaves an indelible impression on your mind.

Body image of a person influences his/her social interactions and some level of mental functioning. Negative aspects of body image can lead to severe social and behavioural distortions.

Also quoted from Psychology Today, “Thoughts and opinions about one’s body can start forming as early as 3 years of age. Often this is a direct result of a parent’s relationship with their own bodies. How a parent sees herself is influential and can mould a child’s ideas about their body.“

Although its as hard to be Ken as it is Barbie but the negatives of body image have been largely found in women. The statistics of men are found to be lower in this context.

Insecurities

According to statistics about 80% women and 34% men are insecure of and dissatisfied with their body. Body insecurities cause people to break down.

These insecurities stem mainly from the desire to look a certain way and fit a certain beauty standard. Teenagers feel the need to be perfectly thin or perfectly proportionate and muscular, lack of which could lead to a state extreme mental trauma.

Also, people instead of focusing on their own physical and mental growth, divest a large portion of their time in useless comparisons with other people, which leads to them cornering their mental selves even further instead of something positive coming out of it.

Give Yourself a Hug

Everyone in this world is insecure of one thing or the other. Body insecurity is a serious peril that people need to overcome, in order to enjoy this limited life to the fullest. Body insecurity and the negativity that it gives rise to prevents people from seeking joy in their life, it constantly looms like a dark cloud over their head.

People dealing with such issues need to look for the silver lining in this dark cloud. People need to stop striving for perfection sand embrace themselves, flaws and everything.

People suffering from insecurity need to strengthen their will and imbibe and assimilate the fact that,’ All bodies are beautiful’, completely.

Every circle of darkness in life is followed by an impending circle of light. We must have a firm belief in the goodness of things and have a strong self confidence.

Wound your arms tightly around yourself and let your love heal you. Give yourself a tight hug!

”Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are.”
–Rachel Naomi Remen

Reference(s): https://www.psychologytoday.com

In today’s tiring and stressful life, people have been neglecting their health constantly. Be it clocking in less hours of sleep, or being under intense amount of stress, leading to behavioral changes and changes in food habits. Every day brings something new to the table, but what should remain constant is our lifestyle and our daily nutritional intake.

As Denis Waitley once said, “Time and Health are two assets that we don’t recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted.” We only become more conscious and aware of our lifestyle, when there are some fluctuations in our body.

As a society, we need to become more aware about the food we eat, the type of nutrients we consume on a daily basis, and for that, we need to understand our body first. Every person has a different nutritional requirement according to their body type. For someone performing resistance training or looking to build muscle mass, protein intake has to be significantly higher than the normal amount. For someone opting for high endurance training, high carbohydrate stores should be present in the body.

So let’s start with the basics of nutrition. Few of the important things we need in our body are proteins, carbs i.e. carbohydrates, fats, fiber and vitamins. We will not delve into details for all of them, but the basic working of these will be explained below.

Carbohydrates, proteins and fats, all of these can provide us with energy in the form of ATP. However, carbohydrates is the most used form for ATP. Depending upon an individual’s basal metabolic rate, the requirements are different.

For Indians, if I assume a person is having a proper lunch including roti and rice, our carbohydrate and fat diet is pretty up to the mark. However for many people, especially vegetarians, protein sources are less. Hence, it is important to consciously eat more protein rich foods such as soya milk, tofu, paneer, dal and nuts. We need 0.8g protein for every kg body weight and hence protein intake should be at least 80% of the optimal requirement for normal bone growth and a healthy body.

One important aspect of diet that we usually overlook is fiber. Fiber helps for normal passage of food through our body and also helps in digestions. One should include fruits like apple and oranges, breakfast cereals, barley and oats along with beans and potato for fiber intake.

The next aspect of a diet is water. One should drink at least 6 glasses of water daily. Many people only drink water after exercising or during extreme thirst. One should make it a point to continually be sipping water throughout the day to keep the body hydrated and to flush out all the toxins from the body. Drinking water also helps keep the skin fresh and glowing. So, instead of looking at beauty regimes or when tackling skill problems, the first step should be to drink water.

The most underappreciated aspect of diet is sleep. Our body needs at least seven hours of sleep, and for kids, nine. Adequate amount of sleep ensure our body cells get regenerated and our brain gets rest. These are a few simple aspects of life that should one follow daily, and these show fast results, with improvements being seen from the very start.

Tag: body

Give Yourself a Hug

Body Image

Insecurities

Give Yourself a Hug

Understanding our body.

Body Image

Insecurities

Give Yourself a Hug

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