Body image:
Refers to the perceptions, thoughts, behaviours, and feelings that we have about our body and appearance. There are different components to body image, including neutral, negative, and healthy body image.
Having a neutral body image is associated with these health-protecting behaviours:
- Valuing who you are
- Appreciating and celebrating your strengths
- Connecting with culture
- Learning that it’s okay to make mistakes and to take risks
- Developing social and emotional learning skills
- Coping with difficult feelings or situations
- Having a better relationship with food and movement
- Engaging in regular physical activity
- Protecting skin from UV damage
- Making friends and building social relationships
- Taking care of yourself and others
Having a negative body image is sometimes called body dissatisfaction or body image disturbance. It can impact your physical and psychological wellness:
- Feeling worried you are not “good enough” or valued enough
- Feelings of shame about your body
- Having a fear of failure or of trying new things
- Isolating socially
- Avoiding participation in physical activities or group activities
- Engaging in intense or compulsive exercise patterns
- Trying to lose weight through dieting and restrictive eating
- Having difficulties concentrating in class due to preoccupation with appearance/body size
- Increasing the risk of developing eating disorders
- Increasing risky behaviour
Healthy body image consists of various components, including:
- Body acceptance: an understanding that all bodies have differences and change throughout the lifespan.
- Body appreciation: a positive regard for one’s body related to appearance and/or body functioning.
- Body neutrality: de-emphasizes appearances and focuses on what our bodies allow us to do, the inner aspects of who we are, the varied aspects of our identity, and how our inherent self-worth is not tied to how our body looks. Acknowledging and respecting our body for what it can do for us, rather than focusing on physical appearance.
- Embodiment: the experience of being in a body. This includes the ability to notice and feel sensations of physical states (such as hunger and thirst). Embodiment also refers to noticing physical cues for emotion (such as feeling an increased heart rate when you are angry or excited).
- Self-compassion: the ability to recognize body image distress as a common experience and respond with self-kindness. Choosing to explore coping strategies (e.g. mindfulness, breathing) related to being more in one’s body instead of changing one’s body.
- Body image flexibility: the skill of openly experiencing negative thoughts or feelings about the body without trying to avoid or change them.
Body-inclusive:
Idea of creating an environment that is inclusive of people of all body shapes, sizes, and appearances.
Self-concept:
Refers to a person’s perception of themselves.
Self-esteem:
Refers to the way we value ourselves; our sense of self-worth.
Self-identity:
Refers to the way we describe different aspects of our identity including beliefs, values, roles, and characteristics that define who we are.
Social determinants of health1:
Factors like income, education, and housing that shape health outcomes and the way we live, grow, and age.
Weight bias:
Refers to internally held beliefs about individuals or groups based on body size and can be conscious or unconscious.
Internalized weight bias:
When someone believes in the negative stereotypes or judgments related to their body size or weight.
Weight stigma:
Refers to discriminatory acts and misconceptions about people because of their weight and size.