Most of us know the feeling of being dissatisfied about certain parts of our bodies, be it that we think our thighs are too fat, our bums too big etc. But as our campaign hopes to demonstrate, we can change our minds to help us feel more positive about our bodies. One way, as we saw here (Message of the day: 16th January 2015) is to challenge beauty norms. Today’s message focuses on how we can also improve our own perception of ourselves.

We have already heard that boosting self-esteem, by improving our general evaluation of ourselves, can improve body satisfaction (see Message of the day: 13th January 2015). But what about going a step further to focus specifically on being kind to ourselves? Being understanding and non-judgmental of our shortcomings is captured by a psychological construct termed self-compassion. Higher self-compassion is linked to being more accepting of ourselves. Might higher levels of self-compassion be connected to higher body satisfaction as well?

Researchers in Canada found that self-compassion was indeed related to women’s concerns about their bodies. Across two studies, they demonstrated that women scoring higher on a measure of self-compassion – and especially on items relating to how judgmental they were of themselves – had fewer concerns about their bodies. This was found even when controlling for women’s levels of self-esteem, indicating that there may be a unique benefit in being kind to ourselves. Although this study assessed the degree of self-compassion women generally had already, rather than boosting their self-compassion in the study, do give it a try: Be kind to yourself, and change your mind, not your body!
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Reference: Wasylkiw, L., MacKinnon, A. L., & MacLellan, A. M. (2012). Exploring the link between self-compassion and body image in university women. Body Image, 9, 236-245.