Often we talk a lot about the importance of nutrition and exercise on someone’s journey to health and fitness. What isn’t discussed all that much, are the various psychological factors including low self-compassion and body dissatisfaction.

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So, what is self-compassion and how can increasing it help you with your goals?

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Self-compassion is derived from Buddhism and is strongly associated with mental well-being. It is mainly composed of three components: self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness (Banard & Curry, 2011).

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Self-kindness focuses on being kind and understanding towards oneself as opposed to being harshly judgemental.
Common humanity means you realise that no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes and faces obstacles as opposed to feeling isolated during times of suffering or thinking that it is only “me” having a difficult time.
Mindfulness entails being aware of one’s negative thoughts and emotions but in a balanced way without exaggeration or ignorance (Neff, 2003).

Individuals that have a high level of self-compassion can have higher perceived levels of being able to control his/her behaviours, be kinder to oneself, pursue behaviours driven by a sense of enjoyment, learn new and challenging skills and find happiness (Neff & Dahm, 2015). Someone who has a higher level of self-compassion can also have an increased perceived competence of being able to do something as they view it as part of a larger human experience (Neff, Hsieh, & Deijitterat, 2005).

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Body dissatisfaction is defined as having negative thoughts about one’s body which could includes ones size and shape as well as the discrepancy between ones actual and real body. A systematic review by Weinberger et al (2016) found that obese people had higher levels of body dissatisfaction and Teixeira et al (2004) indicated that body dissatisfaction has a negative impact on adherence to healthy lifestyle factors such as exercise and good nutrition. Furthermore, Teixeira et al (2004) also concluded that those with a higher level of body dissatisfaction were unsuccessful in weight managements after 1 year.

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Now, what does Self-Compassion have to do with body image and how can having more of it help you reach your goals?

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A recent study by Albertson et al (2015) found that self-compassion is related to improved body image so if you are unkind to yourself often regarding your body, your levels of this may not be as high as you would like. This is where we refer back to the three components of self-compassion that we mentioned before!

Having a high level of self-kindness is inconsistent with having a high level of body dissatisfaction which involves criticising one’s body (Albertson, et al, 2015). Secondly, being more compassionate to yourself may help you realise that no humans are perfect and that you are not alone in experiencing body-related-inadequacies. By allowing yourself some more self-compassion, you may in fact decrease your body-shaming tendencies. Finally, by increasing your mindfulness, you may be less prone to overwhelming negative thoughts about your body or the emotions that come with that such as “I am fat” or “I am not attractive” (Albertson, et al, 2015).
Overall, by having higher levels of self-compassion you may enhance your body appreciation and acceptance by seeing the value in yourself as opposed to the negatives!

 

RECAP:

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1. Be kinder to yourself! Can you say three positives about your body? Give it a go!

2. Realise YOU are about more than what you look like. You have a brain, a personality, a life…and try and stop putting so much emphasis on just your aesthetics.

3. Understand you don’t need to punish your body for what it looks like or can’t do. Try and focus on what it CAN do instead…are you strong? Fast? Can run for miles? Celebrate those accomplishments instead!

4. Remove the triggers from your life! If looking in the mirror often makes you feel down, remove them for a while and see if you feel more positive. If you find yourself scrolling Instagram and comparing yourself to others constantly, maybe delete the app or decrease your social media time to see if that helps!

5. STOP COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS! End of story. You are YOU! And that IS ENOUGH. YOU ARE ENOUGH <3