People laugh and accept it when you confess to having a bad hair day. Sure, we can all relate, we’ve been there. But, how about a bad body day? That’s not a topic women openly discuss.
While our hair is a reflection of our self-image, it’s our bodies that touch upon the core of our femininity and self-acceptance. This is the reason that it’s not frivolous or shallow to be concerned about whether our bodies are meeting our own personal and unique acceptable standards.
A bad body day can happen much more frequently than a bad hair day and feel far worse. Not many women are comfortable openly admitting when they’re in the emotional grips of a bad body day.
A bad body day is defined by having intensely negative thoughts about the way you think your body looks. Then you judge yourself harshly about how it should look and how you wish it could look. These negative thoughts can be repetitive, sometimes lasting throughout an entire day or more, affecting or restricting your decisions and actions.
Bad body days can begin…the moment you wake up…when you see yourself naked…when you step on the scale…when you go to your closet…when you try on a pair of pants that don’t zip…when you catch a glimpse of yourself in a mirror and you don’t like what you see…when you catch a glimpse of another woman and negatively compare yourself to her…when you experience PMS…when your period comes…when you look down at your muffin top. In other words, there is no shortage of triggers that can activate a bad body day.
If you are in the grips of a bad body day, here are a few tips to help curb some of the negative feelings…
1. Love Yourself – This is hard to do on a bad body day, but start by remembering that not every day is a bad body day, there are better days ahead. Besides, even though you may not feel your best about your body today, you, like every woman, has a special and unique “zone of beauty” (eyes, arms, legs, etc.) that can be accentuated even on bad body days. This may not make you feel great on a bad body day, but it may make you feel less negative, which could be a great accomplishment on a bad body day.
2. Plan Ahead
Find a few outfits that make you feel good. Make note of these outfits to have them on hand specifically in preparation for a bad body day. If you have a bad body day in the future, you’ll have one less thing to worry about with your go-to outfits easily on hand.
3. Choose Calming Colors
Color can be a great subliminal way to help you lift your mood. When you aren’t feeling good, it may not be realistic to think you’ll want to wear bright colors. However, calming colors will be just right to soothe you when you need it the most. Think about the colors that soothe and calm you. Include these colors in your go-to outfits for your bad body day.
4. Wear Soft Fabrics
Ahhhh, the feeling of soft, comfortable fabrics against your skin…it feels like love! Just like an oh-so-soft baby blanket is comforting to a newborn, a tender touch can go a long way towards easing tension from the bad body blues. When you are planning your outfits, stay away from stiff, tailored or highly constructed fabrics and shapes. Stay attuned to fabrics that stretch and move with your body but still make you feel pretty.
5. Create a Mantra for the Day
When you’re in the midst of negative thoughts brought on by bad feelings about your body, the best thing you can do is to tell yourself to STOP! Immediately replace the negative thought/s with a positive mantra. A mantra will serve as a focal point to redirect your mind towards more positive intentions. It is also self-soothing to your soul. Repeat your mantra as often as you need. An example of a mantra might be to focus on your strength or individuality such as, “I am grateful for my strength”, “I cherish my unique beauty.”
6. Limit Media Exposure
The media presents a very narrow and unrealistic, even unreachable standard of beauty as ideal for a woman’s body shape and size. These images can very easily provoke feelings of frustration and an even deeper level of body dissatisfaction with pressure to conform to the “norm”. The best course of action is to back away from all media, as much as you can until you feel better.
By following these tips, it will help you feel better and find a little more gentle love for yourself when you’re not feeling good about your body.