How to Improve Your Body Image

Statistics show that the majority of women are unhappy with their bodies. Negative body image can impact your self-esteem and throw a damper on your sex life. Some of us have been harboring visions of svelte bodies for our entire lives, but it's time to question whether that vision is necessary, productive, or realistic! Here are a few suggestions for improving your body image:

• Start a list of all the attributes you like about your body. Keep it somewhere and add to it. Share it with a partner.
• Strip down to your birthday suit, stand in front of the mirror and get used to looking at your body. Tell yourself what you like—appreciate your body’s uniqueness. If you get good at this, you may end up with some hot erotica!
• Listen to compliments people give you and try to accept and believe them.
• Seek out images that show a greater variety of body types. The Web and some magazines and catalogs are attempting to showcase greater diversity in body type.
• Talk to a close friend—share your anxieties as well as what you admire about yourselves and each other. Try exploring where some of your attitudes originated.
• Change something about your physical appearance that will boost self-esteem—new clothes, hairstyle, glasses. If you’re bound and determined to diet, be realistic. Set reasonable goals, eat nutritiously and get plenty of exercise.
• Learn how to give and receive massage. This can enhance your appreciation and enjoyment of your body and of others.
• Read some self-help books about body image and self-esteem.
• Visit a nude beach or a spa to surround yourself with ordinary people comfortable in their nudity.
• Make a conscious effort not to verbalize your criticisms (especially if you're around impressionable young girls!).

Next: Getting Rid of the Body Blues. Hello Great Sex Life!

Last updated: 10/05

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