The interconnection and self-awareness we have as we gawk at our awkward bodies aging is what sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Our fascination with ourselves can very easily cross the line between appreciative and deprecating, with 57% of us feeling anxious about our bodies, and so it is important to begin and upkeep a healthy self-image, so our mind and body can live in harmonious unison alongside other things we love about ourselves.
What does a healthy self-image mean?
Your self-image is how you perceive yourself, and how that makes you feel. If you are constantly being fed with overly retouched and morphed photos being sold to you as genuine- that is sure to mess up your self-perception. It is also important to look after your body, now this does not translate to drastic weight loss and restrictive meal plan fads, but to listen to the needs of your body and fulfill them to your own capacity. Mens sana in corpore sano – a Latin saying exclaiming the link between a ‘healthy mind and healthy body', that exercising enough, nourishing your body, and loving yourself will lead to a content mind.
4 Tips on how to achieve healthy self-image
To have a healthy mind, maintaining a healthy body comes without saying, and so here are some tips to achieve both:
1. Sleep
Sleep is quintessential to a productive next day, yet some of us take it as a luxury instead of a necessity to achieving a healthy mind and functioning body. Without a good night's sleep, your mind is likely to be cloudy and not working at the capacity you know it's capable of. If you are reading this at 2 am, go to sleep and thank us in the morning!
2. Be calm
It is easy to become overwhelmed by situations we feel are out of depth, and that overwhelming feeling can manifest in our body language as well. It is important to remember there is no use in stressing out over situations we cannot have imminent control over, if you can do anything, stay calm
3. Nutrition
Drinking 10 cans of energy drinks and eating 10 portions of deep-fried goodness might provide some much-needed comfort, but you cannot always resort to this as your first option. Eating healthily wherever and whenever possible, liking minimizing your sugar intake to 30g a day, will do wonders for the soul, and you will it first in the body. Healthy food makes all the difference in the world!
4. Exercise
Costs nothing, but the results can be priceless. This does not necessarily have to mean drastic dress size drops, or bulking buying belts because nothing fits quite right anymore, but a simple physical activity such as walking and yoga releases endorphins in the brain, reduces stress and improves overall brain health, and potentially lowering chances of developing depression by 20-30%. Morph your endorphins with these simple changes to ensure healthy minds in a healthy body.