Be your own damn cheerleader.
- Adele Meade
- Aug 1, 2021
- 3 min read
Let’s chat. Real talk. Honesty.
I am a fantastic cheerleader. 👍🏻I will happily sing my friends and clients praises when it comes to their progress, achievements and think incredibly highly of them, I am my own worst critique. I have very high standards for myself both professionally and personally and its very easy for me to pick up on the negatives rather than seeing any of the positives. I feel like a bit of a fraud at times, preaching one thing and doing another completely when it comes to how I view myself. It’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time, recognised but been unable to completely get out of that mindset 🧠.
Body image, self confidence and self perception aren’t simple and easy to understand. I read a blog entry recently and listened to a 3DMJ [3D Muscle Journey] podcast, where in it, they broke it down. Based on the definitions given by the NEDC, [2017], body image can be further broken down into four categories:
1. Perceptual body image.
How you view your body, not always accurately representative of how you actually look. This could be how you see yourself in the mirror, how you describe your body to others and ultimately how you perceive how you appear to look. Sometimes, this perception can be skewed and not completely accurate to how we actually look. It can be warped by negative self-body image, extremely critical tendencies and negative comparison to others.
2. Affective body image
The level of satisfaction and often dissatisfaction you have when it comes to your shape, weight or individual body parts. This may come from comparison, to both yourself and other people and is the act of critiquing your body in a way in a way that is often done in a negative manner.
3. Cognitive body image
The thoughts and beliefs that surround how you view your body. It is how we think we will be ‘X’ if we lose fat, gain muscle, reach a certain target weight. It could be that we feel we will be happier, more successful, more attractive, more popular or better if we looked a certain way or amended our body in some way.
4. Behavioural body image
Finally, how our thoughts make us act and behave in relation to affective, cognitive and perceptual body image. The things we do as a result and how these thought processes influence our day to day actions.
It is completely normal to be critical and want to improve in some way or another, the problem lies in how this can negatively impact other areas of our lives. Often, these thought processes can lead us down a slippery slope and in some [not all] scenarios, some people will be affected by eating disorders, mental health disorders and extreme cases of body dysmorphia. In these cases, it is advisable to speak to your GP and take action to getting the necessary support and guidance from trained professionals.
As with anything, self-talk and being more accepting and understanding of ourselves takes time, energy and effort. It requires us to dedicate time to looking at how we talk to ourselves and more importantly, how this influences our actions day to day.
For me personally, it's a something I have to work on and remind myself to do. I am someone who has been quite happy to neglect, avoid and brush over any of these negative tendencies in the past and it's led to me have quite a destructive relationship with my body.
I am aware, acknowledge and accept it is something that will require me to dedicate time to it and I'm willing to start trying to make these small changes in language to myself. It's a part of my fitness journey I need to start on. The question is, are you ready to stop watching from the sidelines and instead be your own damn cheerleader??
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