Author Sabine Wilhelm includes many real-life stories of both men and women struggling with their body image – and people struggle with everything from sideburns to hips. She explores reasons people view themselves poorly (society, life events, personality), asks readers to examine their beliefs and thought patterns.
Wilhelm doesn’t provide recipes, weight-loss tips or fashion advice; rather, she encourages you to change the way you think. She asks you to list the benefits of improving your body image, and makes you think about the cost of changing your beliefs (time, effort, energy, risk, perhaps even looking and feeling worse!).
This book revolves around a cognitive-behavioral therapy program that changes how you think about your appearance. You’ll asses your thoughts, satisfaction about various body parts, behavior, and rituals. Then you’ll set goals. Wilhelm provides questionnaires and worksheets to guide you and help direct your thoughts. She teaches you to recognize and eliminate your negative thoughts – which are really bad for your feelings of self-worth.
Wilhelm also discusses when it’s appropriate to take medication (if, for instance, your body image beliefs have morphed into Body Dysmorphic Disorder and have been diagnosed by a doctor) and if/when you should consider plastic surgery.
Feeling Good About the Way You Look is full of exercises, strategies, and encouragement to keep practicing until - and after - you achieve your goals! It’s hard work, and it’ll require you to delve deep into your thought and behavior patterns, but at the end you’ll likely be a lot happier with your body. Your thoughts will be more positive, your self-acceptance high, and your feelings of self-worth strong and healthy. Simply knowing how destructive your thoughts can be can put you on the road to well-being.
Four of my favorite body image tidbits from the book:
1. Your appearance has little to do with your body image. Beautiful people can and do feel ugly and insecure.
2. Body Dysmorphic Disorder occurs when you feel extremely ugly, envision a teeny flaw as a huge hideous problem, and let it affect your interactions with people.
3. Once you have a certain belief, your brain automatically rejects information that contradicts that belief (eg, if you believe you’re fat, even fitting into a size 6 doesn’t convince you that you’re slim).
4. Your self-esteem should consist of your intelligence, accomplishments, competence, creative and artistic abilities, athletic abilities, health, work habits, relationships, personality, social status, and appearance.
This is your body. Accept it, and enjoy a more positive outlook on life!
Feeling Good about the Way You Look : A Program for Overcoming Body Image Problems
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