Do you want some extra help in reconnecting to, or maintaining, a positive body image? Then you’re in the right place mama!
In this article, I talk about self-love for moms, give top tips for positive body image for moms, and I give you my FREE printable worksheet to help improve low self-esteem and body confidence.
How Do You Develop A Positive Body Image?
Developing a positive body image comes down to multiple factors, so you’ll need to start looking at the mental, emotional, and physical aspects affecting your body image.
You can develop a positive body image by improving your mindset, addressing any unwanted emotions, and looking after yourself physically. And whilst this might sound easy on paper, in reality, it can take a lot of grit, perseverance, and dedication—but you can do it, I believe in you!
Printable Positive Body Image Worksheets
Here is my FREE printable positive body image worksheet for moms, you are able to download it for reference, save it to your camera roll, or print it off to literally fill it out in pen.
It is specially designed to support you through your self-love journey by accepting and loving your body.
Tips For Improving Body Image
If you feel like you’ve been stuck in a rut with self-esteem and body image, I totally understand. I was also struggling with this for a long time, and many other women do too. You are not alone.
This topic is really important to me, because I know just how hard it is to struggle with body image and self-esteem!
After some reflection, I decided to share some of my top tips to help you start loving your body! This journey actually goes way deeper than simply loving yourself. Because what it also entails is accepting yourself, being kind to yourself, raising your self-esteem, and increasing your overall confidence—all of which have a positive impact on the rest of your life too.
These tips are not just helpful for body image, but they’re helpful for your holistic wellness, and body, mind, and soul.
1. Address Trauma And Unwanted Emotions
One of the first factors that needs to be addressed is your mental and emotional health in general. Poor mental health can lead to a variety of problems, especially poor body image.
If you have unresolved trauma this can lead to binge eating, anorexia, bulimia, and a variety of other eating disorders, which then impact your self-esteem and body image. Unaddressed emotions can also have a similar negative impact on body image and self-esteem through behaviors such as mindless eating and escapism.
Emotions need to be processed, whether they are regarded as ‘positive’ and ‘wanted’ emotions such as happiness and joy, or ‘negative’ emotions that are ‘unwanted’ such as sadness, anger, or jealousy.
If you are experiencing unwanted emotions and you don’t process them, this can result in eating disorders, poor physical health, poor mental health, and low self-esteem.
Journaling is a powerful practice that can really help you to get to the root of what’s going on in your life and mind. This helps you to unravel what’s serving you, what’s not, and what needs to be addressed.
Through journaling, you’re able to unpack feelings, dig into negative core beliefs, and dismantle any other negative thoughts that don’t serve your self-empowerment.
2. Eat Healthy Food And Exercise
Developing healthy eating habits and exercising sounds so cliché, and yes, you’ll probably hear me come back to it time and time again like a broken record—but that’s because it’s vital for your holistic wellness mama.
What you put into your body powers it. Food and nutrition have the ability to support good mental health or fuel poor mental health.
A medical study by Nutrients notes that there are a variety of different ways that diet can affect mental health and mood.¹ It specifically mentions that diet can affect mood through obesity and related mental disorders that induce stress and change diet habits, which could also affect weight.
Exercise is another huge pillar that supports positive body image. Having a regular and consistent exercise routine helps to increase your self-esteem and improve your overall health.
A medical journal by Maturitas notes that exercise helps to reduce inflammation and stress whilst improving anxiety, depression, and overall mood states.²
When you treat your body with respect, kindness, and love—it creates a strong foundation for good mental health and a healthy body image.
Looking for some tips on health and wellness in motherhood? Then check out my article here.
3. Positive Affirmations For Body Image For Moms
Mindset is another huge aspect of positive body image, and this is where affirmations and journaling can help. Positive affirmations can either be spoken out loud, or you may choose to write them down.
Saying positive affirmations in the mirror can be a really powerful way to connect with yourself, and tell yourself the things that you need to hear in the moment.
I like to have a range of affirmations written down in my journal so that I always have them to hand. This prevents me from having to try and work out affirmations when I may be stressed, overwhelmed, or in a low mood.
Or you might find it handy to write a positive affirmation on a post-it note. You can put it in an area that you will see daily, like on your bathroom mirror.
4. Fun Body Image Activities For Moms
Fun body image activities are a great way to improve your self-esteem. Dancing and mirror work are two fun body image activities that are really effective for achieving healthy self-esteem.
Dancing helps you to release endorphins, feel good, and destress. It helps to shake it off, shake it out, and technically—also counts as part of your exercise routine so it’s two birds one stone!
All you need to do is choose one song per day, and dance! It’s not hard and doesn’t take long, because a song is only roughly 2-4 minutes long. But this little activity makes a massive difference to how you feel and allows you to mindfully connect to your body.
You’re able to explore your body through the freedom of movement, which can be a really liberating experience. You might want to do it in a room alone, and close the curtains if it helps you to let go. Close your eyes, let go of self-judgment, have fun with it, and laugh!
Mirrorwork is another fun activity that you can do with or without music. Either you can dance in the mirror to music. Or you can honor yourself by looking in the mirror every day and picking out 3 things that you like about yourself.
When we pick ourselves apart, we solely focus on the things that we don’t like about ourselves, but there are many things that we do like about ourselves too! You just might not be thinking about it in the moment, because you’re too busy beating yourself up.
Mirrorwork forces you to face yourself, which can be really vulnerable. But it’s a great way to give gratitude, and stimulate acceptance and self-love when done right.
5. Take A Break From Social Media
This is another of my favorite tips for mental health. Put Instagram down!
Yes, there are lots of benefits to social media—there really are. But when you’re struggling with poor mental health and body dissatisfaction, social media has the awful tendency to make things worse.
It’s safe to say that many women compare themselves to others when browsing on social media. But we don’t really stop there, we also tend to put ourselves down when comparing ourselves to others.
If you find yourself doing this, then it’s a good idea to have a prolonged break from social media until you have built up your self-esteem. With a positive mindset, and a strong set of boundaries in place social media can be a fun place, but if you’re in a vulnerable position—it’s best to steer clear for now.
6. Improve Your Overall Mental Health And Confidence
Working on improving your overall mental health and confidence will help to improve your body image. Although many different factors affect body image, body image is largely related to the way you look so it really helps to increase your confidence in this area in particular.
It can really help to start paying a bit more attention to the way you look, and this is different for all of us. But a few ideas could include; haircare, beauty, and fashion.
It doesn’t mean that you have to get entirely dolled up every day. But can you make little changes that improve the way you feel in general about how you look?
Are you due to get a new haircut? Or perhaps it might be time to start exploring some new makeup looks, even if they are natural and ‘barely there’ aesthetics. Or maybe it could help to freshen up your wardrobe. Even if you do like to wear sweats and yoga leggings all day, it might just be time to treat yourself to new loungewear.
These little shifts and changes can make a massive difference in how you feel about the way you look. It can really help to give you a more positive outlook in general, about your physical appearance.
7. Enjoy More Self Care
Self-care is another extension of taking care of the way you look. For example, skincare, face masks, hair masks, and manicures are all categorized under self-care—but they all also help to improve your appearance and the way you feel about your physical appearance.
Self-care also goes way beyond just the physical realm. Self-care is also learning to be kind and intuitive so that you can heal. Self-care is learning when it’s appropriate to set boundaries, say no, and put yourself first.
In terms of body positivity, self-care is paying attention to what you need to do, or not do, in order to support your mental health, physical health, emotional health, and overall holistic wellness.
Think about a self-care routine that will support your unique healing process and be consistent in implementing it.
Check out my blog post on mental wellness tips for moms for more inspiration!
8. Develop Your Mindfulness
Developing your mindfulness is a really powerful way to help improve your body image, strengthen positive thinking, and increase positive self-esteem.
A lot of body image issues stem from negative core beliefs and negative self-talk. And when you develop mindfulness and your ability to meditate you’re able to stop negative self-talk in its tracks the moment it arises.
9. Practice Gratitude For Your Body
Practicing gratitude is a good mental health ritual in general, but is also particularly helpful for dismantling negative body image.
Practice gratitude and remind yourself that there is no such thing as a perfect body, but that your body is also perfect as it is!
I like to remind myself that I am grateful to my body for good health, and also for my children.
Your body has served you endlessly without you ever having to ask or think about it! It’s quite miraculous actually.
Your body has birthed your babies, and allows you to experience life. It truly is a miracle that deserves to be honored.
10. Seek Treatment If Needed
If you need treatment for an eating disorder or body dysmorphic disorder, then make sure you pursue it. Sometimes it might be more than negative thinking fuelling your body dissatisfaction and negative body image—it might be a mental health issue that requires professional support.
There is no shame in needing a helping hand to overcome low self-esteem, negative thinking, and poor mental health! There are a variety of different options available, and your healing treatment could be in the form of medication or therapy. You have a variety of choices that you can discuss with your trusted medical health advisor.
Conclusion
Learning to love your body shape, and appreciate your body for what it is, isn’t always an easy journey. Especially when, as a mom, you find that your body shape is constantly changing.
It is, however, really worth it!
Healing your relationship with your body helps you to access deeper levels of self-love, self-acceptance, and compassion—which as a parent, sets an important model of behavior for your child to learn from and copy.
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