Complementary therapies to improve body image

Do you love the way your body looks? For a lot of people, the answer (sadly) is no.

In today’s society, beauty standards are incredibly high and unattainable for most, leading to low self-esteem and poor body image.

When you’re struggling to like the way your body looks, you may think about physical actions you can take. Maybe you want to eat a healthier diet or do more exercise.

While it’s great to consider your physical health, it’s also important to think about your mental and emotional health - specifically, how you think about yourself and ways you can improve the way you perceive yourself.

Being in tune with your body and addressing any emotional blocks you may be facing can really help with this process. Here are just a few complementary therapies that can help with this:

Yoga

Yoga is all about the union of body movement and breath. This makes it a very mindful practice that increases your body awareness. Through yoga, you will learn to appreciate your body for what it is - an incredible vessel.

Yoga isn’t about achieving difficult poses or looking a certain way, it‘s about the process, how you feel within a pose and the space it creates in both body and mind.

Reiki

An energy healing technique, Reiki can be incredibly helpful at removing emotional blocks. Reiki promotes relaxation and can help reduce stress and anxiety, both of which can be symptoms of poor body image.

If you feel there is an underlying reason as to why you feel the way you do about your body, consider Reiki as a supporting therapy to help remove emotional blocks.

Massage

Getting a massage is a simple way to show your body self-love. It eases tension, reduces stress and is something we think should form part of everybody's self-care regime.

Instead of waging a war against your body, try to show it some kindness.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

EFT looks to tackle negative emotions and unbalanced or blocked energy. This is done by tapping meridian points on the body while focusing on the negative emotion and repeating positive affirmations.

This combination of stimulating meridian points whilst thinking about root causes enables the energy system to 'straighten out'. This is believed to eradicate the 'short circuit' to the body's learnt response or negative emotion.

Do you struggle with your body image? Let us know what you find helpful in the comments below or join the conversation on Twitter.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author. All articles published on Therapy Directory are reviewed by our editorial team.

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Written by Katherine Nicholls
Kat is a Content Producer for Memiah and writer for Therapy Directory and Happiful magazine.
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