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Editor's Note: The way we perceive ourselves is complex. In this post at post at Perfect In Our Imperfections, Jen talks about inconsistency of emotions she experiences in regard to her self-image. What do you think -- can you change your body image by sheer force of will? -- AVF
All of this discussion about how we feel, how people think we should feel, how we should feel, etc., are missing one big major thing: we don't feel one way all of the time. The other thing that seems to get left out of body image discussions is that we don't feel a certain way because we decide to feel that way. Emotions aren't logical. As humans our "feeling brain" is a completely separate system from our "reasoning brain," one that is not accessible to it.
Photo by Sodanie Chea. (Flickr)
I guess I shouldn't drag everyone else into this, because I can only definitively talk about myself. I don't feel one way all of the time. I can be feeling great about the way I look, and seeing an unflattering photo can throw me into self-doubt. I can be feeling bad about myself and someone can compliment me and brighten my outlook. What doesn't seem to work well for me is telling myself how I should feel. I can try to look for evidence that my gloomy outlook is unrealistic, but I can't change my body image by sheer force of will.
Read the rest of the post here at Perfect In Our Imperfections.
