Body Dysmorphia and Social Media: Why Positive Affirmations are SO Important?
Hey guys! So this post is going to be formatted a little differently than my other ones. Its going to be formatted more as a free write journal and discussion, so feel free to comment below any experiences or thoughts.
As someone who spends a majority of their time (working and free time) on social media, comparison is inevitable. With that comes the body dysmorphia that we all know and love (jk). I have noticed this slight shift in how I view myself. I spend more time comparing myself to photoshopped and romanticized photos. But, it’s not a verbalized thing, it’s more subconsciously. I don’t go “I wish I looked like her omg”. Instead, it starts off with me saving that image to a specific folder on Instagram. Then, it is looked at briefly while I pick out my outfit for inspiration. Then looked at briefly one more time before I take my own photoshoots. The intention was positive, but the outcome, overtime, becomes negative. How so?
Self love and self perception slowly started going down. The first time I truly noticed a different was when I was in New York City with my mom. I had wanted to mimic this one style: a silk black corset crop top with high waisted grey suit pants. Of course, I easily found it at Zara and bought it. Then, when photos came around, I had my mom (my usual photographer) take them. I have taught her over the years how I like my angles, so she did what she normally does. Except this time, instead of me going through my camera roll (which had about 300 photos of me doing the same thing) and hearted a lot of them, I hearted maybe 4. Those 4 I wasn’t even in love with, but they were “good enough” (to what standard am I basing this off of? I have no clue). We were at this gorgeous rooftop bar and all I could think of when I looked around was taking a photo I was truly satisfied with. Crazy? I know! My mom would ask me, “Am I a bad photographer?” and my response was “no, not at all I just don’t like the way that I look in any of these pictures”.
I spoke so negatively about myself, and truly believed it, that it resulted in a shift in my mind and body. To the person reading this that is thinking “cmon, it’s just a picture. You are being dramatic”, you are completely correct. However, social media feeds off of insecurities like body image to keep you coming back. So, yes, it may be dramatic, but within the world of social media, it happens way more than you think.
My blog and social media profile I created is all a hobby. I know that. I enjoy taking photos of myself and showing what I am doing. I’m doing it on my own time, yet I can convince myself so deeply that it doesn’t look good enough. The greater problem can be caused when social media is your career. Whether you are a content creator, model or blogger. How do those creators put the their own thoughts, along with the hateful comments of others? It takes much meditation and positive affirmations to ignore what is being told to you.
You know that feeling when you just try on a beautiful dress and you look at yourself in the mirror and you think “I look so good in this!!”. That is YOU giving yourself a positive affirmation to let yourself know how amazing you look. Now why does it feel so different when you get a photo taken of yourself? 1. because you are not having that confirmation that you look good since you can’t see yourself and 2. because your eye is instantly drawn to that physical insecurity or “flaw” that you think you have. Isn’t that sorta amazing to think about?
Your perception of your own self changes so drastically when you go from lense to lense that you sometimes forget that it’s the lense that’s distorting you, not that you actually look that certain way! That’s why it is so important to show yourself some love. I’m going to ask you to do a little task now. Open your camera roll. Look at the last photo you took of yourself and point out 3 things that you love about yourself in that photo and say that out loud to yourself!
