Written by: Marija Dobratic, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Whether we like it or not, we do live in a world that is appearance centric. Our minds are full of images of others, labeled beautiful. And we, in reality, don’t even know how we look. We may own a mirror, and we may use it to apply make-up, or check out our outfit, but we do not look at ourselves. We don’t know details of our bodies and faces, only shapes and flaws.
All of this combined leads to body dissatisfaction, which is the first domino to fall and take many others with it. Our mental health, our eating, and our ambition are just some of them.
Lucky for us, this is all fixable with a few simple action steps and thought shifts. Here is what you do:
1. Look in the mirror.
Yes, I am asking you to explore your body and face. Get to know the details of your appearance. And while you are at it, take note of parts that are beautiful. Find proof of beauty, even if it is just your nails. This ensures not only that your image is stored in your brain but it connects you with word beauty. That may
sound weird now, but it’s just a mind trick we use to make sure you are in the right drawer of the brain's filing cabinet.
2. Change up your visual diet.
In this digital age it matters what our eyes feed our brain. If you are following a lot of perfect, curated, beautiful people – stop. You have been doing it for a while now and you are not inspired. On the contrary. You dislike yourself more since you are repeatedly comparing yourself to all that unattainable beauty.
Go find some people who look like you and who are the total opposite of you. Humans who are not perfect and are not trying to show up as such. Who do things you enjoy seeing and learning about. I will be sharing such humans on my socials, so come and “steal” some. Or just go and follow kittens and puppies for now.
3. Neutralize the parts you hate.
If you have a body part (or parts) that you dislike, contrary to popular advice, you can not just start loving it. Practicing positive affirmations and mantras is useless since cognitive dissonance is real, and it prevents us from making huge jumpers in belief. So, instead of trying to practice things like "I love my belly", let’s take baby steps. On purpose practice neutralizing thoughts like; "this is a human belly", "other humans have bellies too" "it does its job and helps me live my life". And when I say practice, I mean practice. Like daily. Put it on your calendar.
Marija Dobratic, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Marija Dobratic MS CLC, is a pediatric cancer scientist and a certified life coach. She was born in a country that no longer exists, and at age 19 has decided to leave everything behind in pursuit of a dream. Once she achieved the dream at 30, and was still not happy, she turned her attention inwards. Marija has worked through decades of self hatred and body image issues, and on that journey she fell in love with life coaching. These days you can find her on TikTok sharing all her knowledge about body image, socialization and brains, and coaching her clients inside of her coaching community Untangle.
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