As a kid, when I used to look in the mirror, I saw me as me. I saw a quiet, timid girl who was a stickler for rules, but was also eager for adventure and fun. As I grew older, this reflection in the mirror slowly began to change. All I began to see were the imperfections, the things I needed to fix and modify about myself. By the time I was a teenager, this image of myself started to focus more on my physical self and continued to transform until I only saw a body with no person attached…just an imperfect body that needed to be fixed.
This body I saw was morphed and almost blurry. I couldn’t see what was really there. All I knew was that whatever was there, it needed to be altered. This is a very common struggle for those with eating disorders (ED), and although they might not be as extreme, these types of thoughts have entered everyone’s head at some point in time.
We are so harsh on our bodies; we criticize, hate, and pick out every little part that isn’t good enough in our eyes. The constant disapproval of my body eventually turned into me not even being able to see what I actually looked like because my perception of myself was so twisted. When I looked in the mirror, I couldn’t tell what was big or what was small. What the scale and measuring tape said, completely contradicted what my eyes were telling me. Over the past several months, I’ve finally gotten to the point in my recovery where I am beginning to accept and love my body for what it is.
I saw a Dove commercial recently that really made me think. Women were asked to describe their features behind a curtain while an artist blindly sketched them only from hearing the descriptions they gave him of themselves. Then others were asked to describe the same women while the artist sketched another version based on their description of the way they perceived those women. Then, the two drawings of each woman were compared to one another. The drawings were both drastically different. The sketch based on the women’s description of themselves were mainly only focused on what they saw as negative features, while the other sketch based on the description from others showed the women’s true beauty. After the women saw their drawings, the artist asked, ‘Do you think you are more beautiful than you see?” This really put things into perspective for how we view ourselves and how it impacts everything around us.
Dove Real Beauty Sketches
But why are we so critical of our appearance? Why is it so hard to love ourselves and our bodies? We all strive to reach some form of, what we think of, perfection and acceptance; but as cheesy and cliché as this might sound, we need to realize that our bodies are perfect the way they are. Our physical appearance should not be what solely defines us. Start making small efforts to accept yourself completely; begin complimenting yourself, even if you don’t believe it at first. As you learn to love yourself and your body, your reflection in the mirror will begin to show the real, beautiful you.