Let’s Talk About Body Image
Because how you see yourself matters, and you’re not alone in the struggle.
Every day, people of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds silently wrestle with body image. In a culture filled with filtered photos, comparison traps, and unrealistic standards, it’s easy to feel like your body isn’t “enough.”
You might sometimes feel like your body isn’t enough, but your worth has never been about numbers, sizes, or chasing perfection.
What Body Image Really Means
Body image is more than just how you look. It’s how you see, feel, and think about your body.
It includes your self-talk when you look in the mirror.
It shows up in how comfortable you feel in clothes, social settings, or even in your own skin.
It can shape your confidence, relationships, and mental health.
When body image turns harsh or critical, it can chip away at self-worth and feed patterns of shame, dieting, or self-punishment.
The Real Problem: Pressure, Not Your Body
We live in a culture that often glorifies thinness, perfection, or “transformation” as the ultimate goal. Social media filters, curated images, and comparison culture reinforce the lie that there’s only one acceptable way to look.
But the truth is:
Your body doesn’t need to change. The pressure does.
It’s the unrealistic standards that are harmful, not your body.
Scarcity Culture and Body Image: Why “Never Enough” Keeps Us Stuck
Brené Brown describes scarcity culture as the constant hum of “never enough.” We wake up thinking we didn’t get enough sleep, spend the day worrying we’re not productive enough, and fall asleep convinced we didn’t accomplish enough. This mindset doesn’t just shape how we measure success—it seeps into how we see ourselves, especially our bodies.
When scarcity culture meets body image, it can sound like this:
I’ll never be thin enough.
I’ll never be toned enough.
I’ll never look young enough.
I’ll never be disciplined enough to “stick with it.”
The rules keep shifting, and the finish line keeps moving. No matter how hard we try, it feels like there’s always another flaw to fix, another standard to chase. Our bodies stop feeling like home and start feeling like projects under construction.
The cruel part? Shame and scarcity feed each other. The more inadequate we feel, the more we double down on diets, punishing workouts, or self-criticism—hoping that this time, if we just work harder, we’ll finally feel enough. But that sense of worthiness never arrives, because the culture we’re swimming in is designed to keep us striving and unsatisfied.
Eating Disorders, Media, and Body Image: The Messages We Absorb
We don’t develop eating disorders in a vacuum. While genetics, trauma, and environment all play a role, the culture we live in—especially the media we consume—shapes how we see our bodies and what we believe about our worth.
From magazine covers to TikTok trends, we’re flooded with narrow and unrealistic standards of beauty. Thinness is celebrated. “Clean eating” and hyper-fitness are praised. Filters and editing erase natural bodies and turn them into impossible ideals. The message we receive, over and over, is: your body is not enough as it is.
For someone vulnerable to disordered eating, these messages can act like fuel. A perfectly normal body suddenly feels unacceptable. Food becomes a battleground. Exercise becomes punishment instead of self-care. And the cycle of shame, restriction, and overcompensation deepens.
The impact doesn’t stop with individuals—it becomes cultural. Media creates a hierarchy of bodies: thin over fat, youthful over aging, “fitspo” over rest. This hierarchy reinforces Brené Brown’s idea of scarcity culture, the sense that no matter what we do, we’ll never measure up.
Unfortunatly we start to forget that bodies in the media are not reality. They’re curated, edited, and filtered to keep us striving (and buying). And striving for an impossible standard is exactly what keeps us stuck in the loop of body dissatisfaction and, for many, eating disorders.
Understanding the Body Image Spectrum
Body image isn’t just “good” or “bad.” It exists on a spectrum, and people may move between different points depending on the day, the season of life, or their healing journey.
Here’s a simplified way to think about it:
Negative Body Image
Feeling uncomfortable in your body
Harsh self-criticism and shame
Preoccupation with appearance or size
Body Neutrality
Shifting focus from looks to function
Recognizing, “My body lets me walk, breathe, hug, and live.”
Accepting that you don’t have to love every part of your body to treat it with care
Body Respect & Body Acceptance
Meeting your body with care, regardless of appearance
Nourishing and resting your body because it deserves it
Building sustainable self-compassion instead of conditional acceptance
Body Positivity
Actively celebrating body diversity
Challenging beauty standards and embracing differences
Reframing your body as worthy of joy, pleasure, and representation
Wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, it’s important to remember: none of these points are about perfection. They’re about relationship. And like any relationship, it can evolve over time.
Shifting Toward Healing
Healing body image isn’t about “learning to love every part of yourself overnight.” It’s about building a kinder, more compassionate relationship with yourself over time.
Here are a few gentle starting points:
Notice your self-talk. When you catch harsh inner criticism, pause and ask, “Would I speak this way to a friend?”
Appreciate function over form. Your body allows you to breathe, laugh, hug, and move through the world. Gratitude for what your body does can soften how you feel about how it looks.
Build media literacy. Notice when images are edited or filtered and remember, comparison is unfair when the standard isn’t real.
Diversify your feed. Follow accounts that celebrate body diversity, recovery, and authenticity.
Call out diet culture. When you see media praising restriction or shaming bodies, recognize it as harmful messaging not truth.
Practice self-compassion. Healing begins with kindness towards yourself. This means meeting yourself with patience on the tough days, and reminding ourselves that our worth is not up for debate, no matter what the media tells you.
You’re Not Alone
If you struggle with body image, know this: you are far from alone. Many people carry the same quiet battle — but silence makes it heavier.
The more we name these pressures, challenge them, and support each other, the more freedom we can create.
Your worth is not defined by a number, a size, or a reflection. You deserve to live in your body without shame — and to meet yourself with the same compassion you’d offer anyone you love.
Healing starts when we stop punishing ourselves and start showing kindness to ourselves instead.