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In the age of weight loss drugs, Instagram face and an endless scroll of Facetuned bodies, it can be difficult to love how your body looks. But what if you could change the way you think about your body?
Psychologist Diana Hill, a specialist in acceptance and commitment therapy, helps her clients practice mental exercises rooted in "body image flexibility." It's a term from the field of psychology that describes the ability to cope with uncomfortable feelings about your looks. Body image flexibility doesn't require you to love how your body looks, or even feel neutral about it. It's more about what you do when you have negative thoughts about it. "How much energy and time are you putting into obsessing about [your looks] in the mirror versus engaging in your life and the things you care about?" Hill says.
Hill, co-author of ACT Daily Journal: Get Unstuck and Live Fully with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, shares exercises to help you stay present — and deal with the very real pressures we face to obsess about and alter our appearance. Focus your attention inward When you look in the mirror and all you can see is your nose, belly, acne or wrinkles, practice flexible attention. That means being mindful of negative thoughts about body image — and redirecting them.
