After writing about narcissus whose issue was fatally falling in love with himself. What if, you don’t like what is staring back at you when you look into a mirror? What if, the person you see in the mirror makes you feel uncomfortable? It makes you want to change just that one thing about your body, and sometimes many things.

National eating disorders collaboration defines Body image as a combination of the thoughts and feelings that you have about your body.

The way you see your body is the perceptual body image, which is often not accurate representation of your body. Eg. One takes a picture and feels that they looker heavier than they actually are.

Affective body image is how you feel about your body, feelings associated can be positive like satisfaction or negative like disgust.

Cognitive body image is how you think about your body, which can look like obsession with your body shape and weight.

Behavioural body image includes the behaviors you engage in to make yourself feel better about your body.

Research suggests that women are more likely to have body image issues, it’s understandable as the historical pattern indicates that women are supposed to be looked at, they are told by the society to be pretty, to be beautiful. It’s a losing battle not only for women but also for society. The society loose upon so much potential, when half the population can only contribute by being pretty.

What is even more absurd is, that what is beautiful, is changing through the years. And now it’s changing like seasons. How are you suppose to have an hour glass figure in January 2022, when straight athletic figure was desirable in Nov 2021. How are you suppose to change your bone structure?? And why you have to give in to this demand to be what is desirable. Desirable to who??

Aren’t we more than just our bodies, more than what we look like?

Not just women, men too struggle with body image issues, they obsess about how much muscle they have, putting their body through steroids, harsh diets. They too obsess about their weight and calories they consume.

Maintaining a healthy, functioning body is essential for our existence, getting enough rest, nutrition, sunlight, exercise and distressing on consistent basis is important and their is no argument against having a healthy vessel.

Yet it is just part of who we are, beings with counsiousness, intellect, creative force, we are much more than how our body is aesthetically. And anyways who decides what is aesthetically pleasing and what is not?? And who made them the decider??

This is the wish today, that we intelligent and unique creatures, could find a goal other than  weight and inches.

And we could find our worth in things other than appearances, not just in ourselves but also in others.