Using Your Values to Develop Positive Body Image

We are spending a few weeks exploring how to attain and maintain a positive body image, and how to care for your body in a way that actually contributes to your mental wellness.

So far we have explored the realities that social media and your upbringing play into how you view and care for your body. Today we get to start being proactive!

What if you stopped making how you approach nutrition and fitness about achieving any particular body size or shape, and instead started truly making it about the type of person you want to be?

The answer: it would dramatically shift how you care for your body and think about your body, in the most amazing and wonderful way!

What we are talking about is your values. Connecting with them, knowing them, and leading with them.

Let’s dive in and see what this is all about.

First: what are values?

Values are your heart’s deepest desires for how you want to behave as a human being.

They describe how you want to treat yourself, others, and the world around you.

Another way to think about your values is to think of qualities you want to bring to your actions, right now in this moment, and on an ongoing basis.

And yet another way to think about your values is to think of what you want to put out into the world:

How do you want to show up?
What do you want people to feel when you are with them?
How do you want to feel after you leave an interaction?
How do you want to feel about the work that you put in and the way that you approach your goals?
How do you want to feel about how you spent your day when you put your head on the pillow?
What do you want others to be able to say about you?

How are values different from goals?

Values and goals are actually quite different, and it’s helpful to understand how they differ.

Your goals can be thought of as: what I want to complete, achieve, have, or own.

Goals sound like:

I want to get a college degree
I want to travel the world
I want to get married and have a family

Values, on the other hand, have more to do with what you want to stand for and desired personal qualities.

Values sound like:

I want to be kind
I want to be present
I want to be confident

How can you discover or uncover your values?

You probably already have a sense of what you value most deeply and how you want to be in the world, but it’s always helpful to spend a few minutes and really dial in on your values!

Once you’re clear about your values, you can then strive to keep them front and center as you approach everything you do, so it’s worth it to spend the time!

You can print a values exercise by clicking the link below, or you can refer to the list below and see if you can find the top three or so values that you hold closest to your heart.

Abundance
Acceptance
Accountability
Achievement
Adventure
Advocacy
Ambition
Appreciation
Attractiveness
Autonomy
Balance
Being the Best
Benevolence
Boldness
Brilliance
Calmness
Caring
Challenge
Charity
Cheerfulness
Cleverness
Community
Commitment
Compassion
Cooperation
Collaboration
Consistency
Contribution
Creativity
Credibility
Curiosity
Daring
Decisiveness
Dedication
Dependability
Diversity
Empathy
Encouragement
Enthusiasm
Ethics
Excellence
Expressiveness
Fairness
Family
Friendships
Flexibility
Freedom
Fun
Generosity
Grace
Growth
Happiness
Health
Honesty
Hope
Humility
Humor
Inclusiveness
Independence
Individuality
Innovation
Inspiration
Intelligence
Intuition
Joy
Kindness
Knowledge
Leadership
Learning
Love
Loyalty
Making a Difference
Mindfulness
Motivation
Optimism
Open-Mindedness
Originality
Passion
Performance
Personal Development
Professionalism
Quality
Recognition
Risk Taking
Safety
Security
Service
Spirituality
Stability
Peace
Perfection
Playfulness
Popularity
Power
Preparedness
Proactivity
Professionalism
Punctuality
Relationships
Reliability
Resilience
Resourcefulness
Responsibility
Responsiveness
Security
Self-Control
Selflessness
Simplicity
Stability
Success
Teamwork
Thankfulness
Thoughtfulness
Traditionalism
Trustworthiness
Understanding
Uniqueness
Usefulness
Versatility
Vision
Warmth
Wealth
Well-Being
Wisdom
Zeal

So how can your values contribute to a healthy body image and body self-care?

First, let’s just consider some values that might contribute to a positive body image:

Values that might play a part in body image

Accepting
Caring/self caring
Compassionate/self compassionate
Encouraging
Flexible
Kind
Loving
Mindful
Committed

So, once you have defined your values, you can then create some “I am the kind of person who” statements!

This is where it gets good, and where you can really see how your values can support your mental wellness overall!

When you embrace your values, you can begin to deeply connect with the actions that support those values.

You can begin to think “I am the kind of person values (insert value), and so I (insert action).”

Let’s look at some “I am the kind of person who” examples.

“I am the kind of person who values compassion, and for that reason I am kind to my body and kind in how I talk about my body.”
“I am someone who values health and longevity, so for that reason I choose to prioritize fitness and fueling my body well.”
“I deeply value being a caring person and for that reason I take care of my fitness and nutrition and rest so I have the right energy and am present when I am with others.”
“I value peace, and so I choose not to battle with my body but instead treat it with kindness.”

Are you getting the idea?

When you know your values and choose to lead with them, there’s no end to how you can shift how you live in this world!

Take some time this week to devote to figuring out your values. Give yourself the gift of connecting with what matters the most to you and how you want to show up in the world.

What else can you do with your values when it comes to your body image and self care? Check out next week’s post for how you can begin to embrace values-based self care.