What is Self Image in Psychology?

What is The Meaning of Self Image in Psychology? How Do We Improve it?

An individual’s self-concept is the core of his personality. It affects every aspect of human behavior: the ability to learn, the capacity to grow and change. A strong, positive self image is the best possible preparation for success in life. The “self image” is the key to human personality and human behavior. “Self Image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment”

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Why Are Self-Esteem and Body Image Important?

Self-esteem is all about how much people value themselves, the pride they feel in themselves, and how worthwhile they feel. Self-esteem is important because feeling good about yourself can affect how you act. A person who has high self-esteem will make friends easily, is more in control of his or her behavior, and will enjoy life more. Body image is how someone feels about his or her own physical appearance.
For many people, especially those in their early teens, body image can be closely linked to self-esteem. That’s because as kids develop into teens, they care more about how others see them.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR SELF IMAGE?

Imagine what your life would be like if you were happy, successful and fulfilled. How would you feel? What would your life look like? What would you do? Well, this type of life is possible for you, me and everyone else who is blessed to live in a country where we can all pursue our dreams.

The only way you can achieve this unique combination of life’s greatest joys is if you focus on doing the things that will build your self image. If you don’t see yourself in a positive way, it will be virtually impossible to be happy, successful or fulfilled, let alone enjoy the combination of all three. Here are 5 ways you can build your self image: SELF IMAGE

1.Count Your Blessings

If you will focus on all the things you are truly blessed to have, rather than your problems and what you don’t have, you will be happier and have a better outlook on your life. This change in attitude will improve everything: your career, your relationships and your self image. Make a list of all the things you are truly blessed to have and review it daily. SELF IMAGE

2.Be a Person of Integrity

If you do things that you know you shouldn’t do, such as misleading, deceiving or outright lying to people, there is no way you can feel good about yourself. Whether it’s our culture or God’s moral imprint in our DNA, deep down inside we all know what’s right and wrong. Don’t ever allow yourself to be tempted to do what you know is wrong. There is no benefit you can gain to offset the damage your decision will make on your self image.SELF IMAGE

3.Make Good Decisions

“Success comes from a series of good decisions made over time, while failure comes from making a series of poor decisions over time.” When we make bad decisions, not only do we suffer the consequences, but also our bad decisions damage our self image. SELF IMAGE

4.Commit to Personal Growth

Start listening and reading self-improvement material to improve your self image. The more I learned about the things I could do to grow and develop myself as a person, the more inspired and motivated I became. As I began to implement all the lessons I learned, I started to feel better about my self image and the person I was becoming in the process. Let me encourage you to fill your mind with information that can help you grow and become the best person you can be. SELF IMAGE

5.Recognize and Reward Yourself

One of the things you should do is to recognize yourself for ALL your accomplishments, even the smallest of things. Yes, it always feels good when people are complimentary of the things we do, but in most cases people don’t even know all the little things we do. Stop looking for praise and words of encouragement from others and start giving them to yourself. SELF IMAGE

Why is Being Beautiful So Important?

We always, and everywhere, try to be beautiful, and in the process a mirror becomes more personal to us than we are to ourselves. The process of becoming beautiful and looking good is so rapid that what we become is just an outward us. Is being beautiful so important? Even now we see the most popular people not so good-looking, and the most beautiful people next door not so popular.

Does beauty really matter? Probably it does, particularly for people who have a dying preoccupation for the body and would go to any length to safeguard it. No wonder then, despite nearly thirty years of feminism, beauty industry is a multi-billion dollar a year business. Those who make money have a mind, and those who spend have forgotten they have it. SELF IMAGE

Goodness from Within Reflects on Our Expressions

Least do we realize that we would look the way we are, and an expression on our face is actually the reflection of what we are from within? We can camouflage the exterior, but what can we do about the interior. Our goodness or badness, generosity or animosity, or love or hatred, all show through our bodies. If we are good from within, our face reflects a mesmerizing state of goodness; if we are not, we clearly show it through our expressions. SELF IMAGE

Ageless Beauty Comes from Within

It is this body we always give a helping, and not to what lies beneath it. This way we only answer some deep-rooted anxieties in our psychology, and do not provide a solution to them. We keep on spinning answers for these anxieties, until we run out of them as we advance in age. Try as you might, you cannot camouflage old age. We fail to achieve ageless beauty. The reason being that we failed to recognize it when we were young. Ageless beauty, says Ayurveda, comes from within. SELF IMAGE

INNER BEAUTY VS OUTER BEAUTY

There are two types of beauty. There is inner beauty and there is outer beauty. People see these two types of beauty as very different from one another. A person that has outer beauty is typically someone that is considered physically attractive. He or she is usually considered to be skinny or average weight. Very rarely is a person that is overweight considered to be outwardly beautiful. If it is a woman, her hair and makeup should be flawless.

Whether her hair is short or long, blond or brunette doesn’t matter, but her hair is not out of place. Her makeup is perfect. Eye shadow, blush, mascara, all exactly the shade it should be and nothing out of place. Her wardrobe could come from the most highly paid designers, or from the resale shops and it wouldn’t matter. The way she wears those clothes is very attractive. She is always dressed very neatly. There is not a wrinkle on her, nor is there a hint of wear on her clothing. If she’s dressed in black, it’s the deepest black; nothing on her has faded to gray. SELF IMAGE

A person that has inner beauty is considered to be a good hearted person. He or she is always interested in helping others. Everything he or she does is for the good of someone else. He or she may focus on recycling and other “green” matters that will help to preserve the earth we all live on.

He or she may volunteer at local missions or hospitals in order to help others. He or she may be the person that everyone he or she knows turns to when they need advice or help through a hard time. He or she is usually reliable. If he or she says he or she is going to do something, you can bet that he or she will do it. He or she may not have outer beauty, but that is rarely focused on. SELF IMAGE

His or her inner beauty usually shines with such a light as to make the lack of outer beauty unrecognizable. It is possible to have both inner and outer beauty, though that is a truly rare find. Many that have outer beauty are so busy trying to keep it that they usually don’t think about the things a person with inner beauty may think about. Those with inner beauty are so busy trying to do good for others that they rarely think about themselves or when they do, their focus is not on how they can improve their outer appearance.

Beauty is a wonderful thing. Inner and outer beauty is something that people should work to achieve. Too much of any one thing is never good, but some of each is a definite positive.
Not only will you portray a positive and attractive appearance to others, but others will also appreciate you for all the good that you do for those in need.

HOW TO BUILDING SELF-CONFIDENCE IN YOU?

Identify the Cause for Your Lack of Self-Confidence

If you have fear that people will see your perceived shortcoming, you will find it difficult to assert yourself. Your shortcoming or vulnerability may have to do with your looks, your size, your perceived intelligence, your past, or your family experience. In building self-confidence, your first goal is to develop a realistic understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. You’ll have to take a difficult first step and look inside yourself to discover where and why you feel vulnerable.

Face Your Fear Head-On

To get started on your self-exploration, go to a quiet and comfortable place and think about the things that make you feel bad about yourself. These things could stem from your complexion, weight, a bad habit, a family secret, abusive behavior in your family, or a feeling of guilt over something you’ve done.
It can be painful to think about the root of your bad feelings, but it is healthy to root out something that is hidden deep inside and to work through it.

Once you have identified the things you feel bad or secretive about, you’ll need to determine what you can do to change them. Should you change your eating habits? Exercise? Read a self-help book?
Any action you take even the act of thinking about your problem is a step toward getting it out in the open and eventually healing.
Once you have a full understanding of your problem, your fear decreases. When the fear goes away, the hesitation goes away and you can and will start asserting yourself more.

Celebrate Your Strengths

It’s not enough to identify your weaknesses or your problem areas. You also have great aspects about yourself that you need to explore! You can start doing this by making a big list of things you have accomplished and the things you do well. Have you ever taken the time to explore your strengths?

You were born with some natural talent, whether you have discovered it or not. Do you always make people laugh? Are you artistic? Can you organize things? Do you navigate well? Do you remember names?
All of these traits are things that can become very valuable as you get older. They are skills that are absolutely essential in community organizations, in church, in college, and on the job. If you can do any of them well, you have traits to cherish!

Once you have taken the two steps above, identifying your vulnerability and identifying your greatness, you will start feeling an increase in your confidence. You decrease your anxiety by facing your fears, and you start liking yourself better by celebrating your natural strengths.

Change Your Behavior

Behavioral psychologists say that we can change our feelings by changing our behavior. For instance, some studies have shown that we become happier if we walk around with a smile on our faces. You can speed up your path to increased self- confidence by changing your behavior.

1. Try smiling more. This will help you fight off feelings of negativity.
2. Compliment others on their strengths. You’ll find that other people will return the favor and compliment you back. We all like to hear good things about ourselves!
3. Exercise and get enough sleep. Both of these behavioral traits improve our moods. You’ll feel better inside and outside and look better too!
4. Take time every night to plan for the next day. By planning ahead we avoid mistakes that make us feel bad about ourselves. Think through the next day to avoid minor malfunctions that could embarrass you.

Use a Third Person Approach

There is an interesting study that shows that there may be a trick to meeting our behavioral goals more quickly. The trick? Think about yourself in the third person as you evaluate your progress. The study measured the progress in two groups of people who were attempting to make a positive change in their lives. The people who participated in this study were divided into two groups.

One group was encouraged to think in the first person. The second group was encouraged to think of their progress from an outsider’s point of view. Interestingly, the participants who thought about themselves from an outsider’s perspective enjoyed a faster path to improvement. As you go through the process of improving your self image and increasing your self- confidence, try to think of yourself as a separate person. Picture yourself as a stranger who is on a path toward positive change. Be sure to celebrate this person’s accomplishments!

A CASE STUDY

There was a circle that was missing a piece. A large triangular wedge had been cut out of it. The circle wanted to be whole, with nothing missing, so it went looking for the missing piece. But because it was incomplete, it could only roll very slowly. It admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with the butterflies. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So, it left them all by the side of the road and kept searching.

Then one day it found a piece that fit exactly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole with nothing missing. It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll. But as a perfect circle, it rolled too fast to notice the flowers or to talk to the butterflies. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its missing piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away appreciating life again. Its the tiny flaws in a diamond that proves its value: You decide yourself about your self image.