Family: You can’t pick them. Friends: You can pick them. That’s probably exactly why the majority of us would rather spend time with our girlfriends than our family members. Your family is the reason you are the person that you are. Your family helped you formulate your own opinions – especially of yourself. Your body image is directly related to how you were raised. Chances are, the more critical your mom was of your yo-yo dieting, the unhappier you are with your body. However, it is your friends that mold the way that you feel about yourself as an adult. Since you can’t your family, perhaps you should be a little more careful when you pick your friends.
Your parents are the first people to influence your life. Additionally, your mind is programmed to remember negative things more than positive things. This is a defense mechanism that works to ensure you remember those negative feelings so you can avoid them in the future. This is the reason why you remember your dad telling you that you aren’t exactly supermodel thin, or your mom telling you that you will just never have really great hair.
If you want to have a better image of your own body, you need to find friends that make you feel good about yourself. A recent study found that women who surround themselves with friends who appreciate their curves and body image feel much better about their own bodies. Friends who pay genuine compliments to you regarding how amazing you look are going to make you love your body. Friends who don’t make you love your body, on the other hand, aren’t good for your self-image. You may as well start spending time with your great aunt Shirley. The one who constantly tells you that when she was your age she was half your size, had a much perkier chest and must have been much happier than you are now.
