Body image refers to our beliefs and feelings about how our bodies look and function. Our body image is influenced by our family, our friends, the media and society in general. It's heavily influenced by what we think we "should" look like in order to be attractive and how we think our bodies should "perform." Many of us-both males and females-are not satisfied with our bodies, and our body image is often not a true reflection of how our bodies actually are.
Having a poor body image can affect a person's sexuality in many ways. Here are just a few:
- It can make us settle for unsuitable partners and unhealthy relationships because we don't think we deserve to be treated with kindness and respect.
- It can make us use sex as a way of feeling "good enough."
- It can lead us to take sexual risks in order to feel desirable.
- It can interfere with pleasure by bringing up feelings of inadequacy and shame.
- It can make us waste a lot of time, effort and money trying to be something we're not, while neglecting our own special gifts.
We can enjoy our sexuality a lot more if we work on improving our body image. We can start by giving ourselves positive messages about our bodies and learning to appreciate them as they are instead of putting them down.
Take the first step!
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