Kindness and Body Image

This video primarily addresses Kindness to others,
but Kindness to oneself is also important,
and is helpful in resolving body image problems.

Before my successful weight-loss I learned to have
compassion for the unwanted parts of myself,
and gained willingness to appreciate myself as lovable
even with my imperfections.

Research exists which shows that as body perception improves,
women are better able to self-regulate their eating, and lose weight.

Dr. Pedro Teixeira, from the Technical University of Lisbon,
who led such a research project, said:

“Body image problems are very common amongst overweight
and obese people, often leading to comfort eating and more
rigid eating patterns, and are obstacles to losing weight.

“Our results showed a strong correlation between improvements
in body image, especially in reducing anxiety about other peoples’ opinions,
and positive changes in eating behavior.

“From this we believe that learning to relate to your body in healthier ways
is an important aspect of maintaining weight loss and should be addressed
in every weight control program.”

At a future time, I plan to write more about this issue, including a few things we can do 
to improve our personal body image.