Do you smile when you look in the mirror?

The July 2008 Psychologies Magazine includes a supplement called “Get Body Confident”.  It includes 100 “techniques, ideas and inspirations” aimed at helping us smile when we look in the mirror.

Interestingly, the Editor – Maureen Rice - talks about our emotions (such as the way we feel about our bodies), affecting our thoughts.  This is quite different to the Martha Beck model discussed in a previous blog about our thoughts being the root cause of all behaviour.  However, Maureen explains that the chain of cause and effect works in both directions.  I.e.  Our emotions affect our thoughts, which affect our actions, which affect our emotions and so on.  A cycle that as we know, once on is hard to get off!

Based on research from the Social Issues Research Centre (www.sirc.co.uk), tip number 26 explains that women feel more dissatisfied with their bodies during the pre-menstrual phase (the 2 weeks before your period).

I feel relieved I’ve read this!

I know personally, every now and again I’ll have a week where I feel totally frumpy and clothes I thought really suited me the week before look totally wrong.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this correlated with my cycles.

Hmmm… and I thought my clothes must have somehow changed shape!!

For more research findings on what we see and how we feel when we look in the mirror take a look here… http://www.sirc.org/publik/mirror.html