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Lesson 3 UST

Understanding the self care

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33 views

Lesson 3 UST

Understanding the self care

Uploaded by

markgabica17
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unpacking the Self

Lesson 3
Understanding the Self

The Physical Self

The Physical Self-concept this is the individual’s view/perception of themselves


in the areas of physical abilities and appearance. Physical ability includes concepts such
as physical strength and endurance, while appearance refers to attractiveness.

The Physical Self according to other’s perspective.

William James
- According to William James our body is a marvelous container and complex, it’s
our initial source of sensation and maintenance of personality. The body is a
essential tool of indwelling consciousness and good physical health.
Wilhelm Reich
- According to Reich the bodily organs plays a very important role in early
development of stages of a person’s life and he also stated that our Mind
and Body are one and our psychological process is a part of our physical
process.
Sigmund Freud
- The self and personality make the physical body its core of human experiences.

A. THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON BODY IMAGE

Society shapes us in many ways, possibly more than we realize, from our
interactions with society or the culture that we’re in shapes our body image and our
personal development.

In Buddhism a monk name Dalai Lama the 14th quoted “We human beings are
social beings” this saying means that we rely on one another for the survival of humanity
or our survival. Our survival depends on another human's efforts, we develop and learn
about the world around us through the filter of other people. These is our connections to
others and it’s not just our key to our survival, but also to our happiness and the success
of our careers.

Body image is both internal (personal) and external (society)


• How we perceive our bodies visually?
• How we feel about our physical appearance?
• How we & others think and talk to ourselves about our bodies?
• Our sense of how other people view our bodies?
Today’s Embedded Ideals that affect our Physical body

The Physical Body


- Life today sees image upon image of fashionably clad women, perfect skin, tiny
waist, ample breast, and protruding behinds all with a weight of no greater 59kg.
The same thing applies to men; having muscular body, a great taste in fashion,
perfect smile.

There are unrealistic images of beauty and some might say its photoshop, seeing
this image of models, celebrities and athletes that have our ideal body can gives us
positive & negative and a neutral remark on our physical self.
• Positive remarks include getting motivated to work out after seeing
the ideal body you want.
• Neutral remark includes you’re happy and confident with your
physical self even seeing your ideal body.
• Negative remark includes you feeling discomfort and a low self-
esteem with your physical self because you compared your body
with your ideal physical self.
The Media
- The images of perfection we see in films, television, and especially social media
are continually told to us that its attainable if we work out, eat healthy/diet, use
beauty products.
The media are powerful tools that reinforces and shapes cultural beliefs and
values, and while they may not be fully responsible for determining the standards for
physical attractiveness, they make escaping the barrage of images that might cause our self-
esteem to go down almost impossible.

Prejudice – Size
- Intolerance of body diversity has a lot to do with prejudice of size and shape in our
culture. Being thin, toned, and muscular has become associated with the hard-
working, successful, popular, beautiful, strong, and the disciplined and being fat is
associated with lazy, ugly, weak, and lacking in will-power. With this prejudice,
fat is not a description like being skinny or sexy it’s an indication of moral
character and we are conditioned to think that being fat is bad.

Those closest to us – Family and Friends


- We learn from other people, particularly those closest to us about the things that
are considered important. Friendships are particularly important in body image
development because we place high value in them, spends lots of time with our
friends and develop shared experiences, values, and beliefs.
Classrooms, dorms, public places, parties, and common rooms are often filled with
negative body talk: “I wish I had a flat stomach just like hers”, “I hate my thighs”, “I feel
fat”. Listening to this it tends to reinforce the need to focus on appearance and make
comparison between us and other people’s bodies.
So how can we build a strong and positive body image?

Positive body image involves understanding that healthy attractive bodies


come in many shapes and sizes, and that physical appearance says very little about
our character or value as a person.
How we get to this point of acceptance often depends on our individual
development and self-acceptance. To get to that all importance balance, there are a
few steps we can take:
• Use the media. All media and messages are developed or
constructed and are not reflections of reality. So, shout back.
Speak our dissatisfaction with the focus on appearance and lack
of size acceptance;
• De-emphasized numbers. Kilograms on a scale does not tell us
anything meaningful about the body as a whole or our health.
Eating habits and activity patterns are much more important;
• Realize that we cannot change our body type: thin, large, short,
or tall, we need to appreciate the uniqueness of what we have
and work with it;
• Stop comparing ourselves to others. We are unique and we
can’t get a sense of our own body’s needs and abilities by
comparing it to someone else;
• We need to move and enjoy our bodies not because we have to,
but because it makes us feel good. Walking, swimming, biking,
and dancing—there is something for everyone;
• Spend time with people who have a healthy relationship with
food, activity, and their bodies;
• Question the degree to which self-esteem depends on our
appearance. If we base our happiness on how we look, it is
likely to lead us to failure and frustration, and may prevent us
from finding true happiness;
• Broaden our perspective about health and beauty by reading
about body image, cultural variances, or media influence.
Check out a local art gallery paying particular attention to fine
art collections that show a variety of body types throughout the
ages and in different cultures; and
• Recognize that size prejudice is a form of discrimination similar
to other forms of discrimination. Shape and size are not
indicators of character, morality, intelligence, or success.

Each of us will have positive body image when we have realistic perception
of our bodies when we enjoy, accept, and celebrate how we are and let go of
negative societal or media perpetuated conditioning.
The media and the society are not all bad. As with most things, with the
bad, comes the potential for good. People all over the world are waking up to
negativity and conditioning that we are bombarded daily.
If not for this awakening, we would not have initiatives like Live Life, Get
Active; where awakening ourselves to a healthy and fulfilled life is at the core of
what we do.

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