Is a Positive Body Image an Important part of Overall health and Well-being? Do you agree or disagree?
I strongly agree that positive body image is an important part of overall health and well-being.
Body Image is the perception a person has of their physical self-appearance, and the thoughts and feelings provoked from that perception.
On this basis, a positive body image is undoubtedly an important part of a person’s overall health and wellbeing. It determines how an individual perceives and views themselves, how they think they look. It determines how they feel towards themselves, how they respect their body and what actions they take with respect to the physical wellbeing of their body
Overall health comprises of five categories that include
cognitive,
spiritual,
social,
physical and
emotional health.
A person’s positive body image is essential to all five of these categories.
As an example of positive body image being necessary to maintain good cognitive health, a recent Brown University study illustrated that negative body image is attributed to diminishing cognitive health and one’s metal performance.
The Brown study showed that:
74.4 percent of ‘normal-weight’ women stated that they reflect negatively on their weight or appearance all of the time &
46 percent of men responded the same way,
despite both groups being classified as of normal weight.
As a result of this negative perception, their mental and cognitive performance diminished. This study outlined the negative effect that poor body image has on overall wellbeing & performance of an individual.
As a further example of positive body image being an important factor of overall health, is the effect a negative image has on an individual’s physicality and their maintaining of good ongoing physical health.