How to Stop Hating Photos of Yourself

Intuitive Eating

Jul 4

How do you feel when you see photos of yourself? Do you tend to focus on particular parts of your body? Do you always feel the impulse to edit a photo before posting? How do you feel when you get tagged in a photo that you didn’t “approve” of?

Seeing photos of yourself is difficult if you are struggling with poor body image thoughts. Let’s go over some tips that may help.

If you’re new here, hello and welcome! My name is Hannah and I am a non-diet dietitian here to help you improve your relationship with your food and finally find food freedom.

Bring awareness to the feeling

Identify what it is you are feeling. Is it shame? Anger? Sadness? Are you grieving a smaller body you once had? It is okay (and totally normal) to feel these feelings. Give yourself permission to simply feel them.

If you have been struggling with poor body image for a while, disliking photos of yourself may be a subconscious thing at this point. Your brain has been thinking this way for a while! Identify that you are having negative body image thoughts. Call them out. Remind yourself that these thoughts are not necessarily the reality.

Take time before reacting

Before immediately deleting the photo, editing it, or untagging yourself, take some time to reflect. Here are a few questions that you might ask yourself:

Do you notice anyone else in the photo, or are you only nitpicking yourself? How does the photo look as a whole?
What makes a photo “good”, worthy of being shared, or worthy of saving to the camera roll? Do these rules apply to others in the photo, or just you?
Where did you learn to feel this way about your body?
If you find yourself looking at one particular part of your body, intentionally zoom out and take note of other parts of the photo.
- Who else is there?
- What’s the “vibe”? Are you happy and smiling?
- What is the scenery?
- How did you feel while the photo was taken?
  - What was going on that day? Does the photo help you to remember a fun day? Some tasty food that you ate? A friend or family member that you miss?
If it is an old photo and your body has changed, what is it that you miss about that body? What would be different if you had the same body now?

Again, let yourself feel whatever you are feeling. Practice self compassion. Treat yourself with kindness and grace rather than beating yourself up. You might tell yourself something like, “It’s okay to feel sad. I’ll get through this”.

Another way to think about it is to consider what you would tell a friend that expressed not liking how they look in a photo. Treat yourself as you would treat that friend.

how to stop hating photos of yourself dietitian hannah

Ask yourself who are you posting for

What are the benefits of posting this photo or keeping it in your camera roll? Will it serve as a nice reminder of this day? Are your kids in the photo and you want to save it to look back on as they grow up? There are likely so many reasons to save the photo, even if you dislike how you happen to look.

If you do choose to post, remember that people likely are not going to notice what you are noticing. And if they do and choose to criticize you, that’s on them!

Don’t be afraid to show up as your authentic self. People who have a similar body type as you may feel like there is more room for them when you share photos of yourself. You may unintentionally be doing a favor to them!

Reconsider before editing

In this day and age, it is the norm to edit a photo to “perfection” before posting. This has caused many of us to have a skewed perception of what a real-life human looks like.

Before applying filters or using photoshop, consider how editing make you feel about your real life body. Will editing make you feel even worse about the body you are currently living in?

Remember that it is just a photo

Have you ever tried to take a photo of a beautiful sunset only for the picture to not come out at all how you are seeing it? You are the sunset in this situation! You have beauty that a camera could never fully capture.

The camera cannot full display everything about the moment, including who all was there, the emotions and how you felt, the weather that day, the delicious food you tasted, etc.

At the end of the day, try to remember that a photo is just a photo. A photo says nothing about your worth. The way your body looks says nothing about your worth.

Exposure therapy

It may help to repeatedly look at old photos of yourself as a form of exposure therapy. Routine exposure may help you to react more positively to photos of yourself.

Take photos of yourself in your current body, too! Wear an outfit that you love and take some self portraits or have a photo shoot with a close friend.

Continue to remind yourself that bodies are meant to change. You will grow and change, including physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so many different times throughout your life.

Bottom line

If your body has changed or you struggle with body image, seeing photos of yourself may feel really difficult. Acknowledge how you are feeling and give yourself lots of grace. Hopefully trying a few of the practices in this blog can help you to feel more confident (or even just neutral, because we won’t always love how our body looks and that’s okay) when looking at pictures that you are in.

Did you find this post helpful? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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