_{^{Photo by Polina Tankilevitch}}

There’s nothing harder than hating yourself after going through traumatic experiences. Some unfortunate events include the lack of will to live, deep-seated disgust, and the mental cage that is not so easy to escape. Thankfully, there are ways to seek help and eventually learn to love your body.

The path to recovery after severing your relationship with your body can be very tough and unimaginable. Whether it’s from an eating disorder, surgical scars, congenital disabilities, or physical and verbal abuse, the way, you see yourself will more or less be shaped by your individual traumatic experiences.

The seeds of self-doubt are planted within you, and we don’t know how to deal with it. That’s where the damnation begins. It creeps into your brain, affecting your thoughts, emotions, and actions. You suddenly live by the narrative that you are not beautiful enough according to the world’s standards. You feel unlovable because of what you look like, and it’s an unending cycle of self-hate that eats you up.

The Struggle With Rebuilding Yourself

You might often feel unsettled with your body every time you look at it or feel imaginary gazes you came up with in your head. You feel disappointment and frustration because you tend to compare yourself to others, even with their struggles and trauma. Even so, that is not easy to overcome and takes a long time to heal.

Self-assurance with your body is the first but hardest stage in enhancing your outlook towards yourself. You don’t just wake up one day and think that you already love yourself because this is a lifelong struggle of constantly getting away from the grasp of self-loathing. There are ways to recover from body image issues, and these steps may be easier said than done, but it wouldn’t hurt to do yourself a favor.

Be Kinder to Yourself Everyday

Filling words of affirmation every chance you get is one of the best things you do for yourself. Words work like a double-edged sword, so depending on your choice, you can call yourself out when you dip into self-hate and neglect your body. If you want to love your body and its flaws, challenge yourself to trust that you are a beautiful person inside and out. Fortify your heart and mind not to let any negativity ruin what you have. If necessary, you may try apologizing to yourself for all the harshness you’ve caused. Make an effort to shift your relationship with your body and remind yourself continually that you are enough and you are an empowered person.

It’s understandable how verbal abuse takes a toll on a person and affects self-perception, especially if it’s physical. There is a book about the inner self from a lifetime of verbal abuse that you can try reading for an extra boost and insights that will help you gain back your self-confidence.

Take Out the Trash

When you wake up for the weekly trash collection, do you sort out the necessary categories? Do you still look for anything valuable before throwing them away? If not, the same idea should work when taking out the garbage thoughts, actions, words, and other reminders of the times you hated your body image.

It’s easy to absorb the things we see online that define our perception of beauty standards. The harmful part is when you accept these ridiculous standards subconsciously and apply them to yourself as you look in the mirror. Limit the time you spend there and take action to be better at self-acceptance, which is why you should erase anything that takes up the corners of your mind so you can be in a better headspace.

Always Seek Help

This is the most challenging step for someone who’s been through trauma or abuse, even the ones that are self-inflicted. It’s that feeling you don’t feel safe; the kind of self-hatred that makes you project on others. Eating disorders are also things that you should take into consideration. If you think you are suffering from those, you should seek help with someone who can assess your condition and provide treatment. That way, you won’t have to fight this battle alone.