It’s not that they are bad - it’s that we think they're bad and we judge the heck out of them -- and they can most likely send us spiraling into body image thoughts with lots of shame and judgement. So we would like to share how to cope with them so they don’t take you down. Here's a worksheet you can download to help you with the process. http://bit.ly/tblsbadphotos

We have all had those days when you are going about your life- maybe scrolling on social media, you see a memory/ timeline share on Facebook, or you're going through your camera roll on your phone and BAM you see a photo that makes your stomach drop followed by lots of judgement and mean comments about yourself.

You zero in on the photo and pick apart every body part that you don’t like, every squish, everything… and that may lead you into a spiral of catastrophic thinking…

You start to think you need to lose weight, if you should start a diet, what you should stop eating, how you can start exercising more… it never ends.

So here’s how we want to help you cope.

 

We want to give you a 3 step process to use when dealing with bad photos

Acknowledge and validate Acknowledge & validate your feelings. It's okay to have the feelings you have.

Zoom Out Get a birds eye view of what is actually happening - noticing what's around you.

Gratitude What are you grateful for?

 

STEP 1: Acknowledge and validate your feelings- It's okay to initially have these feelings- it's what you do with these feelings that matter.

STEP 2: "Zoom Out" - What is actually happening in this photo other than what your body looks like? Are you having fun? Are you creating memories? Is there anything special about this day in this photo? What can you notice?

STEP 3: Snapping yourself out of body thoughts and into your present life can bring you from judgement to gratitude- What are 2-5 things that you feel grateful for when you shifted your body image thoughts and "Zoomed Out" instead?

 

A couple more helpful tips....

Stop the urges to dive deeper into catastrophic thinking. Wanting to go compare your old pictures to how you look now? STOP! Want to take a picture of yourself in those old jeans to see how they look? STOP!

Stopping yourself from getting deeper is very important. When you’re in a moment of freak out over a picture of yourself, step away and go do something else, diving in deeper will not help anything.

BE GENTLE AND COMPASSIONATE WITH YOURSELF.

Love, Lauren and Jenna