A Self Obsessed World…

In Western society we are rewarded for being good looking, athletic, intelligent, famous and for being rich.

When we are these things we receive lots of attention and they have the ability to make us feel loved, worthy and valued amongst our peers (we may even get thousands of followers on social media! lol).

You only have to read magazines, look at the shops on our high streets, and scroll through your social media news feed to see how many people are constantly looking to enhance their self image!

We are lead to believe that if we look good and are successful it will make us happy… but is this reality true?

Who do you think is happier????

Person A – This guy has a chiseled 6 pack, and big muscles – he looks super healthy, confident and has the perfect body!

Person B – This guy is overweight and out of shape! He looks as though he lacks confidence.

Who do you think is happier ‘A’ or ‘B’?

Now this may appear to be an obvious question, I mean if we base our answer on visual appearance alone… it’s obviously ‘A’ right?

This common observation however is riddled with flaws as we will find out…

Outside appearances can be deceiving…

8% Bodyfat and a 6 Pack…

Speaking from my own personal experience… once upon a time I was 8% body fat – that basically meant I was very lean and had a 6 pack!

But guess what? it was also a time when I was the most unhappiest and most insecure about my body image. No matter how good I looked, I always noticed my flaws… that tiny bit of fat still left on my stomach!

It didn’t help that I would constantly compare myself to the airbrushed fitness models that I followed on Instagram! No matter how good I looked I just couldn’t win and I was never happy with my image!

It took me along time to realise this and actually caused me a lot of problems with regards to my relationships with food…

For example I would get super lean thinking i’d be happy when I got  abs, but then when I got there I still felt unfulfilled…So then I’d cover my unhappiness by binge eating like Augustus Gloop, stuffing my face with pizza and chocolate until I felt sick! Obviously this made me gain weight, lose my abs and left me feeling miserable again!

So then what did I do?

Try and get lean again! It was a vicious cycle.

Ironically it took me a long time to learn my lesson, in fact I repeated this type of pattern for years! It’s also something I see with yo-yo dieters.

One thing i’ve learned is that there is very little correlation between a good body image and internal happiness, unless you have already addressed the issues for your unhappiness in the first place.

If all you are focusing on is the outside then all you are really doing is masking the real issues within and a good outside appearance will not solve that.

Start from the Inside and work out…

From my own experience I realised that my unhappiness had nothing to do with my body but everything to do with me.

I had to go deep inside and re-build. Rather than looking for external things to make me happy, I had to build a loving relationship with myself and work on my own self-esteem.

For those of you who can relate to this article, instead of working solely on your body and outside appearance…

Work on your mind, and learn to build a loving relationship with yourself.

Start to question your motives and develop your own ‘self awareness’.

Ask yourself…

Are you leading the life that you truly want? or are you leading a life to try and impress others?

Become a philosopher and explorer of your own mind, body and spirit.

There’s nothing wrong with working on the outside, after all it’s important to be fit and healthy – so we can live longer and have more energy! But by the same token it’s far more important to work on the inside version of you.

I can also 100% guarantee that when you work on the inside first… all of the outside stuff falls into place anyway!

Nick 🙂