Wednesday, 6 April 2016

Body Confidence And Learning To Embrace Scars Research

"A healthy body image leads to a healthy self-esteem and self-confidence. However, the opposite is also true. An unhealthy body image often contributes to low-self esteem, a negative self-worth and a lack of confidence. Often, scars cause a person to have a negative body image. When these scars are in a prominent location, especially the face, they can lead to even more problems with self-confidence. First impressions are largely based on looks, and if a person feels self-conscious about his or her appearance, it can make him or her more timid. A person will feel as though other people only see their scars, and believe it affects their attractiveness and ability to make friends.

Scarring also often leads to feelings of depression, which also affects a person’s self-worth and confidence. If the scar came from a traumatic event, there could also be some lingering emotions and feelings associated with that event. Other feelings may be associated the scar, including shame and embarrassment, that also affect a person’s confidence."

http://scarsandspots.com/scars-self-esteem/


"Most people have at least one scar on their body and luckily, for the majority of us, it does not cause any real upset. However, through my work at the Wound Healing Research Unit, I am in contact with people who find that living with a scar is more of a problem to them. It's not just the person who has the scar(s) but also the family and friends who are affected.

One thing that has become very clear to me is that there are a wide range of things which influence how we feel about scars, including the location of the scar, our age and sex and how the scar occurred. Facial scars can be very distressing but other less visible scars can also be very upsetting.

Society places a great deal of importance on how we look. While scars are considered desirable in some societies and may even be inflicted deliberately, in the majority of cultures this is not the case. Often the "bad" character in a film is portrayed as having facial scarring which highlights the fact that our society not only views scars as undesirable but also perpetuates the myth that those with scars are likely to be less than pleasant people.

If we feel that people are reacting differently to us because we have a scar, it can cause embarrassment and a lack of self-confidence; some people eventually feel angry and isolated as a result of such experiences."

http://www.smith-nephew.com/awm/scar-info/psychology-of-scars/


"Beauty is a concept I struggle with—what it means, why it matters. I struggle because huge chunks of my life have not been beautiful. They have been ugly, marred by trauma, with pain, and anger.

We think of beauty and often visualize glossy magazine pages and wafer thin models. We see beauty as superficial—eye color, hair texture, and numbers on a scale. We see beauty as something to be measured and weighed.

I don’t see beauty that way. I see beauty as the grace point between what hurts and what heals, between the shadow of tragedy and the light of joy. I find beauty in my scars.

We all have scars, inside and out. We have freckles from sun exposure, emotional trigger points, broken bones, and broken hearts.

However our scars manifest, we need not feel ashamed but beautiful.

It is beautiful to have lived, really lived, and to have the marks to prove it. It’s not a competition—as in “My scar is better than your scar”—but it’s a testament of our inner strength.

It takes nothing to wear a snazzy outfit well, but to wear our scars like diamonds? Now that is beautiful.

Fifteen years ago, I would have laughed at this assertion.

“Are you crazy?” I’d say, while applying lipstick before bed. I was that insecure, lips stained, hair fried by a straightening iron, pores clogged by residue foundation, all in an attempt to be different from how I naturally was, to be beautiful for someone else.

I covered my face to hide because it hurt to look at myself in the mirror. I was afraid my unbeautiful truth would show somehow through my skin—that people would know I had been abused, that I as a result was starving myself, harming myself in an effort to cope. I was afraid people would see that I was clinging to life by a shredding thread.

Now? I see scars and I see stories. I see a being who has lived, who has depth, who is a survivor. Living is beautiful. Being a part of this world is beautiful, smile-worthy, despite the tears.

Beauty isn’t a hidden folder full of Kate Moss images for a kid dying to forget and fit in, a lifted face, a fat injected smile, or six-pack abs. It is the smile we are born with, the smile that sources from the divine inside, the smile that can endure, even if we’ve been through a lot.
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