What real naked men and women look like

I suffer from body insecurities and always have done. I can look back at pictures of myself in my twenties and thirties and think how lovely I looked. Yet at the time I can remember feeling insecure and not confident at all. It is hard having good body confidence when the media shoves images of perfection in front of us daily. We see these gorgeous bodies and beautiful faces and it makes sense that we all end up feeling inferior.

The things is, we compare ourselves to often unattainable as well as UNREALISTIC images. I see so many young women who hate their bodies, I see many young people with eating disorders and a lot of self loathing to accompany that. The media is not helping.

I was lying in my bath this evening and was aware of the rolls of fat around my tummy area and felt distinctly annoyed at myself. I then began to challenge my thinking that my body is that awful and reminded myself that I too, am just another victim of the media onslaught portraying super human bodies that ooze perfection. I decided to look for images showing average bodies – something more comparable and that doesn’t completely destroy my self esteem.

Hope these help you too! (It took me HOURS to find natural, average images on the internet..that says a lot in itself). I reckon we need to honour and love our wonderful bodies, no matter what shape they are in.

Mandy X

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/01/real-mens-bodies-underwear-ads_n_5543693.html

https://www.underneathiam.com/

https://www.elephantjournal.com/2015/04/you-are-beautiful-natural-naked-body-images-nudity/

Author: Mandy Kloppers

Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.