Always Feel Comfortable in Your Body

Translated by AI

We live in an age where everyone is obsessed with fitness and weight loss. Various strength training sessions, weight loss clinics, and even disciplines such as Pilates—originating from Germany for rehabilitation and muscle control—and yoga from India, increasingly focus on body toning.

Body Image Labels: Does Practicing Yoga Mean Having a Great Figure?

Indian yoga, practiced for centuries, has recently become a trendy exercise option. It uses different poses to strengthen muscles and tone bodies. Social media often showcases a "yoga fashion" style, displaying pictures of lean, proportioned bodies in tight-fitting yoga wear. Even if the connection between "yoga" and "physique" is not emphasized, many automatically link the two—"yoga practitioners = great figures." In some countries, certain yoga apparel brands produce extremely small sizes, sparking comments like, "I must lose weight first to fit into these clothes before I can practice yoga!"

Societal Beauty Standards and Their Impact on Self-Perception

In Taiwan, there is a prevailing belief that thinness equates to health and beauty. Slim women seem to benefit more socially than those with fuller figures, a stigma reinforced by Japanese and Korean celebrity culture, especially among younger demographics. People internalize celebrity aesthetics, pursuing thinner body profiles. Even without consciously adopting a celebrity's body standards, current fashion trends—the likes of cropped tops, tank tops, or fitted skirts—often unwittingly push individuals into society's aesthetic frameworks.

Even twins are not exact replicas in features or figures. Everyone is unique; why then conform to uniform aesthetic standards?

Fitness Fever Reflects Possible Collective Body Anxiety

Body image relies on comparison; without it, there's no harm. When it seems like most strive toward an ideal body, invisible pressure pushes conformity. Failing to meet expectations stirs anxiety—a discomfort marked by unease, fear, and worry—affecting mental and physical health profoundly. When rooted in one's physique, it's labeled "body anxiety."

Those suffering from body anxiety often weigh appearance as critical to self-worth, finding it hard to be content—even when others find no fault. Relaxation in exercise or diet can evoke significant stress, pressuring stricter diet controls or intense workouts. This pressure severely impacts the body and mind over time, leading to low self-esteem, endocrine disorders, and nutritional imbalances.

Some resort to drastic methods to adhere to societal beauty standards, such as excessive dieting, extreme eating regimens, or rigorous workouts. Though quick results may follow, they're prone to rebound owing to nature's balance. Radical approaches are short-term fixes, imposing strain on the body, prompting binge-eating and weight regain during vulnerable states, forming a vicious cycle.

Others overly engage in exercise to burn more calories, overlooking rest's importance. Overtraining harms the body, raising blood pressure and risking cardiovascular damage, while overused muscles face potentially fatal rhabdomyolysis.

Be it diet control or workout routines, sustainable and steady practices ensure healthy weight loss and long-lasting fitness.

Yoga's Essence—Unity

Yoga's ultimate goal is "unity"—merging inner and outer, spirit and nature, ego and higher self, soul and universe. Through physical practice, it refines the mind and spirit, attaining balance. Many venture into yoga for physique sculpting, underrating its true benefits. A fit body is just a by-product!

Aim to Do Your Best

In yoga classes, my favorite phrase, "do your best," profoundly reinforces everyone as individual entities, eliminating the need for universal standards. Across different family history, life experiences, and physical conditions, meeting identical standards happens by chance; failing is normal! Yoga steers us from external pursuits to internal discovery, comparing with "self," not others.

As Lao Tzu noted, "Knowing others is intelligence; knowing oneself is true wisdom." Understanding one's state is profound wisdom; "doing your best" embodies this realization.

Shifting focus from without to within, every breath reconnects to self. Tense shoulders signal heavy responsibilities, protruding neck warns about forward focus ignoring present beauty, belly fat indicates emergency preparedness… Each attribute reflects living proof; acknowledging this shifts motivations from "society's aesthetic criteria" to "self-adjustment," loving every flaw, embracing authenticity. Accepting oneself sparks acceptance of others' growth, freeing the imposition of similar standards.

Love Yourself to Redefine "Beauty"

In yoga practice, we reach life's dynamic balance. Humanity imitates the moon's cyclic phases of full and empty. Acceptance of every state signifies self-love's inception. Body and mind intertwine, valuing life's varied forms reclaims beauty standards to individuals. Beauty, as you define it!