Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Disturbed body image affects men too

Most research on body image relates to women. But a nice piece in the American Journal of Psychiatry shows that men are trying to achieve bodies that women don't actually want of them.

They worked with men from 3 different countries (culture is a very important driver in body image) and found that the men wanted about 12 pounds more muscle, which they thought was attractive to women. However, the women wanted normal looking men. The researchers suggest that maybe this mismatch is one of the reasons why men are increasingly using steroids.

Striving after unachievable goals just makes you unhappy.

What makes you happy? Here is a really good list from the Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing in Glasgow, drawing on sources such as Assen Alladin - a great cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who shows us the huge benefit we get from doing difficult work, and Diener and Seligman at the University of Illinois, who found that happy people developed and maintained their kinships and friendships. If you are finding you are not as happy as before, then meet up with a hypnotherapist and start work on getting happy.

www.carolinebrowntherapy.com

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