Helping Kids Feel Great About Themselves

A project that I have worked on for a long time now that is very special to me is my positive body and self-image mentoring program Self-ValYOU!

About three years ago I was really struggling with my fitness and wanted to lose weight and was down on myself, I would think negatively and sometimes say negative things about myself. One day I had a really bad day in P.E., I couldn’t run the mile, and in the locker room afterward this girl I was friends with who was super fit and healthy was talking about how fat she was. I was embarrassed and mad because it felt weird to hear someone say that right in front of me and I was self-conscious about myself and I was mad at her for saying that when she was not fat at all.

It was sort of like a light bulb went off for me because that was the day I decided I had to make changes and get healthy and so I talked to my mom and dad about it and started eating better and training. But the other thing that happened was that along the way I realized what I had been doing and what that other girl had been doing. It was negative self talk and we were doing it to try to get other people to make us feel better about ourselves by saying things like “no you aren’t” instead of us having a positive self image on our own. I have done a lot of reading and learning about this since then. As many as 93% of young women use “fat talk” like what I heard that day. Negative body image is a big health problem for teens and young adults. It is one of the top clinical predictors of depression, eating disorders, and suicidal thoughts.

So, I started changing how I think. It is a process. If I catch myself being negative I do three things: first I figure out “Y” I feel like I do or are thinking or saying something negative. You have to figure out what is making you feel bad or you can’t deal with it. Then I pick one option, I either take an “O”fframp and get my mind off of it and change the subject and stop myself and move on. Or I do a “U” turn and say what I was starting to say in a positive way. So instead of saying “ugh I’m never going to stick the landing on these turns” I make myself see the positive like, a year ago I couldn’t even do these turns, look how far I’ve come!

Get it, Self-ValYOU! You have to value yourself enough to put off positive energy. I still have good days and bad days like everyone else but I have gotten a LOT better about having a positive outlook. I feel better and it comes through in lots of things, my grades, my dancing, my relationships with my friends, everything!! Positive thinking gets positive results.

I would love it if you follow along with my project! You can find my blog for it on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SelfValYOU/ and on Instagram at “selfvalyou.”