October 15, 2006 11:44 pm

Mental Image

:note: Lacrimas Profundere – “My Velvet Little Darkness”

Someone posed this question on another site I read, and I was interested in discussing it here: Is your mental image of yourself better, about accurate, or worse than the truth?

I think my mental image of myself is better than the truth. I apparently still envision myself looking like I did when I was fifteen and weighed barely over a hundred pounds. My driver’s license said 108 for the longest time, to the point where I was embarrassed when people looked at it because I in no way weighed 108 any longer. My current driver’s license claims I weigh about 12 pounds less than I actually do. :blush: (Hence the running, of course.)

I know a lot of women look in the mirror and imagine themselves much heavier, or with more cellulite, or with less muscle. I look in the mirror and am shocked to see a shadow under my tummy, dimples on my thighs, a double chin. It’s disconcerting. I also imagine my boobs to be much more, um, proportionate with my body than they actually are. In reality, they’re outrageous, and I haven’t yet figured out how to dress so they don’t look as such. In short, buxom would be a good word to describe me. I’ve always been curvy, I suppose, but now I’m a bit more so and my brain seems to be in denial.

So how about you? Is your image accurate? Why or why not?

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3 Comments

  • Lew says:

    For years my mental image was much much worse (one of the side-effects of clinical depression) but now my body has started to catch up and slowly synching up, which is a concern. So, like you and your jogging, I’m trying to do something about it. Interesting thing to think about though.

  • Elea says:

    I suppose my mental image is much worse. I think I’ve changed a bit in appearance in the last few years, and yet am stuck in thinking of myself in awkward teenage mode. Plus, I feel as if my mental image would reflect my mood, and often times when I’m feeling really crappy, I ironically look pretty together.

  • Claire says:

    For some reason, my mental image of me is always better than the reality, like when I picture myself doing/wearing something, I’m always brought back down to Earth with a THUD when I catch my reflection/see photos etc.

    I don’t picture myself to be dramatically different, but I’m always shocked to see just how pasty/ill I look without make-up and how goofy/cheesy I look when smiling/laughing etc… In my head, it’s infinitely better/sweeter/cuter LOL