Monthly Archives: February 2014

Understanding Your Body Image

Identity, Social Skills

People who focus on looks are often accused of being vain and shallow.  However, the wrong conclusion to draw from that is that you shouldn’t focus on looks because it makes you superficial: that’s not the whole story.  The full picture requires context (if a TV Show is looking for an actor with a certain look to play a part, it’s not shallow as much as trying to tell a story properly) and balance: If you focus on looks to the exclusion of all else, then you are imbalanced and more shallow than not, but if you use it as one of many possible metrics for judgment, then you remain balanced (A Time and Place for Judgement).  If you ignore it completely, that’s also an imbalance that isn’t good.

Taking care of your body image is tremendously important, because it influences how people treat you: whether you like the fact or not, it is still a fact that good looking people get treated better and have more advantages than less good looking people.  One example is of respect: it’s easier to command respect if you are well dressed than if you look sloppy and unkept.  You will lose a lot of time convincing people you are neat and organized that way; it is much more efficient to just show them you are–the communication is faster and more concrete and believable.  Research has also shown that psychologically, we make more positive assumptions about good looking people than not good looking people; if you make a mistake, we’ll forgive you quicker if you’re good looking than if you’re not.  If you don’t want to miss out on advantages in life, you should put some time and effort into your body image.

Some people use body image as a form of rebellion.  This is fine, I just want to say that silent rebellion is definitely the wrong way to do it: if you chose to look like something for a specific reason, nobody will know that reason unless you explain because no-one can read your mind.  If you don’t explain yourself, you are more likely going to disadvantage yourself in life, than succeed in making a protest or stand for something. (Manage Your Rebellion Intelligently)

You should also realize that body image is another form of identity (explained in Who Am I?), which means that what you think of your body is different from what each person you meet thinks of your body image.  Some will think you’re fat, others skinny, others normal.  You decide who to believe–no-one is objectively right or wrong, it’s a subjective opinion. You will also never be good looking to everyone, so don’t worry about it (in fact, it’s bad for dating if everyone thinks you’re cute: read the OK Cupid Study). Psychologically, who you think you are is heavily tied to who you were in your childhood, because that’s when you were forming your identity in the world: you can break free from that identity if you want, there’s no need to be trapped in the past.  You are constantly changing and you can guide that change if you want to.

An example of this is my story: I grew up poor and skinny from lack of food, so I never thought about or worried about being  overweight, because I figured I was underweight if anything.  However, life improved, I bought new clothes, then after a few years, I started exercising, and now none of my clothes fit–they are all two sizes too big.  This means my body image must have increased from skinny to normal, at least from the point of view to other people, but I personally never noticed.  Therefore, your body image identity to yourself really comes from within, not from what other people think or say, and what other people say only affect you if you let it–when people said I was loosing weight after I started exercising, I didn’t believe them because I didn’t think I could lose any more, but doctor’s records prove that I did.

Extra reading

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How to Become a Morning Person

Life Advice

Chances are, if you say you’re not a morning person, it’s probably because you wake up feeling bad; you’re cranky, slow, lethargic, etc.  Waking up this way doesn’t actually mean you’re not a morning person: it actually means you did not get a good night’s sleep.  It does not mean that you’re not born to be a morning person, so much as it means you have the habits and/or a lifestyle that results in you not getting enough hours of sleep.  This is typically due to going to bed late or not resting enough for how much you’ve been working.  You should be aware that if you had a particularly exhausting day, or series of days, then it may take several days of good sleep for you to recover–waking up tired is a sign that your body needs rest, not a sign that you’re not meant to wake up early.  

The solution is therefore to go to sleep earlier and get the rest that your body is telling you that you need.  Some people think this is an impossible task, but here’s one reason why it’s not: If you fly to another country in a different timezone, you may start off feeling horrible and jet lagged, but eventually, after days, weeks, months at most, you will adapt to the new timezone.

Adjusting your natural sleep and wake up time is like traveling to another timezone, without actually traveling: you need to shift your habits and decision making, and act like it’s 1AM when it’s 11PM. Instead of setting an alarm in the morning to forcefully interrupt your body’s resting period and wake up, set an alarm for 15 min before you want to go to sleep, and when that alarm rings, go into your pre-sleep routine, shutting down all distractions, and wind down the day to go to sleep.  This will allow you to wake up naturally, and improve your overall health.  I like to write down how many hours of sleep I get per day, so if I see a few days go by of not enough sleep, I’ll be sure to schedule in some more time for sleep to make up for it.  (Approximate sleep needs are: Adults, 7-9 hours; 10-17 yr olds, 8.5-9.25; 5-10 yr olds, 10-11 hours.  Try to sleep in 1.5 hour increments, as that’s how long your sleep cycles last, read more )

Getting to sleep early is difficult.  It is a battle between the short term gratification of staying up late and the desire for a healthy improved life.  Winning this battle has two stages, first you have to decide that sleep is a priority, so that given ideal circumstances and self control, you actually want to choose sleep over whatever fun options may be available. You have to want to become a morning person; the reason you want it can be anything, but the fact that you want it needs to be there.  Next, you use self awareness, will power, and self control to make the choice to sleep when the time comes.

In the end, modifying your routine and waking up early is worth it for several reasons: 1. because you’re getting enough sleep, you’re healthier, physically as well as mentally and emotionally.  2. You’re waking up naturally or very close to when you would wake up naturally, so you feel well rested instead of exhausted when you wake up.  3. On the rare days that you wake up unusually early, you get to jump start your day and be extremely productive before the time you or anyone else is usually awake.  It also comes with another advantage: “Take an extra hour for yourself in the morning. Work will just be part of your day, rather than the reason you got out of bed.” – Actual Advice Mallard (link here)

Read my resource to Understand Sleep next!

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Understand Sleep

Life Education

This Comprehensive article by HelpGuide on Sleep is well written.  Each person needs a different amount of sleep, at different ages. Lack of sleep has negative health consequences: increasing risk of diabetes, heart disease, fatigue, chance of depression; reducing decision making abilities, ability to think critically, creatively, and reduced ability to cope with stress.  Sleep deprivation is similar to drunkenness.  

To prepare for sleep, it is advised to have a consistent routine, so that your body is habituated to feel sleepy after doing that routine.  It is also good to begin shutting off lights and dimming your room gradually, to simulate the sunset, which is our natural trigger for going to sleep.

It is normal to wake up in the middle of the night.  Just go back to sleep right after.

What happens when you sleep? Well, during the day your brain uses energy and produces waste. This waste goes no-where UNTIL you sleep: that’s when it gets cleaned up. So it’s important to clean your brain by sleeping! Hence it clears your mind and you wake up refreshed when you sleep.  Data from Ted Talk by Jeeff Llinff

From my Doctor

  • Don’t eat big meals within 1-3 hours of sleeping (digesting horizontally is not good for your stomach and also disrupts the quality of your sleep)
  • Don’t exercise within 4-6 hours of sleeping (exercise earlier in the day, because exercise energizes your body making it harder to sleep)
  • Sleeping before 12AM is best because (Chinese Medicine) your body systems have a circadian rhythm for resting and cleaning and it begins around 11PM.
  • (Personal Experience) Drink enough water prior to sleeping so that you don’t get dehydrated during sleep–your body may wake you up so you can drink water, causing interrupted sleep.

If you exercise, you need more sleep than the average person.  According to this ESPN article, “Roger Federer and LeBron James have said they sleep an average of 12 hours per day, compared to about 7 hours for the average American. Usain Bolt, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova and Steve Nash sleep up to 10 hours per day.” According to an infographic, lack of sleep reduces your performance.

Q: Why does sleeping to much make me feel even more tired A: “our “sleep clock” as they refer to it is actually a group of cells in a part of your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. We also refer to this as a circadian rhythm. Sleep is regulated by two processes, the “sleep clock” (your circadian rhythm) and a sleep drive (this builds throughout the day and is associated with a buildup of a neuromodulator called adenosine). If you “oversleep” your sleep drive may be low but your circadian rhythm is thrown off (it’s regulated by consistency and especially waking up at the same time daily). In essence it’s confused. This confusion causes some people to feel more rested and some people to feel more sleepy. One additional curve-ball in this is that if you “oversleep” you may sometimes be waking up in the middle of a sleep-cycle which will also cause you to feel sleepy for a period of time.” – Reddit

More Knowledge, More Power

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