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Look Good, Feel Good
Words Dr Galyna Selezneva
Looking good on the outside is only part of the puzzle that makes up our psychology. Ultimately, when we’re looking to ‘get rid of that wrinkle’ or ‘tone up those abs’, it comes down to wanting to feel good on the inside. Through her years of experience and personal exploration, leading Aesthetic Doctor and Psychiatrist, Dr Galyna Selezneva, shares with us some of her stories, motivations and advice for embracing your bodies.
‘Looking good’ has always been on our minds. When you look in the mirror, do you like what you see?
Now look again. What do you notice about you that you like?
Isn’t it interesting how easy it is to focus on the negative parts of ourselves and ignore all the positive aspects?
Let’s establish something first; all bodies are unique and beautiful. We could look at modern aesthetic medicine as a way to ‘fix’ ourselves, but it’s more important to create unity in mind, body, emotions and spirit - understanding the why.
When I practised as an NHS psychiatrist, specialising in eating disorders and addiction, I was witness to a tremendous amount of self-loathing. I experienced similar feelings through my own body transformation journey, which incidentally brought me to where I am today. It’s so important to me to help my patients identify where the need for change comes from before finding the right treatments to help them.
Now your why could be due to a number of things; past relationships, physical health, mental well-being - the list goes on. Working on the internal will help improve the external. Both are part of how we relax into our present life.
For example, when women come for vaginal tightening and intimate health treatments, they don’t come to ‘look good down there’ - they come for confidence, whether that’s to have less painful or embarrassing intercourse or to help with leaking. Over 50% of women over 40 in the UK have stress urinary incontinence, and leading brands constantly suggest that it’s okay. Let me tell you something...it’s not okay! Planning trips around toilets should be a thing of the past. With the wealth of non-invasive treatments at our fingertips, women don’t have to settle anymore. The Emsella chair is the latest non-surgical vagina tightening treatment that puts a stop to embarrassing moments. You simply take a seat and electromagnetic energy contracts your pelvic floor muscles while you relax. Some patients feel a small tingling down below and others feel nothing at all.
Another common treatment request I see is for cellulite. It’s easy to presume this is purely to improve our external image, but there are modern non-invasive treatments, such as EMtone and EMsculpt, that not only reduce cellulite but also build up muscle, making you stronger and healthier internally.
Living in a pandemic has created a new kind of body dysmorphia. Many of us have had more time on our hands to worry about our appearance. The extra endless hours available to scroll social media, look at what people are up to, what they’re wearing and how they look, has not been good for confidence or for the soul. We used to have selfie-dysmorphia, but now most of our socialising and work takes place online this has turned into Zoom-dysmorphia. We’re seeing ourselves in a different light. Quite literally. Weeks spent looking at ourselves interacting on screens (with no filter available) means you might have noticed a new ‘flaw’ in your appearance. But, let me tell you, how you appear on Zoom is not how you appear in real life.
There is however a positive for that has come out of the challenges in the past year and that’s the body confidence movement. The world is finally talking about and celebrating diversity, inclusion and individuality. We’re starting to see women of all shapes, cultures and sizes on our screens and in the media, and brands are making it their number one priority to put ‘normal looking people’ first. The result of this will be less stress on trying to create the perfect look, but more focus on our wellbeing, and physical and mental health. There is light that finally we will be considered for what we do and how we act, not what we look like.
Nonetheless, what matters most isn't how others view you, but how you view yourself from the inside out, and some of the techniques that are available today can help women improve their own feelings of self-worth in a way that exercise and diet alone will never do. It’s often easy to compare yourself with everyone around you, but just remember, every woman is worthy. Embrace that person you see in the mirror and go out and do more than just live - go out and thrive!