Summer is an exciting time, as the evenings become lighter and there are more activities to enjoy in the outdoors if the weather holds out.
However, with this excitement comes the pressure of having a perfect summer body and reaching your body goals by a certain time of year.
Reminder: Social Media is Fake
This is reinforced by social media and the images that people then believe are the beauty standards. This is a very dangerous aspect of social media, as people of all ages can succumb to the pressure of having to look a certain way to feel beautiful.
This is 100% not the case. Everybody has a different body. Everybody is beautiful in their own way. And you don’t need to be a certain size or meet a certain standard of westernised social media beauty to in fact be beautiful.
In the new year, websites and platforms are flooded with diet regimes, fat-burning pills, and the dedication to change your lifestyle to be able to enjoy your summer wholeheartedly.
Once again this is a false perception of what you need to do to be happy. If you do want to make a healthier lifestyle change that is of course possible without the pressure to do this from society.
Being healthy and exercising regularly can massively contribute to your mental and physical wellbeing and health.
Yet this should not be done purely to reach a beauty standard for a certain time of the year.
Tips and Tricks
Tips to try to reduce this pressure include deleting social media if you feel you are forming unhealthy habits and idealising body types which are not the healthiest.
Talk to your friends and family about how you’re feeling surrounding the pressures of the upcoming season and understand that you are not alone in this feeling at all.
Finally, it is important to ask a professional help if you feel consumed by the pressures of the summer season, as this is a very typical and easy trap to fall into. If you feel that you need guidance on how to get back to a healthy lifestyle, for your body type and for yourself, this is something not to be ashamed of, but to embrace.
It’s important to remember to enjoy your summer holiday as much as possible. It is a time where people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder can hopefully feel slightly more excited to enjoy what the long days now have to offer.
Make the most of your summer freedom if you’re a student, as the summer holidays are the longest period that you have to relax and recuperate.
If you are someone who has to have a summer job to fund the rest of your university life, make sure you take the evenings to plan some fun activities or enjoy barbecues with your friends. This will help you get in the summer holiday vibe more than ever.