Constant thoughts about body image can make it difficult to stay focused on work, relationships and everyday experiences. In a culture shaped by weight-loss drugs, social media filters and highly edited images, changing the way you respond to those thoughts may be more useful than trying to eliminate them.

Psychologist Diana Hill, a specialist in acceptance and commitment therapy, describes this approach as body image flexibility. The idea is not that people must love their bodies or feel completely neutral about their appearance. Instead, it focuses on what happens when uncomfortable thoughts about appearance arise.

Body image includes more than how someone looks in a mirror. It also involves thoughts, feelings and perceptions about the body, as well as how a person experiences and moves through it. Persistent dissatisfaction can become distressing and may interfere with daily life. The National Eating Disorders Association’s body image guidance notes that negative body image can involve shame, anxiety and self-consciousness.

Hill’s approach shifts the question from “Do I like how I look?” to something more practical: How much time and energy am I spending thinking about my appearance instead of participating in my life?

That distinction is central to body image flexibility. Negative thoughts may still appear, but they do not have to dictate what someone does next.

Focus Your Attention on What Your Body Is Experiencing

One way to interrupt appearance-focused thinking is to redirect attention from the outside of the body to what is happening inside it.

For example, someone looking in a mirror might become fixated on their stomach, skin, nose or wrinkles. Instead of continuing to inspect the perceived flaw, Hill suggests noticing physical sensations.

Ask whether you are hungry or full. Notice whether your stomach feels tense or relaxed. Pay attention to breathing, muscle tension and other sensations. You can also identify emotions that are present, such as nervousness, excitement, happiness or calm.

This practice is known as interoceptive awareness, or awareness of signals coming from inside the body. It can help shift attention away from visual judgments and toward the body’s immediate experience.

The goal is not to convince yourself that you look different. It is to recognize that the body is doing much more than providing an appearance to evaluate.

This distinction matters because body image concerns can become a cycle of checking and judging. A person notices a feature, evaluates it negatively, checks it again and then spends more time thinking about how to change it.

Redirecting attention can interrupt that cycle.

Social media can make this process harder. Images that emphasize narrow appearance ideals can encourage constant comparison. The American Psychological Association has also examined how social media trends and appearance-focused online communities can shape body dissatisfaction, including among boys and men. Its recent coverage of body image discusses the influence of social media, looksmaxxing and online appearance pressures.

Rather than attempting to win an argument with every negative thought, flexible attention creates some distance from it.

Notice What Your Body Can Do

Another strategy is to shift from appearance to function.

Instead of asking, “How does my body look?” consider asking, “What is my body allowing me to do right now?”

You might notice that your eyes allow you to see a landscape. Your ears allow you to hear a conversation. Your legs allow you to walk. Your hands allow you to work, create or hold something. Your lungs continue to bring air into your body without requiring conscious attention.

These observations can seem almost too simple. That is partly the point.

Appearance-focused thinking narrows attention to a small part of the body. Functional awareness expands it again.

The objective is not to turn every physical ability into a reason to feel grateful. That can become another demand to perform positivity. Instead, the exercise asks you to recognize the relationship between your body and the world around you.

Hill suggests using ordinary moments to practice this. Sitting outside, walking with a friend or playing with a dog can become opportunities to notice what the body is doing rather than how it appears.

Research on body image also supports the importance of moving beyond appearance-based judgments. The Association for Contextual Behavioral Science’s research archive includes a randomized controlled trial examining acceptance and commitment therapy for people experiencing eating disorder symptoms and body image problems.

The approach does not require a person to decide that every part of their body is attractive.

Instead, it encourages people to accept uncomfortable internal experiences while continuing to act according to what matters to them.

Question the Habits That Keep Body Thoughts Alive

Body image concerns are not only thoughts. They can also influence behavior.

A person who feels uncomfortable about their stomach, for example, might automatically suck it in whenever someone walks into the room. That behavior can become so habitual that they barely notice doing it.

Hill suggests slowing down and examining the behavior.

When do you hold your stomach in? When do you relax? Do you feel safer when you are alone or in a situation where you believe nobody is evaluating you?

These questions can reveal how strongly social expectations influence everyday behavior.

It can also help to examine where the underlying standard came from. Did you decide that your stomach should look a certain way, or did you learn that expectation from other people, advertising, social media or broader cultural messages?

The question is not whether those messages exist. They clearly do. The more useful question is whether you want those messages to determine how you live.

Body image concerns can also affect behavior beyond appearance checking. Someone may avoid certain clothes, stop participating in activities, hesitate to speak in public or spend excessive amounts of time taking and editing photographs.

That leads to a fourth exercise: an energy audit.

Consider how much time, attention and money you devote to managing your appearance. That might include checking mirrors, taking selfies, editing photographs, researching beauty products or repeatedly thinking about perceived flaws.

Then ask what that effort is taking away from.

Perhaps it is time outdoors. Perhaps it is exercise that you genuinely enjoy, creative work, social connection or time with family and friends.

The goal is not to abandon grooming or appearance-related activities. It is to notice when those activities become disproportionate to the rest of life.

Hill co-authored ACT Daily Journal with Debbie Sorensen, a book built around acceptance and commitment therapy practices, reflection and daily actions. The broader ACT framework emphasizes psychological flexibility and acting in ways connected to personal values rather than allowing difficult thoughts and feelings to control behavior.

Body image flexibility follows a similar principle. You do not need to eliminate every negative thought before doing something meaningful.

You can notice the thought, recognize the pressure behind it and choose where to put your attention next.

For people whose body image concerns become persistent, highly distressing or disruptive to daily life, professional support may also be appropriate. The National Eating Disorders Association’s resources on body image and treatment explain that body image concerns can occur with eating disorders, but they can also affect people who do not have an eating disorder.

The practical aim is therefore not perfect body confidence. It is to make appearance occupy less of your mental life, leaving more attention available for the people, activities and experiences that matter to you.