In the lead-up to my own wedding, I became fixated on achieving perfect skin, convinced that I needed to be flawless, poreless and completely blemish-free on the day. When one treatment didn’t deliver the results I wanted, I kept pushing for more. The stress of striving for an unattainable ideal only served to make the initial problem worse than it was before I started trying to address it.
Sure enough, “a lot of clients tell me they were in a good, healthy place with their body image until they got engaged,” says Alysia. The nature of social media allows for comparison opportunities that didn’t exist to nearly the same extent before. And that comparison “can increase insecurities tenfold if you aren’t actively working to protect your mental health”.
After my own wedding, I attempted to purge my social feeds and reset my algorithms. But I found myself wondering if I could have helped myself sooner—is there a way for women to curate healthier online spaces for themselves?
“Flagging content you don’t want to see in your feed can help rein in your algorithm, but this isn’t watertight,” says Walton. “Spending less time on social media by dedicating certain windows of time to scroll and deleting apps that you find harmful is the best way to take care of your mental wellbeing.”
“Seek out creators who promote realistic standards of beauty, keep you grounded, or have nothing to do with appearance or weddings at all,” suggests Dr Pikoos. “If you find that these pressures are starting to affect your sleep, work, relationships or your relationship with food or your body, that’s usually a sign that it’s worth seeking some additional support.”
While so much about weddings is joyful and positive, the darker side to the multi-million-pound global industry that has developed around them is one that feeds on women’s insecurities. It’s totally natural to want to look good for your wedding day, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of your wellbeing.
Ultimately, your wedding is about you and your future spouse. “Focus on the things you’re genuinely excited about—not just the wedding day itself, but the life you’re building with your partner,” says Dr Pikoos. “Surround yourself with people who remind you of your worth, and that you are already good enough as you are.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: vogue.in
