‘Listening to heartbeat key to body image’

Feb 08, 2013 |

Women who are able to listen to their body’s “internal signals”, such as accurately counting own heartbeats, are less likely to think of their bodies as objects, a new study has found.

The findings have important implications for understanding body image dissatisfaction and clinical disorders which are linked to self-objectification, such as anorexia, said researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London.
They found that women who are more aware of their bodies from within are less likely to think of their bodies principally as objects. The authors asked healthy female student volunteers aged between 19 to 26 to concentrate and count their own heartbeats, simply by “listening” to their bodies.

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