Diana Hill
Psychologist Diana Hill outlines mental exercises to address body image fixation, emphasizing body image flexibility as a way to redirect focus from appearance to lived experience, according to NPR.
Psychologist Diana Hill, a specialist in acceptance and commitment therapy, helps clients practice mental exercises to help individuals break free from obsessive focus on their appearance. These techniques, detailed in articles from NPR, center on body image flexibility—a psychological concept that prioritizes coping strategies over achieving acceptance of one’s looks. Hill, co-author of ACT Daily Journal: Get Unstuck and Live Fully with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, emphasizes that body image flexibility does not require loving one’s appearance or even feel neutral about it, but rather focusing on actionable responses to negative thoughts about the body.
ACT Daily Journal
Focus Your Attention Inward
Hill recommends practicing flexible attention by shifting focus from external appearance to internal bodily sensations. This involves acknowledging thoughts about physical flaws while redirecting awareness to internal processes like hunger, tension, or emotional states. It’s what we call ‘interoceptive awareness,’
Hill says, noting benefits include improved empathy and attention to physical cues like hunger and fullness. The exercises encourage practitioners to ask: Are you hungry or full? Does your stomach feel tense or relaxed? Are you feeling nervous? Excited? Happy? Calm? This technique, described in NPR, aims to reframe bodily awareness as a tool for connection rather than criticism.
Interoceptive Awareness
Appreciate What Your Body Can Do
Another strategy involves emphasizing functional abilities over aesthetic qualities. Hill advises asking, How are you using your body at this moment?
For example, recognizing that my eyes are seeing a tree
or my ears are receiving sounds
helps shift focus from appearance to the body’s role in experiencing the world. My eyes may not always be able to see a tree the way I can see a tree now,
Hill explains, underscoring the transient nature of sensory experiences. This approach, repeated in NPR, highlights how physical capabilities—like breathing or hearing—anchor individuals to their environment.
Energy Audit
Interrogate Your Intentions
Hill’s exercise prompts individuals to examine behaviors tied to body dissatisfaction, such as habitually sucking in their stomach. Practitioners are encouraged to ask: Are there times when you’re sucking your stomach in more—or less?
This self-reflection helps uncover whether such habits stem from societal pressures or personal comfort. There may be times when you let it go a little bit because you feel safer. Maybe you’re alone on a hike or in bed,
Hill says. The technique also challenges cultural messaging: Is that messaging [what] you want to believe and let guide your life?
Hill asks, noting that such behaviors often pull energy away from creativity, connection, and talent. NPR frames this as a way to dismantle automatic rejection of parts of the body.
Functional Abilities
Do an Energy Audit
The final exercise involves assessing how much time and effort is spent on appearance-related activities. Hill advises asking: What fuels your energy in relationship with your body?
and suggests swapping time spent on selfies or beauty products for activities like being outside, doing movement you enjoy or playing with your dog. Every little bit of energy you’re putting into sucking in your stomach or [feeling] distracted by your shiny face pulls away energy from you,
Hill says, arguing that what people want is you. This approach, emphasized in NPR, frames body image fixation as a drain on personal fulfillment.
Why This Matters
Hill’s methods reflect a broader psychological shift toward accepting imperfection as a natural state rather than a flaw. By focusing on actionable steps—like interoceptive awareness or energy audits—her framework offers practical tools for challenging societal pressures around appearance. NPR presents these exercises as part of a growing movement to reframe body image as a dynamic, manageable experience rather than a fixed judgment.
