“Doctor, please advise my wife. She does not undress for sex. She does not even allow me to switch on the bedroom light. It is like having sex blindfolded,” lamented Raghu.

I looked askance at his wife Renu. With trepidation she blurted out, “Sir, I am so ashamed of myself because of a host of things. I think my breasts are too small; I have a lot of stretch marks on my body and my figure is flabby. I cringe when I have to undress to have sex with my husband wondering what he thinks of my body.”

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder they say. Frankly, in my opinion, outwardly this lady looked gorgeous, but it was such a pity she could not see what I could. I just wanted to hold a mirror in front of her and say — look at you!

Body image is one’s perception of the self, and how we feel others see us. A subjective matter, if one goes by the commonly agreed beautiful image, then one’s attitude vis-a-vis body image could be reproachful.

Our mental spotlight at times is more on the negatives than the positives and we live a life of focusing on the missing elements. We are blind to our personality that endear others more to us than what we think others think of us. A careless, flippant remark from a third person too can also get the wagon galloping on the poor body image highway.

Understand that you are born with your constitution. You don’t choose your parents. We may be able to change many things about us but not beyond a point. Exercise, stay fit and wear your self-esteem on your heart and not on your body image.