 In a society constantly exposed to idolised images of the body, a dissatisfaction with our own body image runs deep. Recent findings suggest that more than 60% of adults reporting feeling ashamed with the way they look. The problem is also expanding to children with more than 30% school-age children in several countries feeling body image concerns. These concerns have wider implications affecting both physical and mental health, For example, leading to depression, eating disorders and low self-esteem. In young people, this low self-esteem further leads to social isolation and less participation in educational activities and sports. In parallel with this increase there's an increase in missold solutions. For example, cosmetic surgery has become normalized and a significant amount of people now elect to go invasive surgical procedures just for aesthetic purposes. yma'r gweithio'r pethau i ddweudio'r ysgrifennu i ddweudio'r pethau a'r fforddau iawn. Mae'n rhoi'r ffordd, ond byddai'n gweithio'r gweithio ar y cwmysgwyl yn ei ddefnyddio'r gweithio, ac yn ei ddweudio'r llymau allanodau. Mae'n gwneud yn 28 yma, y lleiwch yn ffyrrwyngau llwyr yn ymweld yn y ffordd a'r cyfnodol yn fwyllgor ond mae cymdweithio'r gweithio i'r gwneud, mae'n gwneud am gyflugiau. Do published on paper, we will learn something about ourselves. Of course, the problem is not simple, and neither is the solution. Trying to change the multiple problematic mirrors of the self in society and in family is likely to require large-scale policies that are slow to implement. Thus, an alternative would be to try to understand how the brain builds its own resilience against externalised images. So at any given moment our body is bombarded by stimuli from the environment. Felly, we filter the world and we perceive only what our pre-existing models tell us to perceive pretty much like Morton and Yotos told us about. Of course, that will not be enough, because we also need to adjust to the changing world. In order to do that, what the brain does is it uses errors between what we expected and what we experienced in order to update the models and predict the world better next time. But if that's the case, how does the brain build its balance, its optimal balance between stability and adaptation, between resilience and change? And it turns out that hierarchy may be key. So the brain has certain evolutionary older systems that it will not update no matter what the world throws at it. And what are these systems? They're the systems that monitor the inside of the body and tell us how we feel at any given moment. Is my heart beating right now? Maybe you're feeling cold or hungry? That's even though we have multiple ways of representing the self, as for example in the so-called social media selfies. At the same time, the organism makes sense we never forget our basic needs. That's even though people think it's what they see in the mirror or in the screen that satisfies or upsets them, in reality is what they feel on the inside of the body. But if it's inside of the body, what can we do about it? Well, it turns out that one answer might be in the skin, the border between inside and outside. We have recently found that gentle stroking of the arm, as in romantic and maternal relationships, might have a unique relationship with the self and might directly influence with older systems. For example, it can determine whether we perceive a prosthetic arm to be ours or not. It can also help resilience in traumatised children in people with dementia and in healthy older adults. This unique relationship has been known from animal research from at least four decades. We know that animals without grooming, rough and tumble play and touch are weaker organisms and more distressed. And we know now a little bit about the neurobiology of these effects. Even more importantly, we now know in humans that safe neuropeptides such as oxytocin can easily be sniffed in the laboratory, in the clinic or in society and lead to better social trust, more prosocial behaviour and comfort in relationships. But we have not applied this inside to our most enduring everyday relationship that with our own body. So I think there are some preliminary evidence showing that effective touch and oxytocin can improve symptoms in eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. However, we now seem to have the means to apply that to the body concerns that we all have in society and try to build our resilience towards excessive externalised images. More generally, I think it's time that we apply to our social and technological world these insights. We can build softer, different kinds of cities, different kinds of computers, different kinds of robots. And it's time for hard sciences and technology to also take softness into account. This sounds a bit female, stereotypically speaking, a bit childish, or as scientists like to say, soft and woolly. But I think our brain tells us there are good intelligence ways to be soft and we ought to take this into account. So the slightly provocative question I want to leave you for today is how can we construct a more succulent, more juicy, more aromatic, more soft world?