Taking a break

Contributed by Emma Callin

I couple weeks ago I shared this article on our Facebook page about self-acceptance versus self-improvement and was surprised at the amount of interest it generated.  What's not a surprise to anyone - male or female - is that a woman's harshest critic is herself, and yet even with that knowledge there seems to be little improvement in the situation.  I've noticed that whenever a client comes out of the changing room the first words out of her mouth are usually self-damning: condemning the shape of her body, her looks.  Why do we have to be so hard on ourselves?  

While I'm not sure why women worldwide are so ready to beat themselves up over their perceived flaws, there have always been plenty of people trying to change that.  I noticed the above image circulating on social media, many of the comments discussing how difficult it is to maintain a positive self-image.  Yet there were also many comments about how doing so improved and reinvigorated their attitude towards themselves and other women.  Which makes sense: if we don't like ourselves then it becomes much easier to "question and critique others because of our own fears and ambivalence"  instead of seeing their good points.  

I'm not going to argue that 'mean girls' will disappear if all women have a positive self-image, nor do I think that practicing self-acceptance is a simple task, easily accomplished.  But try taking a break from all that negativity - towards others and yourself - and see where that takes you.