Why you can't celebrate your own success
Success arrives, touches you and evaporates. Why you can't savour it — and how family messages about modesty, your team and your inner voice all play a part.
ReadSelf-esteem
How you see yourself, and where that view came from. Posts on self-criticism, body image, and the difference between self-image and self-confidence.
“Am I a narcissist?” What the question says about you
The question you type into a search bar after an argument. On healthy narcissism, the grandiose and vulnerable faces, and why a trait is not yet a disorder.
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Your inner voices were once outer ones
The voice that says "of course, who else" when you make a mistake was once spoken out loud by someone. How childhood relationships move inward. The second post in a series on…
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When everything looks fine outside but feels empty inside: fragile self-esteem
High self-esteem is not always solid. What fragile self-esteem is, why criticism shakes it so badly, how Winnicott's false self fits in and what builds stable self-esteem.
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When the audience forgets you: the end of fame as a loss nobody acknowledges
When fame fades, you don't only lose gigs and money, but the mirror, the rhythm, belonging and your story about yourself. Why this is a real loss and how to grieve a…
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Self-image and ageing: when your body and roles change
Body, hormones, retirement and the sense of becoming invisible all shake the picture you hold of yourself. What happens to self-image in later life and why attitudes to ageing matter so much.
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Comparing yourself on social media: what constant measuring does to the brain
Ten minutes of scrolling and the sense that everyone is living better than you. What comparison online does to self-image — and what the half-hour-a-day experiment showed.
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Self-compassion instead of self-criticism: what Kristin Neff's research shows
For the same mistake, you would be a hundred times kinder to a friend than to yourself. What Kristin Neff's research says about self-compassion — and why it is neither indulgence nor…
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Where low self-confidence comes from: early experience and internal working models
Nobody is born doubting themselves. How a parent's gaze, criticism and conditional love become the voice in your head — and how that path can be walked back.
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Self-image, self-worth, self-confidence: how they differ and how each is built
Self-image, self-worth and self-confidence aren't synonyms. What each one means, how they feed each other, and which of them you are really strengthening.
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