Violent aversion to self-praise is wired into British cultural DNA, yet the evidence points to the beneficial effects of patting our own backs once in a while
Look at you! Reading a newspaper site rather than staring, bovine, at pap snaps of Rihanna on a beach, or endless updates on the possible contents of a royal womb. You’re smart, and discerning. Did you make your own lunch today? That is both thrifty and healthy behaviour. Got to work on time? You are a rockstar of time-management. But you don’t need me to tell you that.
Experts are increasingly coming to believe that paying ourselves compliments can be as rewarding as hearing them from someone else. Giving ourselves a pat on the back in the privacy of our own heads lowers our stress level, leads to positive habit formation and increases our self-esteem. Now, I know what you’re thinking (I’m good at anticipating negative responses): “What California nonsense is this?” It sounds like the barefooted spaff of a self-satisfied yoga teacher, or the behaviour of a puffed-up blowtard who crushes it in finance, has bleeding palms from high-fiving mirrors all day, and whom no one likes. Violent aversion to self-praise is wired into British cultural DNA. It’s hard enough receiving compliments from someone else. A friend will pay offhand praise to something we are wearing, and we immediately start digging around for the receipt to prove it was on sale and we haven’t turned into Louis XIV, and would still be wearing our old jacket but the council said it had to be knocked down. We are deeply suspicious of feeling good about ourselves, and this is holding us back.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2AULW3c
via
0 Comments