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Here's Looking at You, Kid!

by Martha Beck
Here's looking at you, kid!

What's more compelling than movie star beauty, more enhancing than plastic surgery, and guaranteed to get you love, admiration, and a friendly response at the coffee shop?

Martha Beck offers a little course in self-appreciation.

1. What could possibly go wrong?

The first step in changing your self-evaluation is careful, logical risk assessment. The strategy of feeling physically unattractive actually does preclude the pain of (a) naively trusting that we're good enough, (b) being horribly wounded, and (c) feeling alone, unacceptable, and hideous. Believing we're ugly cuts straight to the chase, making sure we feel alone, unacceptable, and hideous right from the get-go, and without reprieve. If you don't believe me, you have only to look back at your own history. How many times have you told yourself you're unacceptable? How many times did this lead to happiness, freedom, and perfect relationships? All right, then.

Here's a new hypothesis: There's no risk-free way to love. The possibility of being devastated is always there, but the possibility of joy exists only when you put your battered heart right on the table by trusting that you're lovable. I'm not asking you to do this all the time, or even in large doses—at first, anyway. I'd just like you to experiment with a new mind-set, a few minutes at a time.