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Be Full of Yourself! The Journey from Self-Criticism to Self-Celebration
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Description
Be Full of Yourself! dismantles the self-critical question “what’s wrong with me” by exploring its historical, theological, and personal origins. The reader is invited to descend into the richness of her own life, to reclaim her inner resources, and to learn the language of self-celebration.
Excerpt
When I entered into ministry among women, working in churches, hospitals, and women’s shelters, and then eventually developing my own community ministry in Northern California, I noticed that the self-critical question “What’s wrong with me?” found its way into every women’s circle and that its pervasiveness cut across racial, ethnic, economic, religious, and generational boundaries. The question was asked in women’s tendency to belittle themselves; to second-guess their impulses; to pathologize their decisions; to theorize about their feelings; to process every detail of their relationships; and to attribute any positive achievement to an external force of one sort or another, ranging from a transcendent god, goddess, or higher power to a particular guru or self-improvement regimen. In an attempt to address women’s self-critical attitudes, I designed a series of workshops entitled, “The Journey From Self-Criticism to Self-Celebration.” The structure of the book parallels the three paths we explore while on the journey. Acknowledging the past’s influence on the present, each path includes two essential movements: a walk through the past and a choice to heal into the present, full of ourselves.
Excerpt reprinted by permission. All rights reserved © 1998.
Reviews
In Be Full of Yourself!, Patricia Lynn Reilly has raised her voice in strength and clarity to remind us that women are not “misbegotten males.” Internalized self-criticism and “not enoughism” must melt before Patricia’s clear, brave words. As a therapist, I applaud her model of psychological wholeness grounded in self-celebration. —Kate Wolf-Pizor, MFT
In Reviving Ophelia Mary Pipher recommends that girls and young women explore the culture’s impact on their growth and development. For those of us who are parents, teachers, and counselors, Be Full of Yourself! provides an effective and practical format for such “consciousness raising.” Patricia Lynn Reilly supports women of all ages to relinquish self-criticism and to reclaim self-celebration.
—Barbara Loften, Personalizing the Past: Artifact History and Herstory Kits