When I read your idea about keeping a kindness folder, it reminded me of a troubled second-grader I taught who would journal, “I’m a bad boy. A terrible boy.” When I read that, my heart just about broke. We started keeping a special journal together, where he’d write down every time he helped someone, or did something he was proud of. He even eventually invited his classmates to write in it! His self-esteem sky-rocketed within weeks. Those written reminders are amazingly powerful!

So, after I read your post and remembered my little guy, I posted the walls of my office with positive feedback I’ve gotten about my teaching or my writing, or amazing work former students have done that I felt so proud of. It has really quieted those inner critical voices, and opened up a spring of creativity. Thank you!

I just wrote a blog post called the Psychology of Collaboration http://snipr.com/psyofcollaboration and realized that most of the post is about my self-doubt as an artist. I googled and found this wonderful post! Now if you could just whisper all these things in my ear and drown out my inner critic, I would be all set.

Thanks for posting this! I will come back to this post again to remind myself that I am not the only one fighting against my self-doubt.

Jaime Lyerly

Thanks for all of these wonderful ideas.

Namaste,
Jackie

You are doing a wonderful job with your blog. You are an inspiration.

{soul hugs}
Kathryn