i’m good and beautiful enough the way I am

Somewhere at the back of most wardrobes hangs a garment kept for a future body. It sits there issuing a small daily verdict.

Enough is a strange thing to have to argue for. It isn't a score you finally reach; it is a decision to stop keeping the score. And it is hardest to say on the days you least believe it, which is exactly when saying it does the most work.

You are already the person your friends look forward to seeing. That was never conditional on anything you were planning to change about yourself.

Being kinder to yourself does not require first becoming somebody else.