How Self-Help Becomes Self-Sabotage
Are you in this diagramme?
In my workshop this weekend, I broke down the two self-help worlds we all now inhabit: the world of self-improvement and the world of what I call The Push Back.
The Push Back challenges all the ways we're told we should better. It tells us that the standards we try to meet every day—all the ways we try to improve our faces, our bodies, our productivity and our parenting—are unrealistic, problematic, and essentially bullshit. The Push Back is everywhere from IG posts about the tyranny of beauty standards to think-pieces on the rise of 24/7 work culture.
The Push Back feels rebellious. It feels like a fucking relief! And, usually I agree with most of its criticisms in principle.
But here's the thing:
The Push Back doesn't actually free us from those expectations in our own brains, where it really matters.
In fact, it can dig those expectations in deeper.
In my workshop this weekend, I broke down exactly why this happens, how self-improvement and the Push Back fuel one another, and how we can truly escape.
For the next four days, you have access to the replay.
Any questions or trouble accessing, let me know.