Bryony, Thank you for sharing. I have struggled a lot with this in the past and now I am doing much better but lately with a turbulent relationship in the mix I am hearing some of those negative voices again. The trick I learned though is we cannot let other people have the power to validate our characters and who we are. What I do if focus on is becoming the person I want to be and practice it everyday of my life until I become that person. It is hard digging down to childhood beliefs and changing them and the older we get I think the harder it is to not go back to that self loathing phase again. The good news it though by never giving up and constantly working on this eventually that will be part of the past and the present will reflect the person you imagined yourself to be.. thoughts and all…