DOZ Issue 53 March 2020 | Page 6

THE POTENTIAL OF A WOMAN Betty A recent study was done by Krueger & Trussoni on Women’s Self-Concept and the Effects of Positive or Negative Labelling Behaviours. It revealed that a woman’s impression of others is directly proportional to how she feels/thinks about herself. Self-concept is basically how you think or feel about yourself and affects what you believe you can or can’t do. It essentially dictates the level of happiness and contentment in our lives. Your self-concept can be low, making the world a harsh and dark place, or it can be high, allowing you to love and appreciate the things in your life, and most importantly, YOU. The first step to discovering who you are as a woman and the level of your self-concept is to find out who and what you are in your own eyes. You can never truly love anyone if you don’t inherently and genuinely love yourself. Having unwavering conviction about who you are will enable you to withstand any negativity and criticism which often shuts us down and causes us to be withdrawn. The only way you can achieve this is by fully accepting who you are, flaws and all, and owning every part of you with no excuse or apologies. This way, you will not feel the need to justify yourself to people, and even when you’re faced with disapproval or rejection, you can hold your head high and swiftly move on from it with your self-worth intact. A healthy self-concept allows you to be alone and happy. Feeling in constant need for peoples’ affection or attention is a strong indicator that your impression of yourself is ailing. Just because you’re alone doesn’t have to mean that you’re lonely. Often, people in an endeavour to fix their loneliness go on self-destruct mode, doing all sorts of superficial things- excessive drinking, partying, and lewdness to fill the void. DOZ Magazine | March 2020 6