London - Be honest ladies, how many times a day do you criticise yourself?
How often do you tell yourself that you’re fat, your hair is terrible, that you’re scruffy? Or that you don’t earn enough or see your friends less often than you should?
Research suggests that the average woman bombards herself with these and other criticisms at least eight times a day.
And one in seven admits criticising herself regularly throughout the entire day, according to a survey of 2 000 women.
The five categories where they put themselves down the most are weight, appearance, career, finances and relationships.
Feeling overweight and other image-based criticisms were most common, while worrying about not earning enough and deliberately deflecting compliments were other ways women punished themselves.
Eighty-nine percent confessed that they would praise other women in ways that they would never compliment themselves.
The study was conducted by Weight Watchers, which worked with eight cultural experts to explore how modern life affects the relationship a woman has with herself.
For many, being unkind to themselves is a regular theme, it found.
The rise of Instagram and similar picture-sharing social media services has led to the prevalence of women criticising their image, the report says.
This was followed by general lifestyle judgments such as not having the “right” job. The study says this is the result of today’s “Hall of Mirrors Era” in which women are bombarded with images of perfection and achievement everywhere they look.
The findings also showed that women begin berating themselves almost straight away each day, with 46 percent of those surveyed admitting to criticising themselves at least once before 9.30am. Alongside frequent self-criticisms, the study found that 42 percent admitted to never complimenting themselves, while the remainder gave themselves a positive thought or “pat on the back” only once a day.
Zoe Griffiths of Weight Watchers said: “Today’s hectic and visually-driven world has meant that we’re seeing a rise in women being self-critical, from the way they look to the way they feel at work.
“Our research has shown that being unkind to ourselves has been an underlying theme for women for many years, but a set of very modern cultural conditions have increased the intensity of this unkindness.
“At Weight Watchers we know that to adopt a healthy lifestyle it is important to build a better relationship with yourself in order to make a positive change.”
The research was conducted as part of #WomanKind, a Weight Watchers campaign that explores why modern women are unkind to themselves and how they can counter this habit, making healthier choices and building better relationships with themselves.
Daily Mail