Mindful Wednesday: Perfectionism

The Defense Against The Dark Art’s weekly “Mindful Wednesday” newsletter features the topic of perfectionism.

COVID hasn’t stopped the Mindful Wednesday events from reaching students and faculty! This week, the topic focuses on perfectionism—something each of us has experienced at some point in our lives.

Along with the weekly meetings, you can check out the most recent episode in my podcast, Mindcraft, which tackles the feeling of Original Worthiness: How to Get That Feeling Back!

 

Original worthiness, that feeling we were born into this world with before any negative and shameful messages were said to us, can get lost…while these automatic negative thoughts drive the bus, the authentic self waits patiently to return to power. Join in and learn how to make this happen!

Mindcraft, Dr. Kim Quinn

John Bradshaw, author of Healing the Shame that Binds You, writes, “Perfectionism flows from the core of toxic shame…it is learned when one is valued only for doing. When parental acceptance and love are dependent upon performance, perfectionism is created. The performance is always related to what is outside the self. The child is taught to strive onward. There is never a place to rest and have inner joy and satisfaction.” You can listen to Bradshaw as he discusses his book here.

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to do our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth; it’s a shield.

Brene Brown

In the Mindful Wednesday newsletters, links to helpful TED talks are included, like No Need to Fix Me: I’m Not Broken which focuses on getting the feeling of “original worthiness” back, as well as Perfectionism holds us back. Here’s why spoken by Charly Haversat.