Good enough…

Not long before my son was born, a book came out, titled ‘Good Enough Parenting’ by Bruno Bettlelheim. I can’t pretend to have read it, but people I mixed with referred to it & it became a mantra for, not just my parenting, but for life…!

I grew up with a father who was a perfectionist, & as I was heading for the Royal Ballet, ‘good enough’ was not really something that had existed in my life! I  tended to aim for perfection & apart from my early days in ballet, I disappointed myself (& others) regularly. This was crushing as anything other than perfect simply didn’t count…

So… cutting to some 20 years later, the timing of this book was, in itself, ‘perfect’ & I could finally begin to let myself off the hook & simply do the best I could, but with a sense of a lot less stress. The process was a long, slow one, & is ongoing, but I now revel in being ‘imperfect’ & look to offer that within my massage sessions, ie offer myself as an example of a deeply flawed human, as are we all…!

Now seems a great time to suggest others use more of this, with everyone ‘living their best life’, as if that’s the only version to live…. Just live, be in the moment, enjoy the highs, the lows, the tedious, the mundane… the plain ‘good enough’ – we can all leave our mark by offering that up as a way to be…  especially for our children… surely… can’t we all give ourselves a break & cease this relentless striving for MORE & BETTER…?

Click & let me know what you think… I’m sure many of you can relate to this…