We’ve become so driven to be evaluated by others. We have such a deep need to receive praise. Maslow listed it in the Hierarchy of needs as “Esteem needs: prestige and feeling of accomplishment”.
Lisa Simpson exclaimed, “Look at me! Grade me! Evaluate and rank me!"
But why is our need for praise so dependent on the thoughts of others. Do we believe that others know us better than we know ourselves? Truly know us?
Our yoga practice is a time of non-judgement, non-comparison and non-competition. The time of our practice is one where we have the opportunity to draw inward and focus on ourselves: physically and mentally. Can we take this time to get to know ourselves a little bit better, to understand how we are feeling and then use this information to be kinder to ourselves. Perhaps we can take this time to be proud of our accomplishments; even if our accomplishment was making time for ourselves during the day.
Over time these actions of being proud of our accomplishments may start to become stronger and lead to even more of the same until our internal “report card” is more important than one completed by another.