I'm going to take a different viewpoint on this one.
I think the best thing we can do is not take our self-image seriously at all. It is too easy to mistake your self-image for yourself. We all know how troublesome a negative self-image is, but even a positive one can be limiting and misleading.
What is a self-image anyway? It's just a collection of biased opinions you have of yourself, which have piled up in your brain over the years. It's just a ball of arbitrary thoughts, some good, some bad, some correct, some incorrect. It is not you.
When we cherish this little mental frankenstein and think it is who we are, we make ourselves vulnerable. We feel a need to protect this image; to add desirable things to it, and to subtract undesirable things from it. We worry it will change into something we don't like.
We attach our possessions to it, our vehicle, our clothes, our jobs, our physiques, our accomplishments, our friends... these are all impermanent things that will one day be different or gone. To define ourselves with image is a recipe for trouble.
Whenever you get an image of yourself in your head, recognize that it is just a thought, and a biased one at that. It is not something to be honored, not something to believe in.  |