I have to catch myself when the inner critic is being abusive to my inner child and put him in his place whilst nurturing the little boy inside.

This is lovely Nathan. It's really interesting to hear it from a man's perspective. We never know how people are feeling on the inside. It's hard for me now as I get older too - you start getting invisible to pretty much everyone which doesn't do your self esteem anygood either! So there's another perspective! It's easy to say I don't give a fuck but there's all those niggles left over from those projections of what a perfect woman should be - and I've never been that, though hubby thinks I've got curves to die for and thinks i'm totally beautiful, none of that weighs in against that harsh inner critic. I do tend to catch myself these days and affirm that I AM beautiful, just like all the beautiful souls I see around me. xxx And you, too xx