I hear what you are saying, wise woman, and believe me I do as much positive stuff as I can. It's very hard to do, and perhaps posting that positive stuff here is more than I can do right now, but I agree with you about asking for comments on how I am feeling rather than saying that I am how I feel.
Even that is really really hard for me. There are two problems. The first is that if I ask people if I am piece of poo I am scared someone might say yes. The second is that I have longstanding scripts that tell me that to say (or encourage others to say) anything positive about me is boasting, showing off, being needy and generally a BAD THING to do. Although I encourage my pupils and my own children to be proud of their achievements, to recognise their own good points, it is a very difficult place for me to go for myself. I'm working on it and have got as far as noting some positives in my online journal and to my counsellor. But it needs a lot of strength and courage for me to do even that. I hope you can understand - I am not wanting to negate what you say and I agree with it - but I am struggling to do it. I'm also struggling with the fact that I am locking all my feelings inside so much of the time. I'm constantly scared here - for example, reading your comments the thoughts run through my head that you are irritated by me, that people will think i am trying to get attention. It's very difficult for me to frame those feelings as questions because they feel so true to me.
I'm rambling and probably making this all worse. Thank you for caring enough to post the suggestions, and I will continue to try to act on them - because I AM trying, even if my efforts are not apparent to others and even if I am not succeeding all the time.