I recently received a complimentary copy of Caitlin Boyle's new book, Operation Beautiful. In the spirit of random acts of kindness, she started a movement to encourage women to let go of negative patterns of thinking. One day she decided to help a stranger by placing a note with the statement "You are Beautiful" and left it on the mirror in a public rest room. The act of placing that note lifted her own spirits, as she had been struggling with her own feelings of negativity. She shared her simple act on her blog and from there the inspiration to spread positive self-thoughts spread through the blogosphere and into the real world.
In Operation Beautiful, Boyle has shared her collection of photographs of notes women have left for others with messages of inspiration along with the stories behind the notes. Along with the photos and stories are tips about how to live a healthier and happier life. The book is broken into seven chapters ranging from food to fitness, self-talk to family.
The concept of self esteem and improving it has been the focus of many self-help books over the years. This book is not the typical self-help book, though. Instead it is a combination of photo essay interspersed with helpful information to combat the negative self-talk so many people are guilty of thinking. Reading the back story of each photo was very interesting; the age range of women who participated in this movement is vast, as was the backgrounds. What I found to be especially nice was the number of young women/teens who spread Operation Beautiful messages.
Having worked as a therapist with kids and adults for many years I found that so many people mentally destroy themselves with negative self-talk. While this book seems to focus mainly on women and girls, men and boys are also at high risk for negative self-talk downfalls. For a number of years most of my clients were middle and high school students. I worked with both boys and girls and was always saddened by the harsh judgments the kids would make about themselves. I used to give a home work assignment to the kids who needed to improve their self-esteem: Take a blank piece of paper and find at least five of your friends and ask them to write two nice things about you on the paper. Read the paper every day and as often as negative self-talk enters your mind. Many kids liked this activity, even if it felt weird to do at first. I had students remark later on that they still read their papers, long after therapy had ended. Operation Beautiful reminded me of this exercise I used to use with clients. The idea of spreading joy to other's anonymously is wonderful and inspiring.
This book would make a great gift for a pre-teen or teen, since that is such a delicate age of development. While the book would probably be more well received by females, males certainly could benefit from reading this book. I would have liked if there was a chapter in the book specifically for boys and men, especially being the mother of a boy.
I hope that Operation Beautiful movement continues to spread messages of inspiration. It should be required reading in middle school and every school counselor should have a copy to share to their students (and parents!)
Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for writing a review. I was not required to write a positive review, just an honest one.
