Every spring, the message of fixing ourselves start again.

“Fresh start.”
“New habits.”
“Reinvent yourself.”

Do We Need Fixing?

The season of renewal brings with it a familiar invitation: this is the moment to become a better version of who you were before. As a therapist, I hear this language in many forms. Sometimes it shows up in conversations about careers or relationships. But more often than not, it shows up in conversations about our bodies. This time of year, the cultural script gets louder. We’re told it’s time to reset our routines, improve our diets, and get ready for the warmer months ahead. Beneath all of that advice is a quiet assumption: that something about us needs fixing.

And yet, after years of working with women navigating body image and self-worth, I’ve started to wonder if we’ve misunderstood growth entirely. The way our culture talks about personal growth often sounds like a project of constant self-improvement. We’re encouraged to optimize our routines, push harder toward our goals, and continually reinvent ourselves. Productivity culture, wellness culture, and diet culture all echo the same message in slightly different ways: if you work hard enough fixing yourself, you can finally become the version of you that is acceptable.

Correction

Growth begins to feel less like curiosity and more like correction. This can be exhausting. When the goal of growth is to constantly improve yourself, it creates the subtle belief that who you are today is somehow insufficient. There is always another habit to fix, another goal to reach, another version of yourself waiting just beyond the horizon. Nowhere is this more visible than in the way we talk about our bodies.

Diet culture has trained many of us to believe that change must begin with dissatisfaction. The logic is simple: if you feel uncomfortable enough in your body, you’ll finally do what it takes to change it. Each spring brings the same familiar messages about “summer bodies,” detox plans, and the promise of starting over. But what if growth doesn’t actually work that way?

Growth Begins With Curiosity

If we look at the natural world—the very thing we celebrate during spring—growth rarely begins with criticism. Plants don’t grow because they are told they are inadequate. They grow when the conditions around them support life. They receive sunlight. Water. Space. Human growth isn’t so different.

In my work as a therapist, the most meaningful changes people experience rarely begin with shame or pressure. They begin when someone becomes curious about themselves instead of critical. When they begin to listen to their own needs instead of constantly trying to override them. For some people, growth looks like learning to trust their body again after years of trying to control it. Instead of fighting hunger, ignoring fatigue, or pushing through discomfort, they begin to ask gentler questions: What does my body actually need right now?

Growth Doesn’t Always Mean New

For others, growth might show up in completely different ways. It might look like setting boundaries where they once said yes to everything. It might look like choosing rest over relentless productivity. It might look like letting go of expectations that were never truly theirs to carry. In other words, growth doesn’t always mean becoming someone new.  Sometimes it means becoming more fully yourself. Spring offers us a helpful reminder here. The trees don’t rush their renewal, and they don’t apologize for the stillness of winter. They simply respond to the conditions around them and begin again.

Perhaps our own growth could look a little more like that—not a frantic attempt at fixing ourselves, but a quieter process of creating the conditions where we can grow naturally. And maybe the most surprising form of renewal isn’t becoming a better version of ourselves.  Maybe it’s learning that we were never broken to begin with.

Find more from Jamie here.