“You, yourself, as much as anybody else in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” Buddha
For those of you who talk yourself down, lacking in confidence and suffering in life because of it, today I want you to read this article to help you create a higher self-esteem.
Do you feel empowered by feelings of self-confidence, or are you filled with limiting thoughts of self-doubt? Have you unintentionally placed invisible boundaries on what you are able to achieve fueled by your limiting beliefs, or do you see a world of limitless possibilities and opportunities?
What you see is directly related to the way you see yourself, based on your level of self-esteem.
We all hold on to a certain self-image of ourselves. Our mind sees an image conceived through our own personal evaluation of our abilities, appearance, intellect, popularity and many others of our personal qualities. This image will determine your level of self-esteem.
Even though we tend to think that our self-image is correct and grounded on reality, it’s not. As it’s not, this means we can change it. To do so you have to look closely at your self-esteem.
Self-esteem is a powerful force within each one of us. We cannot hope to realize our potential or improve our lives without a high self-esteem. It’s appreciating your own value and significance. So let’s define the meaning of self-esteem.
In a nutshell it is our confidence in our ability to think and to cope with the basic challenges of life; and our belief in our rights to be happy, feeling worthy, deserving, with the inner strength to take care of our needs and wants to enjoy the fruits of our efforts.
Let me use this definition:
“By self-esteem we refer to the evaluation which the individual makes and customarily maintains with regard to himself. It expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval, and indicates the extent to which the individual believes himself to be capable, significant, successful, and worthy. In short, self-esteem is a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes the individual holds toward himself.” Stanley Coopersmith
Lacking a positive self-esteem restricts our life and development and makes us susceptible to life’s adversities. It makes us weak. We feel insecure within ourselves, we see our life as greatly restricted, fearful and we constantly put ourselves down and deliberately avoiding opportunities, preferring to hide away accepting mediocrity rather than facing humiliation of failure.
Those with a high self-esteem are empowered, energized, motivated, inspired to achieve. A trait we all deserve to benefit from.
The mental picture you hold of yourself is the key to your level of self-esteem. This is your self-image. It will be low if you see yourself as worthless and unremarkable, and high if you see yourself as valuable and unique. No matter the image you hold on to at present you have the ability to change your image of yourself which in return will shift your life significantly.
So just know your self-image can limit you, or empower you!
Have you realised that self-esteem issues may have prohibited you from creating a truly satisfying and productive life?
It is not uncommon for self-esteem problems to destabilize your efforts in subtle ways that you’re unaware of.
Developing the habit of making a high self-esteem needs to be one of your priority goals. You need to begin listening to your inner voice, hearing the way you talk to yourself and about yourself. You need to become the policeman of your inner mind, putting a stop to all the negativity that swirls around inside of you. As you constrain the negative thoughts, your inner voice will begin to create an endless flow of ideas, insights and creative solutions to solving your problems, and achieving your every goal.
Still not sure you suffer from low self-esteem, well just carry out this exercise:
Write down the things you like about yourself — your strengths, your accomplishments, those good positive traits — things that are great about you.
Next write down the things you dislike about yourself — your weaknesses, your failures, those bad negative traits — things that are bad about you.
Which list is the longest? If it’s the second then your self-esteem certainly needs working on.
By working on yourself, and putting in continuous effort, not only will your self-esteem improve but so will your life.
Try this exercise. Take some quiet time where you will find no distractions or interruptions. Shut your eyes. Allow your mind to relax and allow it to just wander. Now quieten it, just cut all thoughts off as they begin to appear. Focus on your breathing, just your breathing. Feel every breath in and every breath out. Track the breaths as they appear to move around inside of you. After a minute or two pick one quality you feel is important for you to cultivate or improve in your life. You are unlimited, free to choose, it can be anything you want to possess: an increase in confidence, popularity, strength to overcome life problems, better health, a more positive outlook, better relations with others, etc.
Now imagine what it would be like if you’d already achieved this. How would it feel, what you would be doing, what would result from this big change? See an action filled movie in your mind of how life would be once you had achieved this improvement, see it play out.
Now you’re ready to begin implement it by taking control of your inner voice.
One more step to really begin your self-esteem improvement is to make a positive affirmation which you should say again and again for a few minutes:
“I have total confidence in myself and everything I do. I always do everything to the best of my abilities, and I know my best is good enough. I feel great about myself, and know that I am growing in confidence each and every day.”
See your life improve dramatically once you create a higher self-esteem.
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