What you think of yourself matters 🤍
Your opinion really matters
🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
If our self esteem / opinion of ourselves is really low it can have a negative impact on our mental health and our life. When we have a healthy self-esteem, we tend to feel positive about ourselves and about life in general. We tend to be more more resilient and are able to bounce back more easily from set backs and deal with life's ups and downs much more creatively.
Your self-esteem can affect whether you:
like yourself
value yourself
are able to make decisions
are able to assert yourself
easily recognise the areas where you excel
When our self-esteem is low, we tend to see ourselves and our life in a more negative and critical light. We also feel less able to take on the challenges that life throws at us.
What causes low self-esteem?
Low self-esteem often begins in our childhood. Our teachers, friends, siblings, parents, and even the media send us positive and negative messages about ourselves, yet for some reason the message that you are not good enough seem to stay with many of us.
Often the negative message is the message that remains, like, “you are not good enough”.
You may have found it difficult to live up to other people's expectations of you or the impossible standards you put upon yourself.
Stress and difficult life events, such as serious illness, bereavement or redundancy can have a negative effect on self-esteem.
Some of us are more inclined to negative thinking.
Try this 3 step self help exercise to boost your self esteem…
Imagine yourself at a young age between 3-10 years of age.
Allow your memory to choose a younger version of you and capture as many details of…
where you are
what you’re wearing
what you were feeling
Now visualise the present day you in front of your younger self.
Imagine that you can communicate a feeling of unconditional love or acceptance to your younger self.
Use words that would be comforting or supportive to your younger self, e.g.
“I love you, just as you are”
“You are beautiful”
“You are enough”
“You are awesome”
“I support your dreams”
Try to use words or statements that feel natural to your adult and child self. Let your younger self know that you want to support him/her fully, that you will not dismiss or neglect them.
Become aware of any feelings that arise from this level of unconditional support and allow yourself to enjoy this moment.
When you feel complete, end this moment with an affectionate gesture, e.g. an embrace or some type of contact that would feel comforting for both of you.
Finish the exercise slowly. Remember the idea is to begin to be with yourself in a kinder, more accepting, non-judgmental way.
Take a moment now and make a few notes about your experience. Don’t overthink it, just write what comes into your mind. Your notes will help improve where you rate yourself on the self esteem scale.
These thoughts and feelings have probably been with you for some time so be sure to make time to repeat this exercise and monitor your self esteem progress.
Need a helping hand?
If you would like some help building up your self esteem, give Jen a call and start discovering what you’re made of!
“The opinion you have about yourself really matters” 🤍