Self Esteem - What is it?

Self esteem is how you feel about yourself… what you think about yourself… and who you think you are. The experiences of our lifetime are the major factors that shape our self-esteem.

Does that mean that because I had a miserable childhood and a miserable past that my self-esteem is low?

While with a majority of folks, the answer would be yes, it is not necessarily so with all folks.

Does that mean that I am stuck with the way I feel about myself?

The answer is a resounding "NO!"

No one can MAKE us feel a certain way about ourselves. They may say mean and rough things. However, in the end, we decide if we will believe what they say. We decide how we feel about ourselves. By our actions and purposeful thoughts of everyday, we can alter the way we think about others and ourselves. You become changed by what you consistently behold, watch, listen to, and participate in.

For example: When a child is told, day in and day out, from parents, other family members, and family friends that he is stupid, that child grows up believing that he is stupid and sometimes fulfills that saying just because he believes that it is true because he had been told it for so long from so many people.

On the other hand: if that same child is taken from that atmosphere and is placed in a supporting environment where he is told that he is amazingly smart or that he can do it or that he can learn anything, that child will grow up to believe that he is smart and can learn anything because he had been told it for so long from so many people.

In the same way, we can alter our thoughts about who we are by the same techniques. It doesn’t happen over night but is a consistent and persistent necessity. It takes time, but as we put new positive self-affirmative thoughts in, the negative thoughts will eventually go out and what we think about ourselves will change as a result of the positive affirmations.

Almost every has at one time or another had to deal with self-esteem in one form or another. It is how we deal with that situation and how we let it affect us that will depend upon whether we begin to believe it and internalize it to change who we are.

It is very important to surround ourselves with those people who care about us and love us. Because those are the people who will find us of value to them and will be a great support system to encourage us when we need the encouragement and when we can't seem to encourage ourselves on those terribly bad days.

So, make wise decisions on who you make as friends and be sure that they are someone who isn't dipping out of your bucket, but instead is adding to it, thus adding to who you are.

Join me again at "Living Victoriously" as we go over Self Esteem - Part 2. "The importance of positive thoughts and self-affirmations".