Self-esteem is a combination of:
- Self-Worth — A sense of your value as a person.
- Self Confidence — A sense of confidence in yourself (doing, judging, thinking, etc).
What plays into the development of self-esteem?
- Positive patterns and experiences in early, primary family relationships
- Positive experiences with peers
- Personal achievements (school, personal…)
- Realized skills and talents
- Physical and personality traits
- Positive, optimistic thinking
What contributes to low self-esteem?
- Negative experiences in early, primary family relationships (abuse, being ostracizes, neglect, etc.)
- Negative experiences with peers (school, personal…)
- Actual or perceived failures
- Lack of developed skills or talents (lack of positive identity with others)
- Being ‘different’ in any visible way to others (physically, emotionally, socially)
- Embarrassment about one’s family
- Addictions
- Low self-esteem of parents
- Inappropriate treatment of others
Achieving and maintaining self-esteem is a process, not an event.
Maintenance of self-esteem through:
- Setting boundaries
- Changing self-talk
- Eliminating negative people and relationships from your life
- Addiction recovery process
- Defining and achieving “your” vision of success
- Empathic understanding of mistakes and shortcomings
- Forgiveness of self and others