Mindful Thought: Self-Esteem part 2

Yesterday we took a look on how our self esteem is based on the opinions we have about ourselves.

So lets explore where does opinions come from. It's no surprise they are formed by several aspects:

Our achievements, our relationships and whether we are connected to a larger purpose, these are all contributing factors.

But most of our opinions about ourselves were actually developed in our formative years, the events that took place in our childhood and adolescence largely mold our self esteem. Our parents and the people who raised us have the most significant influence on how we feel about ourselves. 

For example if we were fortunate enough to have parents who listen to us, respected us, commended our efforts and offered support we be likely to develop high self esteem. If we had family members who are harshly critical of us, were abusive or expected perfection, their hurtful comments may lowered our self esteem.

Even if criticism directed at us didn't hold any truth they can stick with us sometimes for life, whether we were accepted or rejected by our peers, if we had allies or if we were bullied, all our experiences and interactions influence the positive and negative feelings we have about ourselves.

You see our self esteem is extremely fragile and impressionable. Negative messages have the potential to seep into our unconscious mind without us even recognize it. The good news is that by examining those critical believes we have the ability to change and transform it.

We will explore that shortly in the meditation:

In the state of stillness and reflect on what brought you back to his program once again, bringing to mind the area of life you selected yesterday. And with that area in  mind, reflect on a criticism or self defeating believe you may have, any reoccurring negative statement you tell yourself regularly, that impacts your self esteem, one that lessens your value self worth or competency

And just notice how that criticism makes you feel, often our critical believes are inspired by other people, our parents, our peers,  through media and culture. There may be a specific event that influences that notion, so you maybe able to trace that criticism or believe believe back to a time in your past, regardless if whether you can recall the origin of the criticism.

Ask yourself the following question:

what if that believe isn't true? what if it is only partly true? what if it is an exaggeration or an assumption? or misinterpretation? and that believe is hurting us?

Thoughts come into our unconscious mind and become our core believes, but the good news now matter how ingrained they are,  its possible to let them go...

So the next question is: are you ready to do that? are you willing to release that criticism? or are you at least willing to see how it would feel to be free of that believe?

8 Signs of Low Self Esteem