The Art of High Self-Esteem
To love yourself means to accept yourself
as you are and to come to terms with those aspects of yourself that you cannot change. It means to have high self-esteem,
self-respect and a positive self-image.
Needless to say, it does not mean being arrogant, conceited or thinking
that you are better than anyone else. It means having a healthy regard for yourself knowing that you are a worthy human being.
It is important to remind ourselves that no one is perfect. We all have strengths and weaknesses and we certainly
possess the resources to work on improving ourselves.
Each of us is unique and has specific talents and abilities
to offer. We are all here, in the words of Walt Whitman, "to contribute a verse".
In order to appreciate
yourself it is up to you to discover what makes you unique and to further develop those talents. We have a responsibility
to ourselves to do so.
You cannot sit around and wait for approval from others. Work on accepting yourself.
You are the only "you" that you have. It is in your best interests to be the best you can be.
Until
you love yourself, you will not be able to love anyone else. You can only love another to the degree that you do yourself.
How do you love yourself?
You do so by investing in and working on your personal growth and development.
You work on being the best you.
When you love yourself you automatically take care of yourself physically,
mentally and emotionally. You take care to look and feel your best by nurturing your body, mind and spirit.
Conversely, if you don't love yourself enough, start taking care of your body, mind, and spirit. You will not only become
more self-aware, you will generate feelings of worth and accomplishment.
You take care of your body by eating
well, exercising and getting plenty of rest.
Your mind needs nourishment and exercise too. Don't take
it for granted. Stimulate it by learning about new and interesting things. Keeping your mind active helps prevent certain
old age diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia. Keeping the neural connections of your mind active helps maintain memory
and brain functions at optimum levels.
If you take care of your mind and body but neglect your spirit, you
will lack balance and feel that something is missing in your life. Taking care of your spirit rejuvenates you, and helps you
deal with the daily stresses and challenges of everyday life.
When you love yourself, you invest in your
personal growth and development. You endeavor to be the best that you can be, and you strive to achieve your potential.
~ Unattributed ~
We think looking in the mirror means we love ourselves. But in a way, it means we don't because otherwise
we wouldn't need to keep checking to make sure we look OK.
Accept yourself today. You are more than enough.
Know that. And know that any challenge or obstacle you face will never be more than you can handle.
~ Yehuda
Berg ~
Shared by: LINELLA BRECKENRIDGE
10 Virtually Instant Things You Can Do To Improve Your Life!
Many
of our problems come from within our own minds. They aren’t caused by events, bad luck, or other people. We cause them
through our own poor mental habits. Here are 10 habits you should set aside right away to free yourself from the many problems
each one will be causing you.
* Stop jumping to conclusions*
There are two common ways this habit increases people’s difficulties.
First, they assume that they know what is going to happen, so they stop paying attention and act on their assumption instead.
Human beings are lousy fortune-tellers. Most of what they assume is wrong. That makes the action wrong too. The second aspect
of this habit is playing the mind-reader and assuming you know why people do what they do or what they’re thinking.
Wrong again, big time. More relationships are destroyed by this particular kind of stupidity than by any other.
* Don’t dramatize*
Lots of people inflate small setbacks into life-threatening catastrophes and react accordingly. This habit
makes mountains out of molehills and gives people anxieties that either don’t exist or are so insignificant they aren’t
worth worrying about anyway. Why do they do it? Who knows? Whatever the reason, it’s silly as well as destructive.
* Don’t invent rules*
A huge proportion of those “oughts” and “shoulds” that you carry around are most likely
needless. All that they do for you is make you feel nervous or guilty. What’s the point? When you use these imaginary
rules on yourself, you clog your mind with petty restrictions and childish orders. And when you try to impose them on others,
you make yourself into a bully, a boring nag, or a self-righteous bigot.
* Avoid stereotyping or labeling people or situations*
The
words you use can trip you up. Negative and critical language produces the same flavor of thinking. Forcing things into pre-set
categories hides their real meaning and limits your thinking to no purpose. See what’s there. Don’t label. You’ll
be surprised at what you find.
* Quit being a perfectionist*
Life isn’t all or nothing, black or white. Many times, good enough means
exactly what it says. Search for the perfect job and you’ll likely never find it. Meanwhile, all the others will look
worse than they are. Try for the perfect relationship and you’ll probably spend your life alone. Perfectionism is a
mental sickness that will destroy all your pleasure and send you in search of what can never be attained.
* Don’t over-generalize*
One or two setbacks are not a sign of permanent failure. The odd triumph doesn’t turn you into a genius.
A single event—good or bad—or even two or three don’t always point to a lasting trend. Usually things are
just what they are, nothing more.
* Don’t take
things so personally*
Most people, even your friends and colleagues,
aren’t talking about you, thinking about you, or concerned with you at all for 99% of the time. The majority of folk
in your organization or neighborhood have probably never heard of you and don’t especially want to. The ups and downs
of life, the warmth and coldness of others, aren’t personal at all. Pretending that they are will only make you more
miserable than is needed.
* Don’t assume your emotions
are trustworthy*
How you feel isn’t always a good indicator
of how things are. Just because you feel it, that doesn’t make it true. Sometimes that emotion comes from nothing more
profound than being tired, hungry, annoyed, or about to get a head-cold. The future won’t change because you feel bad—nor
because you feel great. Feelings may be true, but they aren’t the truth.
* Don’t let life get you down*
Keep
practicing being optimistic. If you expect bad things in your life and work, you’ll always find them. A negative mind-set
is like looking at the world through distorting, grimy lenses. You spot every blemish and overlook or discount everything
else. It’s amazing what isn’t there until you start to look for it. Of course, if you decide to look for signs
of positive things, you’ll find those too.
* Don’t
hang on to the past*
This is my most important suggestion of
all: let go and move on. Most of the anger, frustration, misery, and despair in this world come from people clinging to past
hurts and problems. The more you turn them over in your mind, the worse you’ll feel and the bigger they’ll look.
Don’t try to fight misery. Let go and move on. Do that and you’ve removed just about all its power to hurt you.
~ Adrian Savage ~
Slow
Leadership: Civilizing The Organization
*Shared by Linella Breckenridge
