Women and Self-Esteem
Self-esteem or self-worth includes a person's subjective appraisal of himself or herself as intrinsically positive or negative to some degree. It is our core identity issue, essential to personal validation and our ability to experience joy.
Once achieved, it comes from the inside out. But it is assaulted or stunted from the outside in. A woman with low self-esteem does not feel good about herself because she has absorbed negative messages about women from the culture and/or relationships.
The reign of youth, beauty and thinness in our society dooms every woman to eventual failure. Women's magazines, starting with the teenage market, program them to focus all their efforts on their appearance.
Many girls learn, by age 12, to drop formerly enjoyable activities in favor of the beauty treadmill leading to nowhere. They become fanatical about diets. They munch, like rabbits, on leaves without salad dressing, jog in ice storms, and swear they love it! Ads abound for cosmetic surgery, enticing us to "repair" our aging bodies, as if the natural process of aging were an accident or a disease. Yet with all this effort, they still never feel like they are good enough.
A workshop a set of activities designed to promote learning, discussion and feedback about a topic or event, you have achieve this with the traditional get together workshop, but online, all you need to do it logon to find other peoples views and suggestions about their life changing ways into a better self.
Get better everyday
Plan to do one thing that will help you improves physically, intellectually, emotionally, even spiritually. Making just one change for the better will boost your attitude from the inside out. You can actually chose what you want to change in this category first. Things you do most are the ones you need to focus on. A simple task wont take that long.
Little things add up
It's amazing, really. The seemingly meaningless things you do for yourself may not have immediate results, but after just a short period of time they'll have you looking and feeling better. So add those bubbles to your bath, make sure you eat your vegetables, get enough sleep, think of doing something nice when you have nothing to do, and the results will be worth it.
Mirrors don’t lie
Catty acquaintances can. Well-meaning friends might out of kindness or fear of hurting the friendship, but if you've got spinach in your teeth, your mirror will point it out. These things can be bothersome when you thought you were in your best but end up like this, so keep in mind about how to look best every time and enjoy its benefits.
Just go
If you just can't get rid of that cowlick in your hair, that pimple on your nose, or those extra three pounds from yesterday's buffet, just throw some gel in you hair, conceal that pimple the best you can, and wear something that's not too clingy.
Appreciate
To get that attitude going the right way, you need to appreciate your face and body for what it is. It may be unrealistic to tell you to love it, but you certainly shouldn't hate it. You definitely need to value what life has thrown you. That's easier said than done in this society of model adulation and unrealistic standards.
If you take a look at any success story and grasp the one element of similarity between them, you'll notice that virtually every self-made, successful person has this one super-important object of success in their mind- a burning desire to succeed. Self-esteem can be specific to a particular dimension (I believe I am a good writer, and feel proud of that in particular) or global in extent (I believe I am a good person, and feel proud of myself in general). What counts is your frame of mind. Your Age, location, ethnic origin, gender, or any other individuality have absolutely no part in your attitude to become what you desire.
Helpful Resources:
Counseling To Enhance Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem and Narcissism: Implications for Practice
A Buddhist View on Lack of Self-confidence
Exploding the Self Esteem Myth - Scientific American
The costs and causes of low self-esteem
Thymos, Dignity & Self-esteem
Our Urgent Need For Self-Esteem by Nathaniel Branden
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