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Do you have someone in your life who doesn\u2019t seem to think very highly of themself? Do you struggle to hold yourself in high regard? Always putting yourself down, blaming yourself and focussing on your weaknesses?It may well be that low self-esteem is the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Low self-esteem is when a person holds negative beliefs\nabout themselves, dismissing or overlooking evidence to the contrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They may feel that their true self is weak, inadequate,\ninferior or lacking. They are plagued by uncertainty and self-doubt and their\nthoughts about self are often unkind and critical. They focus on the negatives\nto the neglect of the positives and have difficulty feeling any sense of\nself-worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These negative beliefs express themselves in what people\nthink, what they say about themselves (self talk) and how they act. So\nself-doubt, self-blame, being critical of self, discounting positives and focussing\non weaknesses will all be present. Self-consciousness \u2013 that thinking that says\n\u201cwhat will people think?\u201d will be present and over sensitivity to criticism and\ndisapproval from others, will lead to people pleasing. The person with low\nself-esteem may find they have difficulty speaking up for themself (say sorry\nlots) and avoid challenges and opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So where does it come from? We are not born with low self-esteem. It develops as a result of experiences in life and most usually these occur in either childhood and\/or adolescence. If these experiences have in the main been positive and affirming then our view of self will generally be positive and affirming. Likewise if our life experiences have been largely negative and undermining then then our view of self will likely be negative and undermining. In some cases it can lower in adulthood as a result of experiences such as job loss, long term illness or workplace bullying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To better understand low self-esteem, let\u2019s take a look at\nwhat healthy self-esteem is. Healthy self-esteem is reflected in a generally\npositive view of self and sense of self-worth. It is not the polar opposite of\nlow self-esteem, in fact the polar opposite, whereby one excessively focusses\nonly on their positive attributes and strengths to the neglect of their\nweaknesses can be equally as unhelpful as low self-esteem. Neither extreme is\nhelpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Healthy self-esteem is balanced. It acknowledges both\npositives and negatives, strengths and weaknesses as being part of what it\nmeans to be fully human, fully alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can I change it? Make it better, healthier? Yes you can! You\nsee, the beliefs we hold about ourselves (and the world in general) are in fact\nopinions. And opinions can be changed. It may take some dedication on your part\nand even the help of a professional to help you identify the thinking patterns\nthat are keeping you stuck and to develop skills to grow some new ways of\nthinking, but with practice and consistency you can make meaningful change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So in a nutshell, a person who has low self-esteem is\nsomeone who holds negative beliefs about themselves. These beliefs are opinions\nnot fact and opinions can always be changed. You can \u201cgrow\u201d your self-esteem to\nreflect a healthier and more balanced view of self and as a result an eminently\nmore enjoyable life will follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do you have someone in your life who doesn\u2019t seem to think very highly of themself? Do you struggle to hold yourself in high regard? Always putting yourself down, blaming yourself and focussing on your weaknesses?It may well be that low self-esteem is the issue. Low self-esteem is when a person holds negative beliefs about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-counselling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspirecounselling.nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}