Our self-esteem and self-worth is related to our growth and development and is produced by our family culture, our childhood experiences and the larger culture in which we live. Our self-esteem grows in response to our achievements and successes but can be damaged by slights, humiliations, disappointments, childhood deprivation and ill-treatment or when we don’t feel sufficiently loved, appreciated or understood by our parents.
Our level of self-esteem therefore is the sum total of our history and our experiences – our experiences of success or failure and the care/ treatment we receive at the hands of others. Self-esteem is paramount to our psychological well-being: it affects our perception of the world and how we relate to it as well as how we are treated or allow ourselves to be treated by others. Self-esteem can be affected by:
- Not knowing who you are
- Trying to living up to either personal or social roles and characteristics expected of you
- Negative self-evaluation: having overly high expectations and standards
- Focusing predominantly on your flaws/weaknesses rather than your strengths
- Changes and shifts in how you see yourself due to major life changes
- Relationships – or even a lack of romantic relationship – affecting or eroding self-esteem
- Negative body images
When our self-esteem is low it affects our expectations and our explanations of what happens to us: as a child we learn to make sense of painful experiences by building inner negative beliefs such as “It’s all my fault”, “I’m bad”, “I don’t deserve ….”. As adults we then carry beliefs with us such as “something always goes wrong”, “my relationships don’t work out”, ” men are untrustworthy” , “I’m not good enough” etc. Low self-esteem and feelings of unworthiness can create the very things we fear, lead us to self-sabotage therefore strengthening the self-defeating belief even further – it’s a vicious cycle! Studies of women show that significant numbers, even millions, of women suffer low self-esteem.
How to raise your self-esteem
Hypno-psychotherapy can help you raise your self-esteem quickly, easily and effortlessly using the power of the subconscious mind to naturally and instinctively release and let go of the reasons behind low self-esteem, and to build your confidence, self-acceptance and feelings of calm and relaxation.
As your self-esteem starts to grow naturally you will start to do things differently, to see things differently seeking out and choosing situations and circumstances which support your new more positive beliefs. With your raised self-esteem, you will be more at peace and accepting of yourself (as you value your good points and accept your normal human fallibilities), more confident and more motivated: much more able to easily make the changes you want in your life and to go for things you want which previously you may have avoided – whether that is a new job, new relationships, new clothes – to reflect the new, more confident you – or even a trip travelling round the world!
For more information on how to raise yourself-esteem contact me now.