Many people are not even aware that they have a low self esteem.
I read this in a blog today
The problem was…,
That it was ‘me’ living in that hell of my own making. And no matter how rotten I imagined I might be, I didn’t like the feel of living in hell. It was miserable.
And boy did I feel stupid, knowing I was the one that had sentenced myself there.
I did it because I had never been taught or shown, how to Love ‘me’. I was taught that Self is supposed to be sacrificed for the ‘good of others‘.
As a result, I didn’t know how to Embrace ‘me’. I didn’t know how to Accept ‘me’. I didn’t know how to Tolerate ‘me’. Much less know how to Enjoy my own company.
And I knew it.
I knew how to be self condemning. I knew how to be self rejecting. I could come up with a list a mile long, at a moment’s notice, of reasons I was unworthy and should therefore, be sacrificed for ‘the good of others’.
For all my intellect, for all my education, I didn’t know how to be self nurturing.
I was an empty vessel. Empty of feeling any of the feelings that would have been supportive and fulfilling. Looking always to the World outside of me, to provide me with what I felt I lacked.
Part of blog post Self Esteem comes in a package deal with Self Respect by Sue Ann Edwards
How many of us can really identify with Sue? The saddest thing is that most of the time we don’t realise the power of what we think and tell ourselves many times a day, and are under the illusion that this is what real life is like . We live in a tunnel of low self esteem, and reinforce it many times a day, until we are unable to think and feel differently.
Jack Canfield, who has studied self esteem for many years states that most people have a ratio of 14:1 That is 14 negative thoughts to one positive.
The good thing is that Sue has recognized that she is in a tunnel. That is the first stage of getting out of it, and making the changes that will start to bring happiness into our lives.
