Self Esteem is the value of a person’s worth and there are a lot of factors that come into play, especially in helping a person feel more confident about himself, which is also a primary factor in establishing a person’s outlook towards personal inspiration and feeling of success. On the spiritual Ascension pathway, recognizing the importance of character building as a necessary part of having self love and self acceptance is critical. in order to progress through self deception blocks. When we have low self esteem our psychological defense mechanisms will act to block our progress moving forward and evolving in life.
One who understands they are a loved and worthy spiritual vessel for the spirit of God Source, will begin to learn that self love is at the core of self acceptance, which is the quality one must build to truly feel and experience God's love for all of us. Once we feel love for ourselves we build inner confidence, which further builds our trust with life.
The more confident a person is, the more focused and determined the person is to aim for achieving a better state in life, regardless of whether it is for career, success, spiritual purpose, inspiration, family or personal goals. A peaceful and fulfilling life is most possible when one seeks inner truth and self knowledge, while building a relationship with God and a relationship to the self. When building a relationship with the self it may mean we are taken through character building life experiences we do not prefer. We must push through our fears in order to experience the accomplishment of moving past our perceived mental limitations. If our mental limitations or self entitlement govern our actions, we will become stunted in our growth and fall into low self esteem.
Self Esteem Makes Better Choices
Self-esteem can also align to help a person make better choices, especially when it comes to personal character development, improved learning and coping skills in life, which often lead to more abundance. Self-esteem improves mental and emotional clarity. Self-esteem in one's personality starts at birth, through parenting, environmental and other factors. As a person’s consciousness develops and takes shape into adulthood, this is when a person starts to measure himself, as to his own value and belief system around self worth. It then shapes how a person looks at himself and compares or assesses himself with the environment or his surroundings and starts to ask himself, do people like me and accept me for being me? Do other people regard me as an example or inspiration for others? How do other people look at me? What is my attitude and behavior towards life? Am I a deserving and worthy person to be loved, appreciated and to experience abundance? These are but some of the common social questions that help a human being gain self understanding, in the earlier growth stages, which help to gauge or measure his value and worth as a person.
Self Respect
All humans have a need to feel respected. This includes the need to have Self-Esteem and self-respect. Esteem presents the typical human instinct to be accepted in community and to be a valued member by others. People often engage in activities which give the person a sense of contribution or value. Low self-esteem or an inferiority complex may result from imbalances that have not been addressed or healed, such as unhealed emotional conflicts. People with low self-esteem often look to gain respect from others and they may feel the need to seek fame or glory. However, fame and glory will not help the person to build self-esteem until they accept who they are internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can hinder a person from obtaining a higher level of self-esteem or self-respect. Most people have a need for stable self-respect and self-esteem. Deprivation of these needs may lead to an inferiority complex, weakness, and feelings of helplessness.
Building Self Esteem
Self-esteem formally is "the disposition to experience oneself as competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and as worthy of happiness". While others like parents, teachers, and friends can nurture and support self-esteem in an individual, self-esteem relies upon various internally generated practices. To be responsible to take care of oneself is one way of building self esteem. In Nathan Branden's framework, there are six "pillars" of generating and building self-esteem:
- Living consciously: the practice of being aware of what one is doing while one is doing it, i.e., the practice of mindfulness.
- Self-acceptance: the practice of owning truths regarding one's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors; of being kind toward oneself with respect to them; and of being "for" oneself in a basic sense.
- Self-responsibility: the practice of owning one's authorship of one's actions and of owning one's capacity to be the cause of the effects one desires.
- Self-assertiveness: the practice of treating one's needs and interests with respect and of expressing them in appropriate ways.
- Living purposefully: the practice of formulating goals and of formulating and implementing action plans to achieve them.
- Personal integrity: the practice of maintaining alignment between one’s behaviors and convictions.
Branden distinguishes his approach to self-esteem from that of many others by his inclusion of both confidence and worth in his definition of self-esteem, and by his emphasis on the importance of internally generated practices for the improvement and maintenance of self-esteem in every day life.
