High Self-Esteem

There were situations in your life, no, in fact life is peppered by incidences where you have had to prove yourself, tell everyone what you are worth. To cut a long story short, yes life throws challenges to us which test our capabilities, our perception of our own self and self worth. Self-esteem is what is at the root of all these things. When you are low on morale, your self-esteem is what is going to prop you up. As psychologists say, it is an enduring personality characteristic. In this article here we are going to unravel some facts about self-esteem.

What is Self-Esteem
self-esteem is defined by psychologists mostly in terms of stable sense of personal worth or worthiness. Social learning theorists, mainly Morris Rosenberg and a few others came up with this concept. In 1969, a definition by Nathaniel Braden was accepted. It was ."The experience of being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and being worthy of happiness". Self worth and our own evaluation of ourselves is what primarily constitutes self-esteem.

High Self-esteem Characteristics
Well, to begin with, there is no concrete definition of high self-esteem. It is observed and identified through certain behavioral patterns and personality traits. There are various things which can indicate that the person has high self-esteem. These are -

• The most basic thing is that they feel worthy of love and approval. They do not need to know what they are worth from others.
• Total self acceptance and understanding their inner self.
• Confidence in themselves and their abilities.
• Respecting and realizing individual differences among people.
• Listening to others point of view is another trait.
• Taking responsibility for your own actions and their consequences.
• Ability to take positive risks and effort to improve one self.
• People with high self-esteem have good communication skills.
• They never undermine the abilities of others and never demean them.

Now the tricky part here is that there is a thin line between healthy self-esteem and high self-esteem. The ones above were characteristics of healthy self-esteem. If this line is crossed, it can lead to unnecessarily high self-esteem, which is not exactly an ideal scenario to be in.

Indications of High Self-esteem
When individuals have a sense of higher than healthy self-esteem they display these following traits.

• They become too absorbed and content of themselves.
• They start dominating others and consider others to be inferior to them.
• Such individuals can be typically arrogant.
• Unhealthy self love and vanity, almost to the extent of self obsession is observed.
• They are unduly assertive.
• Humility and being humble too does not feature in their personality.

A self report inventory can be a great way to know a person's level of self-esteem- whether it is high low or really high, even to the extent of narcissism. Signs and symptoms of low self-esteem can be immediately reflected through the related self-esteem test. Now talking of low self-esteem, as against adequately high self-esteem, what should be done by those who are low on self-esteem?

How to Develop Adequate Self-Esteem
It is not an overnight event that one day you decide that you want to develop an adequate self-esteem and have it the nest morning! You have to understand and analyze the causes of low self-esteem. Building high self-esteem is a continuous process and it almost never ends because you need to maintain your healthy self-esteem for your entire life thereafter. There are self-esteem affirmations which will be helpful in that regard. One of the most important things for developing a high self-esteem is to think positive - about everything and yourself. It is inevitable if you want to increase your sense of self worth. For overcoming low self-esteem, understanding yourself inside out is essential. When you do not know what you really are! People, you are in a big soup. Then you get carried away by perception others have about you. If you know what you are for sure, what people say or think about you is inconsequential. Be with people who really understand you and are positive all through. It is a cardinal rule for improving self-esteem.

Feeling good about yourself involves your physical being too and not just your mental and spiritual shape. So be in as good physical condition as you can be - exercise, stay fit and in great shape. Being healthy physically, keeps you mentally strong and healthy as well, crucial for feeling good about yourself. Doing something for others and making them happy too increases our sense of self worth and gives us that good feeling. That is one of the good self-esteem exercises. Last and final, thing, Be yourself! Avoid trying to please everyone, especially in the matters of relationship by acting in a manner which is not YOU! Good luck!