“The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly.”
– G.K. Chesterton
What a felicitous (appropriate) quote to open a blog on self-esteem. I love G.K. Chesterton. He was an author of books, essays, an art critic, a philosopher. He was known as the “prince of paradox”. I chose the above quote to center our thoughts of one of the basic tenets, as I see them, on a start point when examining something as mind encompassing as self-esteem. Wow! This can be an eye-rolling topic. And some have made it a topic in which only experts should tackle. Not from where I stand. I have been in the professional counseling field for more than 35 years. Though I worked in an area of intensity, my favorite people to work with are women.
Women get the complexity of life. Women have a history of managing families. Women reach for help. Women are open to learning. Women do not see themselves as weak when asking for emotional help. Self-esteem is an issue for all. It is not gender specific. Self-esteem is necessary for emotional and spiritual well-being. (An area I have personally lived.)
We begin the journey of learning ourselves early in life. There is no definitive knowledge as to whether environment, genetics, or learning are the sole creators of our self-esteem. All have a bearing on its development. Somehow, someway our thinking apparatus can learn to judge us harshly and can even make us believe we reject our very being. Subconscious is like that. It has no sense of humor. Sarcasm is filtered as fact. Learning how to change our thoughts comes through learning how to change internal dialogue. Learning to love who we are. Warts and all.
My counseling approach is as a partner on a new adventure. To learn how to find “Joy” in minutes and moments lightens the burden of the negative part of the subconscious. As a partner, I hope to share tools to achieve this. It is never too late, and we are never too old to give ourselves the gift of “Joy” and “Self-appreciation”.
“The only joy in the world is to begin.” – Cesare Pavese