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| An Exercise in boosting your Self-Esteem |
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| Author: pp editor, Date Added: 16/May/2004, Article Group: Self-Development |
| The purpose of the exercise contained in this article is to find out how much Self-Esteem you have. Self-esteem is different to self-confidence, self worth, pride, or what other people tell you about yourself. Self esteem has nothing to do with how you look, how fat or thin you are, or anything related to the physical body. To find your level of self-esteem you look inside yourself, not outside. Try to use the first thing that enters your head, do not try to analyse what you are putting down at this stage. |
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| Stage One |
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| Get a pen and paper; draw a line down the page. On one side put Positive at the top and on the other side put Negative. These titles are not to make you right or wrong, they are to highlight how you feel about yourself. Begin by writing down all the things about yourself that you feel are positive. Use the attached list if you feel you cannot think of many positive traits. Do not degrade or inflate yourself. Be totally honest with yourself. |
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| Stage Two |
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| Repeat with the negative traits you hold about yourself. You may find that this list is easy to fill to the bottom of the page. We are all told throughout our lives what we are by others, which we accept as our reality and eventually become what others think we are. |
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| Stage Three |
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| Leave the list for at least one day, adding to it if you need to, do not remove anything though. When you feel the list is complete, sit alone and re-read your list. Look at the negative traits you have listed. Go through each one and think about how this trait is useful in your life. For example, you may have listed jealous. Instead of seeing this as a negative, look at it a different way. Jealousy is an emotion that makes you realise just how much you feel about someone or something. The emotions arise from fear of loss. But it is the actions you take as a result of the emotion which makes a negative trait destructive not only to others, but a destructive action lowers your self esteem, you start to believe that you are a "bad" person. |
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| Now look at each trait and think about what positives each gives you. They are there, even if they take some thinking about. Take revenge as an example, you seek revenge to get your own back. This is a form of self preservation of your sense of fairness and justice - a positive trait - but the action it inspires is the destructive part, which in turn leads you to dislike yourself for the emotions it stirs up. |
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| Stage Four |
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| Compare both sides of your list and see if there are any opposites. For example, you may have generous on one side and possessive on the other. Every trait has an opposite. See how many opposites you have. |
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| Stage Five |
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| Write out each negative trait and find an example of how this serves you in a positive sense only. Look for its usefulness in your life. If you find that you truly cannot find a positive use for that trait, then find its positive opposite and begin to practice that deliberately in your daily life until the negative aspect is overwhelmed by new positive behaviour. |
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| Please note that the Word version of this article contains a list of positive and negative traits that can be printed separately and used for the exercise. |
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| Stress at work |
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This article focuses on the ever-increasing problem of stress in the workplace and ways it can be combatted. |
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| The following courses incorporate modalities related to the article detailed above. |
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