Self Esteem: Believing You Are Worthy of Love and Respect

You are a good person. Yes, you.
You deserve to be treated well by others.
You deserve to be loved and respected.
You deserve to be happy.
You deserve to have your needs met.
You are worth investing time and energy into.
You are capable of great things.
Your feelings are important.
You have power and wisdom inside of you.
What you want matters.

And all this is true even if you make mistakes. Even if you are not perfect. As a therapist and life coach, I have sat with some of the most phenomenally put-together, objectively successful, gorgeous, talented, and intelligent people who still genuinely believe that they are irredeemably flawed. They run multi-million dollar businesses, go on international adventures, and accomplish amazing things, yet they struggle to feel like they are valuable and worthy of love and respect.

So how about you? Take a second and re-read the statements above; are they true for you? Or does a part of you cringe away from them, thinking that such things might be true for others but not for you? Does your brain instantly reject these ideas, firing back with an endless catalogue of your many mistakes and short-comings: all the “evidence” to prove that you are less worthy somehow?

Why is it so easy to lose your self-esteem?

You are a perfect, unique snowflake gliding through your time here on earth. There has never been anyone like you, and there never will be again. You are smart, you are capable, and you are good. You are here to love and be loved. You have things about you that set you apart from other people. Maybe it’s your style, or your humor, or your tenacity. Maybe it’s the fearless way you’ve lived your life, or the heroic mountains you’ve climbed on your journey. Perhaps your most wonderful quality is the way you care so deeply for others.

But it’s easy to forget that you have to fight for your right to be heard, respected and understood, in a world that will not always reflect your inherent worthiness.

Every single one of us has been bruised on this journey through life. We’ve all been disappointed by people. We’ve taken risks, only to fall flat and feel humiliated for our efforts. Maybe toxic relationships have made you feel diminished. Perhaps you didn’t get your needs met at a time that you desperately needed support, and you are still carrying the scars of those primary wounds.

Over time the injuries of life can erode your belief in yourself. You can get tricked into believing that your not-so-great life experiences define you. Niggling doubts like, “Maybe my [insert one] critical father / emotionally abusive Ex / narcissistic mother / rejecting friend was right about me,” keep you from believing that you deserve more.

But you cannot let the inevitable traumas of the human experience break you. You cannot allow yourself to be diminished by others. You must never allow your core self to be ground away by disappointment.

Why your healthy self-esteem is so vital

Other people treat you the way you expect to be treated. You rise to meet your expectations of yourself. You make choices and take chances based on what you believe is possible for you.

Think about what could happen to you if you totally lost sight of your inner beauty, your worth, your potential, and your inherent right to be loved and respected? How chilling to consider the fate that might befall you if your life, and the people in it, began to conform to those expectations.

The world is hard enough without you tearing yourself down, beating yourself up for your failures, and punishing yourself. When you start bullying and bashing and betraying yourself, the only person who can save you — you — becomes your worst enemy. But you MUST be your own hero.

How to heal your self-esteem

It’s time for you to take your power back. All faith is a choice. All beliefs are voluntary. You can decide to be your number one fan, and actively, intentionally build yourself up. You can support yourself from the inside out. In fact, you have to. No one else is going to do this for you — because no one can.

Decide today: You are worthy of love and respect. You are capable of great things. You are a good, smart, strong person.

Remind yourself daily, hourly, or minute-by-minute on especially challenging days:
I am a good person.
I am worthy of love and respect.
I decide what is possible for me.

Make those statements your mantra. Believe they are so. Act as if they are so. And watch as the world rises to meet YOU!