Building Your Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is built through constant encouragement and support, through praise and acknowledgment of achievements. It is a long process and, ideally, starts early in life. It is a lot easier to build self esteem in children, while they grow up. They get their cues from their parents, teachers or their significant adults. If children are encouraged to be independent individuals capable of doing everything they put their mind to, if children are supported and taught to be assertive they will grow up to believe in themselves, they will have high self-esteem. They will be comfortable with who they are and it will show in their behaviour.

However, this is not always the case and we may find ourselves in our teenage years or as adults in great difficulty, with low self-esteem, not able to relate to others the way we would like to or not capable of forming and maintaining good, strong, healthy relationships. In this case counselling, psychotherapy or personal development courses may help. You may have the opportunity to understand who you are and why you behave the way you do and you may also explore how you would like to be and what is important to you. With the help of your counsellor you will find ways of building up your self-esteem and your ability to do things independently will increase. You will learn to be contented with yourself and you will learn to relate to people in a way that brings you satisfaction. You will learn how to be more assertive and how to develop your full potential. You can learn to be happy.