"Barbie must get fired alot because she has a new job everyday" ...these words caught my attention, made ME laugh and then I pondered as my 13 year old daughter went on to point out Barbie with all her different jobs. "See, she is a race car driver, an artist, a teacher, and a dog walker and many other things" she said and in the moment my reaction and words to both her and her younger sister were "that's because she can do all those jobs and more and do them well!".
Negating to say BARBIE could do them all well while looking amazing for her age and that apparently her SELFESTEEM had not suffered due to being fired so often...my attention was already diverted to how the moment played right into the piece I was working on for this Blog.
How...well, the piece originally inspired by that same daughters essay on SELFESTEEM and why and how healthy selfesteem is the door to a healthy, positive, joyful life and PEACE WITHIN was right there before me in BARBIE!...who had learned it seems to see and share the best in herself, accept her shortcomings and apparent let downs and move on and continue to grow, finding new avenues to express all her talents and skills. She had the ability it seemed to me to love herself, she had healthy selfesteem.
PEACE WITHIN is POSSIBLE! the fact is it is up to us to nurture it! Another fact seems to be that WE are our own worst critics and it is those nagging SELF doubts and inability to accept our own perceived shortcomings and let downs and move on that affect our SELFESTEEM everyday.
Recently a project, the DOVE REAL BEAUTY SKETCHES, has been making its way through social media sites, done to point out Women's perception of themselves in which a sketch artist takes several individual WOMEN has them give him a description of themselves while he sketches them unseen and then has individuals who do not know these women and have only briefly seen them give him a description of these same women. In the end the women are faced with looking at their reflection from their own perspective and another's and the two sketches are not the same, leaving the impression that women do not perceive themselves as beautiful or happy and are more able to describe their own perceived flaws rather than more positive attributes of themselves. While I do find the REAL BEAUTY project touches on an issue faced by many women and girls. The perceptions of Self which may be attributed to low self esteem are not only a women's issues or a #girlissue (and although the reason I began this Blog was to address the issue of SELFESTEEM for women and girls) this project helped remind me that it is a Human issue, one WE all face every moment of everyday and to that I say...Namaste.
'You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserves your love and affection' -
Gautama Siddharta - Buddha Quotes
If I can take a moment now I would like to share my daughter's perspective on SELFESTEEM.
Self-Esteem Essay
Self-Esteem. The word is defined as how much you value yourself and how important you think you are. It is also how you feel about the things you can do.
Self-Esteem may not sound very important but it just might be one of the most important things in your life. Why should having positive self-esteem matter to you? Self-esteem can be the difference between success and failure. If you have positive self -esteem you will push your self to do more things, leading you to a successful life of happiness and joy. Self-esteem effects your confidence. Take for example your school talent show. Without confidence no one would be able to get up on stage and perform. Which means no talent show. Low self-esteem also effects your self image. With low self-esteem you will not take care of yourself and just let yourself go. Remember value yourself, think you are special because you cannot value others till you feel fully comfortable with who you are.
When a baby is born, the baby does not think about it self in a good or bad way.Baby's have negative nor positive self -esteem. This means that the parents or guardians job is to help encourage the child,so they eventually develop positive self-esteem. Kids need support to make decisions. People who can influence children are : Family members, coaches, teachers and classmates. By telling your friend "wow you are amazing at that " or " you are great ", you are helping that person create positive and healthy self - esteem . Baby's may not have self - esteem , but WE all do so treat yourself right and with respect.
Here are just a few problems with having low self -esteem. With low self -esteem many people will feel self hate. Feeling self hate means you are unable to forgive the small mistakes you might make. You might also feel perfectionism which is one of the most destructive aspects of having low self - esteem. You may strive for perfection and when you don't do something perfect or reach your goals you feel great disappointment with your self. One of the other problems with having low self -esteem is you have fear and / or anxiety. You may feel powerless against anything and everything.
Growing up girls are more concerned about the way they look. Imagine reading an issue of teen vouge magazine and seeing a stunning model. This makes an impression on the girl. She might think this is the " ideal " image. Look at the girls in Hollywood today , they are so skinny and seem so "perfect". The way the media makes people look, has brought about some of these three damaging effects : eating disorders, mental depression and physical depression. Media has portrayed this unrealistic look among models , making young girls feel bad about themselves unless they look this way.
Although someone may have low self-esteem there are still many ways to boost ones self-esteem. Here are 5 things to remember anytime you are feeling low. You can make a list of the activities you are good at. Make sure you give yourself three compliments everyday. Remember your body is your own. No matter what shape, colour, or size it is. There are also things about your body you will never be able to change, so just accept that this is the way you are and when you feel a bad compliment coming on, tell yourself to stop. Thinking about yourself isn't always the best thing to do. Focusing on the good things about yourself, you are building up your self-esteem. Strong self-esteem is a major factor in being able to live a healthy, positive and joyful life.
When focusing on improving your self-esteem, think positively and place yourself in a positive environment around positive people. Be kind to yourself and others and allow yourself to accept that everyone experiences positive and negative experiences, emotions and energy levels, a huge factor in how you feel about yourself and others. When you allow yourself the same kindness, compassion and importance as you would another, you allow yourself to build healthy self-esteem. When your own thoughts are based in your ability to understand how you feel, how you can improve your environments, experiences and/or attitude you achieve a greater sense of ease within yourself. A healthy, positive and caring attitude towards your self and others are the building blocks and your path to healthy, well-balanced self-esteem.
- A. Giustizia 7the grade Essay
As I read through my daughter's essay written through her perspective I was drawn to my reflection on my own Self Esteem through the years, my challenges, my issues, accomplishments, let downs, my ability to or not to move on and my inevitable search for my own SELF culminating in my own personal experience of having turned to Yoga, many years ago to nurture PEACE WITHINand how it brought me health and wellness of BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT and how that has brought me back to one word everyday...Namaste, to continue to help keep me there.
So although BARBIE seems much more adept at leading a much more fast paced, diverse experience while maintaining an apparently phenomenal abundance of SELFESTEEM of Body, Mind + Spirit, I like every other Human Being work everyday on the path to healthy and well balanced self esteem...and will continue to come back everyday to...
NAMASTE
I honour the place in you in which the entire universe dwells,
I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light and of PEACE,
when you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me,
We are ONE.
PEACE WITHIN is POSSIBLE!
WE need only to look WITHIN and NURTURE it!
WE CAN!
Everyone's ability to look within and nurture positive, healthy, well balanced self esteem will be different, there is no right or wrong way to achieve this and at different times in life it may mean taking a new approach and this makes no difference to your #gender.
What do SELFESTEEM and PEACE WITHIN have to do witheachother?
They are a reflection of eachother, each reflecting back upon eachother
SELFESTEEM builds PEACE WITHIN,
PEACE WITHIN builds SELFESTEEM
So while you are learning to be kind to yourself, you learn to be kinder to others and
while you are being kinder to others you are learning to be kinder to yourself...
maybe BARBIE learned all this stuff long ago!
for myself and any so many others we remind ourselves to nurture and love OURSELVES a little bit more each day ... NAMASTE
