N ... is for Need
Self esteem is not a luxury - it is what we NEED to function well in this world.
It is not open for discussion - persons living with low self-esteem can resign themselves to lives which are empty of joy or hope. They are always the victim, always putting other people's needs before their own, always stifling anger, sorrow or pain, or the opposite, exploding with anger, sorrow or pain. To say that low self esteem can be life threatening is no exaggeration, it's why people stay in abusive relationships - they can't seem to extricate themselves even when they fear for their lives. It is the lack of hope or joy that has people turning to drugs, alcohol and suicide. Even if our symptoms of low self esteem are not so overt, even milder symptoms can slowly choke the life out of us by robbing us of our dreams and encouraging us to sabotage ourselves. Depression and unhappiness is the only outcome to this cycle. Life was not meant to be lived in this way.
If you find yourself jealous of people who are confident and have 'joy of life', you have to ask yourself why. If being around secure people makes you insecure and anxious, you have to ask yourself why. If you are resentful of people who are happy, you have to ask yourself why. It is simply no good resenting the success and happiness of other people, for all these things are within the grasp of all people if they can just manage to rip off the blinders and clear away the illusions they have about themselves and their circumstances. Not everyone had a picture-perfect childhood with the support and love they required to acquire high self esteem. Parents are just human beings who probably did the best they could with what they had to work with themselves at the time. Now we have a choice: If we are able to recognize that we have an impaired self esteem then we are able to work on improving our self esteem and living life as it was meant to be lived.
Our lives are meant to be lived full of joy - recognizing and honoring ourselves and our purpose in life. Honoring ourselves and our purpose has nothing to do with physical beauty, wealth, or how important we are. If we see someone who is constantly telling everyone how wonderful or important he is, we can be sure that this person feels exactly the opposite! Persons of high self esteem do not need to compare themselves to others and they do not need to feel more important than someone else. They take joy in simply being who they are.
If we have high self esteem we don't need to worry about accumulating material wealth to prove how special we are, we'll automatically conduct ourselves in ways that will assure we have what we need. We'll be attracted to persons who will be beneficial to our lives. If we take an avenue that turns into a dead end, we will have the confidence to try another avenue. A person like this cannot fail.
