Loving Yourself and Self-Esteem

The following question keeps on coming up from time to time, so I figured I’ll address it here: What is the relationship between Loving Yourself and Self-Esteem?

Self-Esteem is not only about being confident in our ability to cope with life's challenges. It is also about believing that we deserve to be successful and happy and asserting our needs and wants. And this second part has everything to do with loving ourselves.

I often talk about the 3 key components of Loving Yourself:
1. Self-Acceptance
2. Self-Compassion and
3. Self-Empowerment.

Dr. Nathaniel Branden, who is hailed as one of the foremost experts in his field, has identified 6 key components of Self-Esteem:
1. Living Consciously
2. Self-Acceptance
3. Self-Responsibility
4. Self-Assertiveness
5. Living Purposefully
6. Personal Integrity

It often takes a lifetime to reach and maintain a healthy level of Self-Esteem, and the same is true for Loving Yourself. Once you reach a healthy level, there s no guarantee that you will stay there. Different events will happen in your life that will affect it, which is why you must nurture it daily. It’s just like exercise – you can’t just go to the gym once and be done with it. Yet it is so important, because Self-Esteem and Loving Yourself are fundamental to your happiness, satisfaction, and living a fulfilling life.   

Sometimes it may be hard to talk about Self-Esteem, because we feel it’s something that we “should” have. And if we feel that we don’t have enough of it, we may think we need to hide that fact. But the truth is, it isn’t something that we “should” just naturally have. We all need to nurture it every day, so we can lead happier and more fulfilled lives.

I will cover more details about the different components for Self-Esteem in the coming weeks, so stay tuned… =)