6 pillars of self-esteem Psychology Essay Research

Six pillars of self-esteem
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Six pillars of self-esteem
Self-esteem is feeling competent and worthy of happiness. Self-esteem affects our daily performance. It enables people to face life’s challenges with complete trust in their ability. Self-esteem is a lifelong personality trait that is reinforced through practice. It influences the choices and decisions people make in life. Self-esteem is a well-researched psychological field with Dr. Nathaniel Branden being a pioneer of the self-esteem movement. He is best known for his inspirational book, the six pillars of self-esteem. In his book, he explains and describes how to practice six essential qualities that help develop higher self-esteem. This paper seeks to cover the theoretical framework of these six pillars and describes how they were necessary for recovering from a personal problem.
Personal story
After graduating from high school and joining college, I realized that I had a confidence problem. For a long time, I lived in denial and thought that a lack of confidence was a more severe problem than mine. I always thought that with time, the issue would subside, and I would have a more expressive and outgoing personality. However, that never happened because as years progressed, I increasingly found socializing difficult. It was tough interacting in large gatherings such as events and conventions. I felt I wasn't good enough, and I didn't deserve much in life. Such feelings disempowered me and made me incapable of performing many daily tasks. Then, I had an inspirational talk from a motivational speaker, which made me evaluate myself. The speech made me discover that I had low confidence. This discovery was vital as it prompted me to examine myself and explore ways to boost my confidence. I was taught the six pillars of self-esteem, which proved essential in transforming me into a self-confident person.
The practice of living consciously
The first step was I developed a higher level of consciousness that enables me to become aware of my problem. It helped me prevent getting lost on previous negative experiences, which affected my daily activities. For a long time, the negative energy made me underperform and be less productive. So, practicing mindfulness gave me the power to perform activities at a higher level of awareness, which boosted my productivity. (Smalley & Winston, 2010). It helped me remove the negative emotions and experiences that affected my happiness. According to Dr. Branden, I needed a higher level of consciousness to feel competent and worthy in life. Otherwise, I will be faced with the tendency to avoid uncomfortable truths in my life, such as having a low level of confidence. So, to apply this concept, I made it a point to confront these uncomfortable truths and look at the possible solutions.
The practice of self-acceptance
I learned three things from Branden’s description of self-acceptance. The first level involved self-value. That is to favor my welfare and interests. When I am self-accepting, I can integrate new knowledge that promotes personal growth. However, self-rejection causes me to be stagnant, which makes any therapy ineffective. So, this made me accept my deficiencies and embrace open-mindedness. Branden’s second level involved taking every part of the self. This means respecting my thoughts, dreams, actions, behaviors, and emotions. As a result, I didn’t harshly criticize myself for my past actions. Instead, I understood the reason why they happened. The third level entailed the aspect of compassion. It helped me be friendly to myself regardless of my embarrassing actions. I learned not to hate myself (Branden). This encouraged me to understand the motives behind any inappropriate behavior and take the necessary preventative steps.
Self-acceptance helped me tolerate my personality without losing my self-value. I acknowledge my weaknesses and deficiencies as a reality. Believing in this made me relieved as I felt free from the negative emotions which had paralyzed me for years. I felt a peace of mind as I integrated my attitudes, impulses, abilities, and qualities into myself. I proved that self-acceptance was the key to improving my social life, achievement levels, resilience, and emotional state. (Bernard, 2014). My psychological wellbeing was closely related to self-acceptance.
The practice of self-responsibility
Self-responsibility helped me establish control in my life. I learned that I needed to be accountable for my actions. I learned several action implications of responsibility from Branden. First, I must fulfill my wishes or dreams. I should have an action plan to satisfy my desires. Second, I am the principal source of my actions or behavior. This implies that I should not blame others for my choices or actions. Third, responsibility involves taking charge of the level of consciousne...