Solène, C. (2018, December 18). L’estime de soi, ça se travaille ! Voici nos cinq meilleurs exercices. Koï coaching. https://www.koi-coaching.fr/exercice-estime-de-soi/
Introduction
In psychology, self-esteem is a term that refers to a person’s judgment or assessment of his or her own worth. When an individual accomplishes an act that he thinks is worthwhile, he feels valued; when he evaluates his actions as being in opposition to his values, he reacts by “lowering his esteem”. According to some psychologists, this notion is to be distinguished from “self-confidence” which, although linked, is related to abilities more than to values. (wikipédia)
Self-esteem is essentially built during childhood, but fluctuates throughout life. It is based in particular on the following considerations: physical appearance, the physical capacities;academic success in children, then social success in adults, Behavioural conformity (being accepted, meeting expectations) and also Popularity.
Some Exercises To Maintain Your Self-real Estimates
To the question of how to maintain one’s self-esteem, I read an article published in the site “koï coaching” by Solène Coriolles, who is a personal development coach. The author gives us 5 tracks to maintain our self-esteem:
1° Putting your body to work
It simply means that our posture counts: the look, the tone of voice, the position of the head, etc..
2° Keeping positive aspects in mind
The author explains that people with low self-esteem tend to overlook the positive aspects of their personality. They tend to brood and focus exclusively on what they would like to improve. They also often attribute their past successes and accomplishments to criteria that are independent of themselves, such as luck or outside support.
There are several solutions that can be implemented to keep positive thoughts to a maximum. She suggests, for example, keeping photos, making a souvenir jar, keeping a diary, etc.
3° Getting to know yourself in order to move towards self-acceptance
According to the author, to accept oneself is, for example, to support rather than blame oneself when we encounter difficulties. It means encouraging rather than devaluing ourselves when we try to get out of our comfort zone. It is about not making our value depend on our successes and setbacks.
She also underlines the fact that achieving self-acceptance is a long process of personal development that requires patience and effort.
4° Laughing at one’s mistakes to strive for unconditional support
There is absolutely no question here of denigrating or devaluing oneself. On the contrary, knowing how to laugh at one’s blunders allows one to allow oneself the right to make mistakes, to detach oneself from one’s successes. The value we attribute to ourselves should not be based on our actions, but should draw its foundations from deeper sources.
5° Stop comparison
Here, the author explains that our level of self-esteem is closely linked to the quality of the relationships we have had with our parents or with another person who has played a fundamental role in our education. As a general result, our self-esteem level tends to increase when we are around people who are of little value to us. Conversely, our self-esteem level tends to decrease when we are in the presence of someone who meets our quality standards.
It can be interesting, for example, to identify one’s values in order to free oneself from the stereotypes of the perfect man or the ideal woman, to assimilate the fact that each of us has strong and weak points, or to learn to let go.
Conclusion
I am interested in this topic because a good self-esteem will help us to maintain and positively reinforce the image we have of ourselves. Of course, it won’t work the first time. Only perseverance and repetition will be truly beneficial here. It is important to note that whatever our current level of esteem, it is up to us to continue to work on and develop it, possibly with the help of a professional.
Vocabulary
- Self-esteem: Estime de soi
- To build: construire
- childhood: Enfance
- Throughout: Tout au long de
- Self-acceptance: Acceptation de soi