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Perhaps people get self-esteem from different sources? Personally I think people conflafe self-esteem with confidence. The article and the subject of it are do

by mowenz 9y ago

Perhaps people get self-esteem from different sources? Personally I think people conflafe self-esteem with confidence. The article and the subject of it are doing this, and I'm a bit surprised it's not mentioned. "Unconditional positivity" will probably build confidence--faith in positive outcomes--but it doesn't appear to build self-esteem--high value or love for oneself. And someone can be completely unconfident and have very high self-esteem... But who knows: perhaps artificially-induced confidence can at least trick people into feeling like they love themselves. If it does, then good for them? Personally I could see myself end up thinking, worrying and beating myself up about being fake or phony, but that's just me. I might say it's not for me, but I would try not tell them directly with a Dwight-from-The-Office demeanor: "Wrong. Self-esteem comes from..."

crawfordcomeaux 9y ago
Not only do they get it from different sources, but how they get it from those sources can be wildly different. There seem to be multiple definitions of self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth floating around online, so I won't address them specifically. I'd say they all generally deal with finding meaning in one's self & the world. And finding meaning is a deeply personal thing. For example, I discover new meaning in my experiences by projecting their content/context into songs I'm listening to. My take on tricking myself into something: if learning to love myself requires some level of confidence, temporarily inducing said confidence, can be helpful when combined with a practice for learning how to love myself. The trick is doing it with intention and then weaning off the confidence booster. I already do this in various ways therapeutically. I was thinking about the second conscious voice in my head I accidentally created through my experiments & wondering if it's truly a second personality or if I'm simply playing pretend & naively fooling myself. Then I realized it doesn't matter because it's something helping me & as long as it's done in a transparent, authentic manner, nobody else has to care which it is, either.

by mowenz 9y ago

crawfordcomeaux 9y ago

Not only do they get it from different sources, but how they get it from those sources can be wildly different. There seem to be multiple definitions of self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth floating around online, so I won't address them specifically. I'd say they all generally deal with finding meaning in one's self & the world. And finding meaning is a deeply personal thing. For example, I discover new meaning in my experiences by projecting their content/context into songs I'm listening to. My take on tricking myself into something: if learning to love myself requires some level of confidence, temporarily inducing said confidence, can be helpful when combined with a practice for learning how to love myself. The trick is doing it with intention and then weaning off the confidence booster. I already do this in various ways therapeutically. I was thinking about the second conscious voice in my head I accidentally created through my experiments & wondering if it's truly a second personality or if I'm simply playing pretend & naively fooling myself. Then I realized it doesn't matter because it's something helping me & as long as it's done in a transparent, authentic manner, nobody else has to care which it is, either.