Have you ever wondered why so many people do not feel good about themselves? Several years ago a study was done in Iowa where researchers followed small children around in stores and noted the positive responses they received from their parents as compared to negative responses. They found that in one day the two year olds received 432 negative responses and only 32 positive responses. In other words over fourteen negative responses were given to each positive response.
In a study at UCLA, freshmen were asked to list their strengths on one side of the paper and their weaknesses on the other side. When the responses were tallied up the result was six weaknesses to every strength. And these were college students at a good university. Is it any wonder that so many people are lacking in high self-esteem?
And yet, self-esteem is so important; it affects practically every facet of your life. If you want to be happy, successful, and get what you want out of life, you need to have relatively high self-esteem. You need to feel good about yourself. Can you look yourself in the mirror and say, “I really love you,” and mean it? Many people are not able to do this.
Jack Canfield tells a funny story. He would look in the mirror every evening and tell himself all the things he did that day that he felt good about. He would then end the exercise by saying, “Jack, I really love you.” He reported that after doing this for several months he started to have a strange feeling similar to when you have a “crush” on a person in high school. He got very upset about this and reported this to his wife, who was also a therapist. She said, “Jack, that is how you are supposed to feel about yourself. You are supposed to love yourself.” How many of us feel this way? Probably not very many.
So the question is, if self-esteem is so important, and so many people lack high self-esteem, can anything be done about it? The answer is yes. In fact, there is a lot you can do to raise your self-esteem. It is malleable. One technique, as just mentioned, is to stand in front of a full length mirror every evening and tell yourself all the positive things you did that day. You could also write this in a journal.
One problem is that because people received these negative messages at such a young age, they are now buried in the subconscious part of the brain. We may not even be aware of the messages that we are holding on to. Or, we may be aware of them, but believe they are true. If the messages are buried in the subconscious, we need to become aware of them and then replace them with much healthier messages. If we are aware of the messages and believe them, we need to keep challenging them and replace them with more rational messages. This is where hypnosis can be quite helpful.
Hypnosis is an excellent tool to help you find out what messages are buried in your subconscious, and then help you to challenge the unhealthy messages and replace them with much healthier and more rational beliefs. In fact, your subconscious can do all the work and make the important changes. A certified hypnotherapist can teach you an excellent method of self-hypnosis which you can then use to bolster your self-esteem. Imagine how different your life would be if instead of having thoughts such as, “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m not competent,” or “I can’t do it,” you believed “I am a winner,” “I am competent and loveable,” “I can do it,” “I am good enough.” Your whole life would be so much better.
If you would like to find out if hypnosis would be a viable option for you, please call Phil Rosenbaum at 248-688-6469. Free consultations are available. Do something nice for yourself this month. You have a right to feel good about yourself and have the kind of life you truly desire.
