Self-esteem for the last 20 years was considered the rock of success in life. You can´t possibly get ahead in life, unless you believe you are perfectly awesome. And obviously you need to be perfectly awesome to keep believing it. So you end up living in terror of making mistakes, and feeling devastated when you do. Is this the best way to approach success?
This article by Steven Hayes raises very important questions. Questions such as: How important is self-esteem? How important does our culture belive it to be? Does our performance depend on it as much as we believe? Why could it be problematic to try to raise my self-esteem? What is self- compassion?
Self compassion understood as treating oneself kindly, recognizing one´s struggles as a part of shared human experience and becoming aware of painful thoughts and feelings feels like a right direction.
And since it´s New Years Resolution time, why don´t we pursue what could really make our life better.
Happy New Year!
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-c-hayes-phd/is-selfcompassion-more-im_b_6316320.html
Sinews MTI
Psychology, Psychiatry and Speech Therapy