Remember the hair commercial of the 80’s, “‘I’m Sy Sperling, President of the Hair Club For Men. I’m not only the Hair Club president, but I’m also a client.’” It’s the beginning 0f generational cross-over…Sy Sperling was doing it with his hair club, RUN DMC and rap music was crossing over into mainstream pop music. But something about that commercial always stood out to me. It was the ability that Sy Sperling had to come forward and announce publicly that he was stigmatized by baldness. Yet, he did not look bald. Being bald can affect how you see yourself. Just like your weight can affect how you see yourself. Just as others can affect how you see yourself. Sometimes we wish this wasn’t the case, that others could have such control over our own self-esteem, but for many of us, myself included, this seems to be the case. Is this the case for you?
Can We ‘Like’ Ourselves and Improve Our Self Esteem?
If so, how can we like ourselves? No, I’m not talking about Facebook likes, while that probably would be the easiest thing to do. You can start with “liking” us here at Charlotte Behavioral Health Care . What would happen to our self-esteem If we walked around with the button on ourselves and people just clicked it? How many ‘LIKES’ would you get? You can count on a “LIKE” from me!
What if we don’t like ourselves we can’t share love with others!” YES we can, and that’s not a bunch a crackers in cheeses!
I believe we can love others and still hate yourself. You can have NO self-esteem and be a still good Mom or Dad. Might not be the funnest to be around but you’ll share what love you have with your kids. That may be the only deepest truest love you know – every thing else in your life might suck – but not the love for your kids. You may hate your body, hate your-self, and loath your life but have unending LOVE for some one else like our kids… like my kids. So, I know it’s possible, and I know I can be done, it not healthy but little to no self-esteem you can others with LOVE.
Why is this an important point to keep in mind? Love has a covering with self-esteem – the ability to build up, and gloss over our imperfections. The ability to allow us to strengthen our own insecurities when it’s reinforced.
Yes, we want to like ourselves, but the very nature of many mental illness is shame and guilt and self-loathing, yet even when I am feeling at my worst I still have love for my family. It’s important for all of us to consider ways to build ourselves up. All of us take blows to our self-esteem. Here are some practical ways I’ve read that are useful. We need to cultivate and develop skills to increase our self-esteem or at least feel a little better about ourselves, our circumstances and our lives. We shouldn’t let the past negatively affect our future. We can learn from past missteps or misinformation. We can reeducate or unlearn unhealthy habits and learn new ways of doing things. Learning something healthy and new can work wonders on low self-esteem. As we master new skills of healthy survival, we learn many reasons to feel joy about LIKING ourselves.
Chato Stewart Consumer Peer Ambassador