Self Esteem

According to Nathaniel Brandon self-esteem is the experience that we are appropriate to life and to the requirements of life. It is:
1) Confidence in our ability to think and to cope with the basic challenges in life.
2) Confidence in our right to be happy, the feeling of being worthy, deserving, entitled to assert our needs and wants and to enjoy the fruits of our efforts.

Self Esteem is learned. The pillars of self esteem are self acceptance, empathy, trust, competence, and self confidence. Children learn these skills with an environment that is guided with the right balance of: engagement, nurturing, structure, and challenge. The way that self esteem is taught is through loving a child and holding values for them until they can be aware of the values themselves. We must teach children how to make choices, and to be responsible for the outcome. If a child is dealing with poor self esteem, we need to evaluate how to create guidelines through adjusting our personal expectations, modeling our own values for the child, and modifying the environment so that it provides balance relative to individual personality and level of skill. Kids' Club. is designed to teach children self acceptance in a group setting. Coaching in self esteem and/or social skills is available for adults also.

This wonderful poem Invocation for the Children of the Future really sums up what we want to be teaching our children regarding their relationship with the rest of the world. and famous therapist, author Vrigina Satir wrote this Declaration of Self Esteem for the individual.
See the page on fear of rejection. Read about Kids' Club. See the article What is Emotional Health?