Self-Esteem:

  • How you evaluate yourself. What you think of & feel about yourself.
  • Comes from knowing who we are. Knowing our value and worth.

  • High self-esteem = thinking highly of yourself and liking who you are

  • Self-esteem is directly connected to confidence
  • We cannot have lasting confidence if we are low on self-esteem

Journaling Practice:

  • Spend a few minutes a day writing about your strengths, your value (positive traits that you own about yourself), your drivers, motivators, etc.
  • Doing a deep dive (via journaling, into who you are, why you kick ass, what makes you shiny

Daily Practice:

Pick a particular area to journal on each day and start writing

Here are some journal prompts to help you get started:

  • What are your strengths? What are you naturally good at? What have you worked hard to develop?
  • What about yourself do you admire? (ex: your tenacity, your open-mindedness, your drive, your determination, passion, loyalty, etc.).
  • And why you admire these traits. why they matter to you. why they’re important. why they help you
  • What about yourself are you proud of?
  • What makes you unique, shiny, special, one of a kind?
  • What are your personal superpowers?
  • What makes you interesting, how do you think differently than others?
  • What have you worked hard to achieve?
  • How have your experiences shaped you into who you are now?
  • What are your special gifts?
  • What sets you apart from others?
  • What has your experience taught you?
  • What gifts/skills have you learned from your experiences?
  • What are you passionate about and why?

Journaling Practice:

  • To help overcome negative, self-destructive thinking, write down self-critical thoughts
  • Draw two columns on a piece of paper:
    • Label the left-hand column “Automatic Thoughts (Self-Criticism)”
    • The right-hand column “Rational Response (Self-Defense)”
    • In the “Automatic Thoughts” column, write down all those hurtful self-criticism you make when you are feeling worthless and down on yourself
      • Ex: if you realize you’re feeling uncomfortable, stressed, sad, etc… Ask yourself, “what thoughts are going through my mind right now? What am I saying to myself? Why is this upsetting me? Then write those thoughts down.
    • Then, in the “Rational Response” column, try to recognize what’s actually true and write that down. It’s not about writing something you don’t believe, but writing what’s actually true
    • If you can’t think of a rational response to a particular negative thought, then just leave it for a few days and comes back to it later. You’ll usually be able to see the other side of the coin. Above exercise is copied from the book “Feeling Good” by David Burns.

Shadow Journal

  • Find a solo place to do this - open a word doc, a note on your phone, anything easily deletable
  • Start writing freely about whatever negative, mean, angry, annoyed things your feeling.
  • The things you would never in your life say to anyone aloud.
  • The goal is to write freely, quickly and uninhibited (writing for the “shadow” parts of your mind)
  • At the end, press delete 🙂
  • Highly-effective course to integrate your shadow.