What is self esteem? According to Nathaniel Branden self esteem can be defined as, “the disposition to experience oneself as being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life, and as being worthy of happiness.” [1][1] Self esteem has to be grounded in reality… Read More »Self Esteem
Most people have experienced some type of embarrassment – even if it is only second-hand. Yet sometimes we can experience embarrassment or shame that puts us in some sort of mental bondage. It can become a trigger that hangs over our heads for as long… Read More »Releasing Embarrassment and Shame
Image: Emotional Freedom by Jennifer Nelson How I Became a Madman (Prologue) [1]The Madman: His Parables and Poems (1918) Kahlil Gibran You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from a deep… Read More »Losing Friendships and Gaining Freedom
Forgiveness is so important because it helps to empower us. When we truly forgive, we get freedom from the past storylines that keep trying to drag us back into circular nonsense and eternal drama. Yet, we live in a world that often takes what is… Read More »Learning How to Forgive
This is for those who find it hard to let go of things. Maybe there are so many things to let go of that we don’t feel as if we have space to release. Or perhaps we are living in a stressful situation, and it… Read More »How to Let Go of Tension, Annoyances, and Painful Thoughts
“Stay out of the court of self-judgment, for there is no presumption of innocence.” -Robert Brault I had heard that I should love myself, and offer myself kindness without judgment. But at that time I didn’t know how to. No amount of intellectualizing over it… Read More »An Antidote to Self-Judgment
If you’ve ever had a problem that refuses to be resolved, it might be helpful to know that painful events repeat until we learn to let it go. It might not be us that’s holding on, yet we still may have the responsibility to let… Read More »Looping Timelines
Many of us who have experienced emotional abuse as children don’t recognize it as abuse. We may feel we were treated normally. We may feel like we need to protect our family, so we minimize how extreme it was. We may even feel like we… Read More »Emotional Abuse From Parents
“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” -Thich Nhat Hanh Self-acceptance can be a difficult skill to master if we’ve experienced being outcast in some way. Perhaps our family did not love… Read More »Self Acceptance
“The emotion that’s most closely linked to denial is hope, but it’s a false hope that things will turn out to be how we want them to be, as opposed to how they really are. When it comes to our relationships, we hope that… Read More »Healing from Denial