Many people decide to see a psychologist because of problems with poor self-esteem.
In my experience poor self-esteem can be linked directly to an overly critical internal voice. What do I mean by this?
Most of us have an ongoing internal dialogue with ourselves throughout the day (and sometimes we start to verbalise this conversation – when this happens other people tend to look at us strangely!).
Are you aware of this dialogue? If so, is it friendly and constructive or hostile and destructive?
If your internal voice is generally hostile and critical, this can seriously affect your self-esteem and may also lead to heightened anxiety and depression. (The trouble is, it is likely that you are so used to the ongoing criticism that it is regarded as normal and accurate!). Sometimes it takes another person to bring this to our attention.
It is important to accept that the thoughts that we have throughout our day are not necessarily accurate or true. It is therefore important to constantly monitor our internal dialogue.
I will talk more about harnessing your internal voice in future posts…