Building of Teen Self Esteem Starts at Birth

When does self esteem begin? Many times we think that self esteem begins in our children when they hit their tween years, not realizing that it really begins at birth. It is developed with the influence of parental attitudes and behaviors right from birth and then continuing on into all the childhood developments.

Their self-esteem is first built by having their basic needs met, including the need for love, comfort, and closeness. How children are treated by their parents or primary caregivers sets the stage for how their self-esteem is developed. Young babies and children who feel unloved find it more difficult to develop a sense of self-worth and then carry those feeling on into later childhood and on into their teen years.

Supportive parental behavior, including encouragement and praise for accomplishments, as well as the child's internalization of the parents' own attitudes toward success and failure, are the most powerful factors in the development of self-esteem in early childhood. Stresses at home, such as parents arguing a lot, or not having friends to play with and interact with, can have a negative impact on a child's self-esteem and self-worth even at a very early age.

When children have a good quality of self-esteem they can handle conflicts, peer pressures and making friends, easier. Preschoolers learn self-esteem in stages through developing their senses of trust, independence, and initiative with their parents and siblings and then that moves on into interacting with their friends and other relatives.

Self-esteem comes from different sources for children at different stages of development. Our self esteem is instilled in us during our youth. It is very important to be aware if the under current in the home is critical; as being criticized by parents and family members tends to slowly strip the child of their feelings of self worth.

Self esteem is described as having an inner good feeling of oneself. It is the way you perceive yourself and your self value. When this reflects within the child, it is what they think and feel about themselves and how well they feel that they do things, this is ultimately what is important to them and this is the foundation their self esteem is built upon.

As the children grow and mature and their experiences move outside the immediate home and move on into school, and with their peers, it becomes more important in these areas how they determine their self-esteem. Schools also have a huge influence on self-esteem through the attitudes they foster toward competition and diversity and their recognition of achievement in academics, sports, and the arts. At this stage, social acceptance by a child's peer group plays a major role in developing and maintaining self-esteem.

The physical and emotional changes that take place in adolescence, especially in early adolescence, present new challenges to a child's self-esteem. They are faced with physical and hormonal changes and this the time when teens go through major changes in their lives and their self-esteem can tend to be very fragile. This is the time when teens require and need to have a very supportive family.
Fitting in with their peers becomes more important than ever to teens self-esteem, and, in later adolescence, relationships with the opposite sex or sometimes the same sex can become a major source of confidence or insecurity. Body image is a major component in teenagers' self-esteem, and they are very concerned about how their peers see them. This goes for both boys and girls, body image is very important and teens who have high self-esteem like the way they look and accept themselves the way they are.

Parents can foster self-esteem by expressing affection and support for the child and to start this as previously stated in the early years, will be helping the child set realistic goals for achievement instead of imposing unreachably high standards. Teens that learn to set goals in their lives have higher self-esteem than those who do not. During this time and even before, children and/or teens can be taught visualization. This is an excellent tool to create and develop self esteem in all individuals and a great visualization tool is vision map videos.

Teens can also be encouraged to watch the words they use to describe themselves, such as if they constantly say they are stupid or that they can’t achieve success; they need to understand that is what will happen. So, make it a habit of saying positive things and use this positive posturing to create self esteem to their full advantage. The use of affirmations is also a great way for them to start using affirming language and these are also featured in vision map videos.

Be sure and explain to your teen that nobody is perfect in the eyes of everyone else, so by trying to be perfect you may just be setting yourself up for disappointment and failure. Spend more time focusing on the qualities about them that you like and less on the ones that you dislike. Teach them to believe in themselves completely, and others will also believe and trust in them.

Darlene has researched, practiced and implemented many spiritual and personal growth paths and now offers these attributes to her clients through VISION MAP VIDEOS. Darlene's mission is to teach and encourage individuals how to find and maintain their inner balance for the mind, body, spirit connection; bringing joy and prosperity into their life. Receive her f.ree Attract Property Video at Spirited Boutique

A Tool Every Personal Coach Would Want, a Vision Board

Everyone has heard of vision boards at one time or another in their wanderings thru life. They have been used in classrooms for elementary students; and churches for bible school studies, for years, as a fun and productive craft exercise.

Vision boards have been around for years. The spiritual and holistic community found that it was a great manifestation tool and they worked wonders in attracting the law of abundance. The popularity of vision boards sort of comes and goes, along with who supports them and/or mentions them, as when Oprah has guests and they encourage them or famous authors write about them in their personal growth books. Then they take off again. Oh yes, let's not forget the movie The Secret, mentioning Vision Boards and their effectiveness.

In the past, we created vision boards with poster board, glue, scissors and stacks of magazines. Now they have officially grown up and gone HI-TECH with, Vision Map Videos, which are far more powerful that the paper and glue variety. This is because images, text and music have a more powerful effect on goal setting then a board. Also we have become a visual computer society and almost all of us relate easier and quicker to something animated on the computer screen. So the visual focus on your intentions, empower you with personalized goal imagery.

Vision Map Videos provide you with a platform to assist in attaining your goals. These videos serve the same purpose, to help dreams come true through the power of visualization. They are like a wheel of fortune with you as the designer and producer of your exact dreams and visions.

These videos are both beautiful and functional; they are very helpful in your life and/or business, assisting you to achieve your dreams and goals and to encourage clients to do the same. So now you can even be on a tropical island where magazines are scarce and all of those other supplies it tales to make a board, all you need is a computer connection and they are now worldwide.

Each Vision Map Video is made personally for each individual and/or business, made specifically for your wants and needs. A tool that every coach will want in their office for their clients and for promoting their business, retreats and newly published books.

Here is a link to view a sample of a Vision Map Video:
http://www.spiritedboutique.com/?page_id=233

Darlene Siddons, Author/Producer
Spirited Boutique
info@spiritedboutique.com

Vision Board For Teens Self Esteem Issues and Challenges

Self-esteem and confidence can go a long way during your teenage years and beyond. The question is how can this be accomplished? The answer is many faceted and it starts with the family/teachers/roll models, as these are the areas that are most active in a child’s life during the formative years. So this is where self-esteem gets its basis and roots for the teenager and beyond years.

Teen self-esteem is quite fragile; just having a feeling of being left out, or seeing themselves as weird, or to have feelings they can't seem to make or keep friends, or they feel like they aren’t much of an athlete, or could have some learning problems, or just feels significantly different from their peers; whatever the situation they feel they have, it is real to them and contributes to how they see themselves and then this is how they view and feel their self-esteem.

Visualization has been around for years and been very active in the adult population and now it is being introduced into the teen and adolescent community as a powerful tool to assist them through their years of transition into adulthood.

Sometimes it is difficult to get the teens attention and get them to do productive habits to better their lives and perspective on life. One thing that grabs their attention is action formats; hence, Vision Map Videos, which have the action, the pictures, the positive affirmations and the music. These can be made to the persons individual wants, needs, music, images that they can individually relate to, and they will find them empowering and entertaining at the same time.

Vision boards have been around forever, and they are also a great tool, however, there is a real process to cutting out the images etc.; and then getting a teenager to visualize and concentrate on the board everyday, it takes a very motivated teenager to do and want to do this on a regular basis. But with the Vision Map Video the music can be their favorite kind, it can be pictures that interest them and affirmations that motivate them, so they will find it fun to watch this on a regular basis and when they find how good it makes them feel, it will be a fun task. Also they can watch it on any of their electronic devises and in privacy, only their eyes to see; not a board that is out for everyone to see.

There are so many in the teen population that have challenging issues, who could have been abused, teased and put down, mentally, emotionally, physically hurt; they deserve the chance to believe in themselves and to develop a sense of self confidence; self respect and self worth. It is so great that a tool has been made available that can break through all those attitudes, fears, barriers, resistance and help them to tell and feel a new story to build their self-esteem.

It is our responsibility as parents/teachers/religious sectors/roll models to assist the teens to be all they can be and to use all the powerful tools that are out there to assist them to change the way they think, feel and behave. It is a challenge growing up and with all the peer pressure, possible self-doubt, feelings of low self worth and humiliation that can dominate our teens' thoughts it is our job to give them all the tools we can to assist an easier transition into adulthood.

Some teens spend the majority of their day trying to be accepted. What if there were a way you could help your teen improve self-esteem and feel good about who they are, and the best part accomplish this in a fun and entertaining way, find and research these fun and effective ways to better a teens life.