Where does our self-esteem come from?
Our self-esteem develops and evolves throughout our lives as we build a picture of ourselves through our experiences with different people and activities. Experiences during our childhood play a particularly important role in the formation of our basic self-esteem.
When we were growing up, our successes (and failures) and how we were treated by our immediate family members, our teachers, coaches, religious authorities and our peers all contributed to the creation of our basic self-esteem.
An adult who has a healthy self-esteem was given this gift in childhood. This could have been done in many ways.
Probably one of the most important is to be praised for achievements. Children who are spoken to respectfully and listened to also contribute to healthy self-esteem as adults. These children were often hugged and given attention and experienced some kind of success in school or in sports activities.
