
You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire Universe deserve your love and affection”
~Buddah~
Why is self-image, self-confidence and self-love important you may ask?
A healthy body image and self-esteem play a big role in your overall well-being and success in life. Self–image is important because how we think about ourselves affects how we feel about ourselves and how we interact with others and the world around us. If you have healthy self-esteem, you are likely to feel positive about your abilities and in general, have a sunnier approach to life. Greater self-confidence allows you to experience freedom from self-doubt and negative thoughts about yourself, makes you more willing to take smart risks and more able to move outside your comfort zone.
Let’s take a look at how a negative self-image and lack of confidence affect our day to day life.
Body image and self-esteem start in the mind, not in the mirror and they can change the way you understand your value and worth. With a negative self-image, we focus on our faults and weaknesses, distorting failure and imperfections.
If you cannot shake the feeling that you are just not good enough or if you find yourself constantly worrying about the way you look, second guessing how you act and questioning how others perceive you, you could be suffering from low self-esteem.
So what is self-esteem? Self-esteem, also known as self-worth or self-respect, is the opinion people have of themselves. Your self-esteem involves a variety of beliefs about yourself, such as how you look, how you feel and how you gauge your personal successes or failures.
Poor self-image can be linked to a variety of problems that can affect everything from the way you view your career to how you conduct your relationships. A negative body image is often linked to low self-esteem and vice versa. It can even prevent you from looking after your health, as you feel unworthy.
We all doubt our ability in certain areas of our lives, but a deep-rooted sense of worthlessness comes from believing that somehow we are not as valuable as others. If this sounds familiar, it is important to understand that feeling worthy is not something given to us by others, but something we have to build ourselves.
Being too sensitive is one of the more painful aspects of low self-esteem. Anger is a normal emotion, but one that gets distorted when you have low self-esteem. When you do not think highly of yourself, you start to believe that your own thoughts and feelings are not important to others. Repressed hurt and anger can build up, so something seemingly small can trigger outbursts of anger.
One of the most common low self-esteem symptoms is feeling like you have to please others so that they like, love and respect you. As a result many people-pleasers end up feeling aggrieved and used.
Why do body image and self-esteem matter?
Body image and self-esteem directly influence each other—and your feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. If you do not like your body (or a part of your body), it is difficult to feel good about your whole self. The reverse is also true: if you do not value yourself, it is difficult to notice the good things and give your body the respect it deserves.
Below, we can see how poor body image and self-esteem negatively impacts on our mental health:

Ultimately, a low self-esteem can reduce the quality of your life in many different ways and the constant self-criticism can lead to persistent feelings of sadness, depression, anxiety, anger, shame or guilt.
“I have taught thousands of individuals and I see one thing in common in all of us, myself included. We all have tremendous potential, and we are all blessed with tremendous gifts. Yet, the one thing that holds all of us back is some degree of self-doubt. It is not so much the lack of technical information that holds us back but more the lack of self-confidence”.
~Robert T Kiyosaki, best-selling book Rich Dad, Poor Dad~
A lack of confidence can have a dramatic effect on your career. It will keep you in your comfort zone because that is where you feel safe with little risk of failure. This prevents you from leaving a bad work situation, applying for a new position or taking up new opportunities. A lack of confidence may hold you back from speaking up in meetings and voicing your opinion.
Have you ever been in a meeting and internally said to yourself, “She said what I was going to say”? But you did not have the confidence to speak up so as a result, no one knows how you think and what you have to offer. You therefore, run the risk of being invisible which can be damaging to your career as you may well be overlooked when it comes to promotions, salary increments, or special projects.
In some instances, although you may be highly educated and talented, at some point in your life, you allow negative feedback or situations to undermine your self-esteem and going forward, that continues to affect your performance and success.
When you lack confidence, you spend more time thinking and worrying about what other people are doing rather than focusing on your own competence and potential. This focus on others robs you of the positive energy you need to fuel your ambition and reach your goals.
When you believe in yourself, your possibilities are endless. You will be willing to try new things and devote your time and energy to things that matter. You will also start making good lifestyle choices and foster healthy relationships.
“To love onself is the beginning of a lifetime romance”
~Oscar Wilde~
Self-love is critical for happiness in your life for many reasons. It is a state of appreciation for oneself that grows from actions that support our physical, psychological and spiritual growth. Many people think of self-love as a day at the spa or a bubble bath…. but self-love means so much more than that. On a deeper level, self-love includes having a higher regard for your own well-being – trusting yourself, asserting boundaries and an overall deeper connection to yourself, which in turn can connect you with others. Self-love can also include talking kindly to oneself or prioritizing rest when you need it.
It can be challenging to understand how important loving yourself is…. however, even more challenging is what can happen when you do not offer self-love. Your happiness is dependent on how you take care of yourself and self-love has been linked to increased resilience and capacity to see things from a new perspective. When you put yourself last or fail to love yourself, you may notice increased stress, anxiety and reactivity to the little things that you may have ignored beforehand. Things will feel more difficult, overwhelming and lead to you feeling depleted and overall, unhappy.
During the coaching sessions, the root causes of low self-image and the lack of self-confidence are identified and any unprocessed negative emotions which hold you back and prevent you from achieving your full potential are released. Using a powerful technique called “Unconditional Self Love” I will boost your self-love, self-confidence and self-worth!
Through the Transformation Coaching System™ we work together to eliminate your fears and self-doubt so that you gain the self-confidence to excel in all areas of your life, career and relationships; we re-programme your self-image with a new empowering self image; and install unconditional self-love.
