by Thomas Knepper

Created on: October 21, 2008

It has become increasingly harder to maintain high self-esteem in this modern world where you are blasted with images of beautiful people on television, magazines, and billboards. Everyone is striving to buy face fixing creams and weight loss pills. People are cutting their hair, wearing the "in" clothes and modeling their look on the most beautiful movie star at the time. In this fast paced world it seems that to be "cool" you must do all this and more so that you stand out. I can understand why, if you can't do this, it lowers your self-esteem. It is very hard for most people to be rejected from the "best" crowds and still maintain happiness with yourself. With all this in mind however, there is an easy way to recover from low self-esteem.

I may be harsh in this, but you need to have it slam home, so you snap out of low self-esteem. As the esteemed comedian Kat Williams put it, "Bitch, Its called self-esteem, how did I mess up how you feel about you." He goes on with some more but there is too much swearing to put it in. While he is a stand up comedian and thus needs to play to the crowd, his point is a legitimate one.

Self-Esteem is called such because it is how you feel about yourself. How in the world does an outside interference affect how you feel about yourself. I don't care how many sexy women you see in a magazine, look in a damn mirror and see how beautiful you are. I don't care who you are, you are beautiful. In fact if you are a decent person, you are far more beautiful and have so much more going for you then the "in" crowd. Because eventually, they will be past the party age and then what. All they will have left is a shallow, empty life, that has swallowed up their prime and left them with nothing but memories.

If you are someone who has already allowed images to lower how you feel about yourself (as ridiculous as that sounds, I know it happens) then do this. Go take a good look at yourself in the mirror. A good long look. Don't see the flaws, don't focus on the fact that you don't have the flat stomach of a model, or the face of a beautiful actress. Focus on what does look good. Focus on your big boobs or your cute nose, your amazing smile, stunning eyes, or your voluptuous butt. Then keep that thing in mind. And if you go out wear a shirt that makes your boobs stand out, wiggle your nose, smile, stare into people's eyes, or wear a nice pair of jeans. You will feel better about yourself already. If you do the above you will be well on your way to better self-esteem. Everyone has something beautiful, you just need to see it.

When you are around people, be a good person. I don't care if you are the most beautiful person in the world, give everyone the time of day. Be nice, courteous, and friendly. You will feel so much better about yourself when you put a smile on someones face, or receive a thank you. It may be hard at first not to put others down so that you feel better, but if you can manage to lift everyone around you up, you will also be raised up.

Do these two things and you will be well on your way to a higher self-esteem. It will take some time, but if you start small and continue to build on these small things, then eventually you will have high self-esteem, and those around you will see it also. But no matter what other people say about you, or no matter how wicked someone else is to you, remember, it is SELF-esteem, and only you can truly control how you feel about you.

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