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Are You Ready For Greater Self-Esteem?

Are You Ready For Greater Self-Esteem?

Writer, speaker and hypnotherapist, Linda-Ann Stewart, will be offering an exciting free teleclass this month. In the highly educational, free one-hour teleclass, “Self-Esteem Isn’t Earned, It’s Learned.,” Linda-Ann will discuss whether self-esteem is earned by achievements, or a learned trait. She will also cover how people can improve low self-esteem, and develop the confidence to achieve what they want in life.

There are two critical questions you must ask yourself to achieve your life’s goals.

  1. How can I develop self-esteem that’s true and will see me through life’s trials?
  2. Can I earn it by doing more or learn it by taking some important actions?

Self-esteem is the all important gauge of how you feel about yourself. It gives you a sense of worthiness and feeling of being competent. High self-esteem allows you to feel appropriate and assured, as a person. It is the foundation inside yourself on which everything else is built. With good self-esteem, there’s nothing you can’t do.

Self-esteem is also necessary to feel a connection to God, Spirit or the Universe. If you don’t feel good enough for the world, or worthy enough for the good Life can offer, why would you feel like you are acceptable to God?

This one-hour conference call at 5:30 p.m. PDT, Thursday, March 24, 2011 will cover a variety of topics, including:

  • What self-esteem is
  • How self-esteem develops
  • What steps to take to gain a sense of self-worth
  • And more

There is no charge for the teleclass, except for normal long distance fees. Registration is limited. For more information, or to register now, visit www.Linda-AnnStewart.com/se-tlcls.html

This life-altering opportunity can open the gates to help people achieve all they want from life. Register today to improve your life.


Do You Resist Accepting More Good?

Do You Resist Accepting More Good?

Most of consciously would love more good in our lives. But some people unconsciously restrict it, based on fear of offending others. Here are a couple of reasons why you might avoid accepting good, and some new attitude possibilities to resolve them.

Copyright 2011 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

“Are You Afraid Of Accepting More Good?”

“Are You Afraid Of Accepting More Good?”

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Many years ago, I participated in an exercise at a workshop to show us how at ease we were with allowing good into our lives. As I imagined a little extra good flowing in, I was fine. But when I visualized a lot more good, I started to get anxious, even scared.

The exercise continued, expanding the amount of good I would let in. When I got past that first barrier, I was once again comfortable with the concept of letting more good into my life. It was an interesting exercise for me, showing, that for some reason, I was fearful of allowing more Universal good flow into me.

Why would anyone be afraid of more good? Imagine heaven smiling down upon you, living in grace, everything falling into place in your life. Why would that create anxiety? Isn’t that exactly what you want?

Since the time of the exercise, I’ve discovered that many people share the fear I experienced. It comes in various shapes and forms, and from multiple causes. And it’s one reason you unconsciously block your desires. Because of past experiences, you don’t know what catastrophe will happen if you actually achieve what you say you want in life.

Over the years, I’ve identified a few reasons for that concern:

Fear of a backlash. If you receive more good, you fear that somehow it will be taken away. It’s almost a superstition that one hand will give the good, and another hand will take it away. Sometimes, this comes from childhood. You might have received something you really wanted, but then had a cherished toy taken from you because your parent decided that you’d outgrown it.

Have to give it away. I’ve known several people who deliberately kept their income at a low level so they wouldn’t have to give their extra money to indigent relatives. They couldn’t say “No” to the relatives, and save the extra for a rainy day in their own life. From a young age, they were trained that they had to give all their extra toys and cherished possessions to their siblings or cousins. They were the “Cinderella” of the family, and haven’t realized that things can be different now.

Fear of punishment. Somehow, you fear that more good will bring some punishment upon you. Some force will come down and make you pay for having something great happen. You’re receiving more good than you deserve and should be flogged for it. The only thing that punishes you is your old programming. You deserve all the good you receive.

This is one of the issues I discovered I had. I once had a childhood friend who would put me down whenever I had something nice happen in my life. She once told me that she wanted to make sure I didn’t exaggerate my importance. So I stopped telling her of any positives that occurred.

To begin to overcome this irrational fear that more good is scary, examine what happened when you were a child. When you got some toy or reward that others didn’t get, how did you feel? What happened? Did you get beat up, was it taken away, were you emotionally abandoned, resented or attacked? Maybe you always had to share, and when you got the toy back, it was damaged or destroyed.

Whatever happened to you, it set up a pattern in your subconscious to expect this type of reaction every time you received something good in your life. And it probably continues to this day. To begin to combat that programming, remind yourself that you’re the grownup now, and you have the power to say “Yes” or “No” or “Take a hike.” And that you have the strength, ability, knowledge and resources to take care of your own inner self and worth.

I still practice the workshop exercise occasionally. It gives me feedback as to where I might be blocking myself, and to expand my acceptance of more good. When I feel the fear, I talk to it, letting it know that it doesn’t have to protect me anymore. You can do the same thing, and allow yourself to open your mind to receive more good every day.

Copyright 2011 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

“Don’t Wait To Feel Worthy To Succeed”

“Don’t Wait To Feel Worthy To Succeed”

by Linda-Ann Stewart

A while back, I read an article that talked about your readiness to accept abundance. The author mentioned that you sometimes don’t receive the good you desire because you don’t feel worthy. His advice was to get over it. Though your feelings of worthiness tend to contribute to the good you can accept, or the lack thereof, it isn’t the whole picture. I’m sure you know successful people who don’t feel worthy. Why else would there be an epidemic of addictions in the towers of success? Alcoholism, workaholism, addiction to prescription and non-prescription drugs just to make it through life.

Successful people have opened themselves up to succeed in business. They’ve accepted all that goes into it. They’ve removed their beliefs in failure, they’ve changed their attitude about their business, their financial situation, and their lives to create the right atmosphere for their success. They may have been motivated by feelings of unworthiness, a need to prove themselves to someone, a need to fill the empty place within them with success, or some other motivation. They have achieved abundance, and they’ve worked hard for it, but they still don’t feel worthy of their own success.

On the other hand, I’ve known many good, talented, hardworking people who struggled all of their lives, but never achieve success in business. They deserved to succeed, just as much as anybody else, but they didn’t. And they probably felt just as worthy, or unworthy, as the successful person. They blamed bad luck, or the economy, or something else for not succeeding when in reality it is their own belief systems that held them back.

When you feel bad about yourself, you might bounce checks as a way of verifying your bad opinion of yourself. Or you might turn down opportunities because you don’t feel you’ve suffered enough. That was one of my patterns. I was told by people who’d worked hard and ended up with nothing but an empty pinata that I didn’t deserve what good I’d manifested. For a long time, I believed them. I couldn’t allow myself to be successful until I’d struggled as much as the talented people who’d never achieved their potential.

The article I read reminded me that you don’t get what you deserve. You get what you expect, and what you’ve identified with. The Universe rewards your consciousness. If you have a consciousness of failure, that’s what you get. If you have a consciousness of health, that’s what you receive. Whatever your consciousness, that is what you get to experience.

Do you identify with life flowing smoothly, and everything working out, no matter what the appearance? Then so be it. Do you identify with a statement like, “I can’t do anything about my job or my finances?” If so, then you get to wallow in that. Your consciousness attracts conditions in the outer world to fulfill your inner beliefs. The conditions of your life are a direct reflection of your consciousness.

Instead of waiting until you feel worthy of abundance, health, or good relationships, why don’t you begin to identify with it now? Rather than reaching outwardly for your goal, begin to pray for the consciousness of it. Raising your consciousness to accept what you desire will adjust any old, restrictive attitudes. When you have the consciousness of your desire and have identified with your good, then your goal will show up in your life. Whether you feel you deserve it or not.

Copyright 1999, 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

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“When Self-Image Sabotages Positive Thinking”

“When Self-Image Sabotages Positive Thinking”

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Positive thinking, which powers the Law of Attraction, always works, as long as there isn’t anything that conflicts with it. Some of those sabotaging issues are ones you know about, such as focusing on what you don’t have (instead of what you want), verbally negating the positive, and old programming conflicts. But one of the main reasons it doesn’t fulfill expectations is due to having a self-image that contradicts your positive focus.

Self-image is a combination of self-worth, self-esteem and self-acceptance. If your self-image doesn’t agree with your conscious affirmative thinking, then your subconscious won’t allow it to manifest. Your subconscious makes sure that what you attract into your life is consistent with what you believe about yourself. If you try to change the outer experience before changing the inner attitudes, your subconscious will short-circuit your positive thinking efforts.

Here are three of the ways a negative self-image can undermine your constructive thinking:

1. Guilt.

There are a couple of ways this can express in your life. Both tie up energy and focus.

The first way guilt can affect you is if you’re acting or thinking in a way that violates your values. For instance, if you consider yourself to be diligently honest, but you cheat on your taxes, this could set up a niggling feeling of guilt. You’ve ignored your values, and your subconscious knows that. So you unconsciously punish yourself by not getting that raise you want. The solution for this is to find where you’re going against your values and change it.

The other way is outdated feelings of guilt that aren’t valid anymore. You could still be feeling bad for stepping on your classmate’s hand in kindergarten. If something happened a long time ago, and you’ve learned the lesson from it, then this type of guilt no longer serves you. It has fulfilled its purpose. Stop punishing yourself by forgiving yourself and move on.

2. Standards and values.

You may have standards and values that conflict with what you’re affirming. For instance, you consider yourself to be honest and generous, and believe the rich to be selfish and corrupt. If you want to be wealthy, that would mean that you’d have to become selfish and corrupt, which would be inconsistent with your values. Your subconscious won’t allow that kind of incongruity.

You could also have old standards that prevent your achieving more. For instance, you want to earn more money, but you feel you shouldn’t make more money than your father or your husband. Not only would this be putting an unrealistic limit on your goal, it could prevent you from achieving it at all. Assess your standards and decide if they’re appropriate for you and and your goals. Some of those values are holdovers from past generations and need to be adjusted.

3. False beliefs about yourself.

Do you believe that you’re unworthy, undeserving, or unlovable? That’s a false belief. Evaluate anywhere you feel bad about yourself, and track it back to where it began. Usually the feeling got rooted in childhood, and was never challenged. Challenge it now. Consider where you’ve been successful, complimented, or appreciated. Those times could be more recent and more objective than the original events. Instead of focusing on the past lies that tear you down, fill your mind with all the constructive opinions that build you up. Stand up to your own self-criticism and let your power unfold.

Although a negative self-image can short-circuit positive thinking, the good news is that your self-image can be changed. Affirmation, visualization, and action in a constructive direction will reap great rewards. When your self-image is consistent with your positive thinking, you’ll get the results you want.

Affirmation

I know that positive thinking works, because what thought has created, thought can change. My thoughts are now changing to be in alignment with my goals. I now release anything that sabotages the good that I consciously choose. I forgive myself for past mistakes. I now update my standards and values to reflect what I feel is important. I recognize my true worth, and  focus on the positive about myself. As I improve my self-image, and act accordingly, it becomes easier for me to achieve my goals.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

A nationally known speaker, life coach, hypnotherapist, and writer, Linda-Ann Stewart helps people rediscover their power and sense of self-worth. Visit Secrets To The Law Of Attraction to download your copy of this free ebook.

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Book Review – “The Ultimate Secrets of Total Self-Confidence”

Book Review – “The Ultimate Secrets of Total Self-Confidence”

Total Self-ConfidenceThe Ultimate Secrets of Total Self-Confidence
by Robert Anthony

I was introduced to this book over thirty years ago, when I heard the author speak. It’s a wonderful book that covers many basic tenets of how the conscious/subconscious/superconscious minds work.

One of the chapters is titled, “Dehypnotizing Yourself.” As a hypnotherapist, I tell people that my job isn’t so much to hypnotize them, as to de-hypnotize them of their outdated beliefs. Dr. Anthony explains that very clearly in this book.

Other areas he covers are letting go of the need to conform, self-acceptance, how to treat yourself gently, how to get over feeling guilty, loving yourself, and THEN he begins to address the deep stuff. He explains about the subconscious, how to program it, setting goals, meditation, affirmations, and much more.

If you’re ready to really begin to transform your life, and want great, easy to read guidebook, check this one out.