The thing that called "self-esteem"!

Alexandra's mind wanders as she does her assignment. "I'm never going to do well on organic chemistry," she thinks. "My dad's right, I'm just like him — I'll never amount to much." Distracted, she looks down and thinks how skinny her legs are. "Ugh," she says to herself. "I bet the hockey coach won't even let me try out when he sees what a wimp I am."

Sean is studying for the same organic chemistry test as Alexandra, and he's also not too fond of the subject. But that's where the similarity ends. Sean has a completely different outlook. He's more likely to think, "OK, organic chemistry again, what a pain. Thank goodness I'm acing the subject I really love — biology." And when Sean thinks about the way he looks, it's also a lot more positive. Although he is shorter and skinnier than Alexandra, Sean is less likely to blame or criticize his body and more likely to think, "I may be skinny, but I can really run. I'd be a good addition to the hockey team."

Self-Esteem Defined

We all have a mental picture of who we are, how we look, what we're good at, and what our weaknesses might be. We develop this picture over time, starting when we're very young kids. The term self-image is used to refer to a person's mental picture of himself or herself. A lot of our self-image is based on interactions we have with other people and our life experiences. This mental picture (our self-image) contributes to our self-esteem.

Self-esteem is all about how much we feel valued, loved, accepted, and thought well of by others — and how much we value, love, and accept ourselves. People with healthy self-esteem are able to feel good about themselves, appreciate their own worth, and take pride in their abilities, skills, and accomplishments. People with low self-esteem may feel as if no one will like them or accept them or that they can't do well in anything.

We all experience problems with self-esteem at certain times in our lives — especially during our teens when we're figuring out who we are and where we fit in the world. The good news is that, because everyone's self-image changes over time, self-esteem is not fixed for life. So if you feel that your self-esteem isn't all it could be, you can improve it.

Well, I think I want to write more……lots of completing of phrases to do.....