By Arna Baatz, Excerpt from her book I am Inspiration: Emotional Intelligence; The Key to Success
The best teachers are people with high self-esteem.
The way you care for yourself as an adult is connected to how you were cared for as a child. Another contributing factor to self-esteem is what we witnessed as a child; how did your parents care for themselves? They looked after you but did they look after themselves?
Children who grow up being cared for by parents who care for themselves, are in an optimal position for a lifetime of great self-esteem.
If you experienced a caring environment, chances are you take care of yourself. If you didn’t, you may neglect some of your needs without even realizing it.
If you have habits of neglect for yourself, no matter how much you love teaching and how hard you try, you may be unintentionally reflecting a lack of self-care behavior.
Here are a couple of simple pointers and techniques to help you discover how much you actually like yourself, how to adjust your perspective and bring to your classroom a stronger foundation of self-esteem:
- On waking in the morning take deep breaths, slowly and softly
- Make an intention, a strong heartfelt statement to yourself, along the lines of “today I will do what I can to truly love myself more.”
- Before you have coffee or tea, slowly sip a glass of fresh water, acknowledging your body’s needs and bringing your awareness to the miracle of your bodily functions.
- Remember to breathe deeply whenever the thought of self-love arises
- Be aware of the thoughts that travel through your mind, don’t try to change them as yet, but do notice them. These are the thoughts that are creating the emotions and the stress levels in your body.
- You may be surprised at how nasty or self-defeating some of these thoughts can be. Once again, it is not the time to change these thoughts but simply to acknowledge and accept.
- Feelings may arise as you discover this “programming” and that’s okay. Simply feel the feelings with the intention to do what you can to start to love yourself more and more every day.
- With strong intentions, gentle acknowledgement and self-acceptance, your self esteem will grow; the natural natural evolution of the human mind is to heal and change.
You may notice as you continue your journey of self-awareness that you will begin to see more synchronicities in your daily life. This is a sign that you are working toward truly loving yourself. Your mind has accepted your intention and is responding by alerting you to healing opportunities in the form of books, things people say, television moments etc.
The decision to grow self-esteem and open your heart to yourself is an exciting and important step to take, not only for the benefits you will see in your own life but for the lives of the little ones you have pledged to nurture.
To look at it simply, there are four major areas of self-care:
- Mental
- Emotional
- Physical and
- Spirtitual Health
They are intertwined and you can start in any area at any time, it is never too late.
Make an intention to do something from each area every day, until you begin to feel your self-esteem and self-care rising. This may take a little while but if you deliberately and consistently change your patterns of thought you will develop more positive neural networks in your brain so don’t give up, you are worth it!
About the Author
Arna Baartz is a writer, educator and award winning Artist with an enduring love of the visual arts as a method of expression, personal growth and communication. She is the author of I am Inspiration: Emotional Intelligence; The Key to Success. Helping educators and parents elevate self esteem in children is the focus of this book. Her book contains a program with effective strategies for helping children to succeed, both personally and academically. Arna lives in the beautiful Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Australia with her loving partner and eight wonderful children.