HEALTH AND WELLBEING.

Self Esteem. 

Self esteem-our capacity to hold ourselves with an unconditional warmth and positive regard, irrespective of our flaws or imperfections- is an essential quality- a foundation on which our wellbeing flourishes.

The seeds of self esteem are sown in our childhoods, emerging from the fundamental feeling that we are loved and loveable, that reinforces our inner sense of worthiness- a platform for how we have, and do engage with the world. And although our childhoods are influential, self esteem remains a malleable quality through out life, responsive to our habits, environments and relationships.

In and through maturity, the balance of self esteem is delicate and nuanced; between having enough so that we can respond to the demands of living with resilience and autonomy; existing along the spectrum of the opposite; having a conflated sense of one’s own importance. Poised at either extreme; it distances us from being in equal concert with those and the world around us.

As self esteem is underpinned by a belief in one’s own worthiness-it may not be that we cultivate self esteem rather we return to it. “Your worthiness is not something you need to chase—it has always been within you. By virtue of you being here, your worth is already perfectly intact”- Robyne Hanley-Dafoe.

By Helen Coutts.

19. Nov. 2025.