11 Ways Kids Can Enhance Their Feelings of Self-Worth
Happiness is pretty hard to find without a sense of self-worth. If your child is not happy with herself, how can she be happy about her life?
[bctt tweet=”Self-worth is about believing that you have value as a person. It’s not how you compare to others. ” username=”ang1e0251″]It’s her belief in her value as a human being. We are all important. Some children just require a little more convincing than others.
Maximize your child’s feelings of self-worth:
When you bring your child to me for Hypnosis for self esteem, this is what we will work on.
1) Forgiving yourself.
It’s OK not to be perfect; have perfect grades or perfect looks or perfect athleticism. If you measure your worth against the yardstick of perfection, you’ll be unhappy all of your life. But you can strive for excellence. Excellence is a high bar for anyone to achieve and well worth doing every day.
2) Spending some time helping others is a quick way to feel better about yourself.
That can be tutoring a student who is younger than you. Maybe you can walk dogs at the animal shelter. Help a neighbor with some yard work or carry in their grocery bags. When you help another person, you always feel better about yourself.
3) Avoid gossiping.
This can be a very tough one because boys and girls like to tell and exchange news about each other. And sometimes that gossip can be dog eat dog. In hypnosis, I encourage pointing out the good and positive traits in others and I reinforce how good this makes the child feel.
4) Face a few of your smaller fears.
Everyone, even adults, have fears; some are small and some are big. Face a few small fears and overcome them. We can do that without harm in hypnosis.
5) Set personal boundaries and enforce them.
There’s no reason to allow others to bully you or push you around. You can be more assertive. You can also reach out for help. We’ll mentally rehearse alternatives in hypnosis to prepare your child for alternative actions.
6) Set goals you can achieve.
It’s important to have big goals, but small goals are important, too. Big goals lead to big accomplishments, but smaller goals can provide a great lift. Make it easy to succeed on a regular basis. I assign homework to clients designed to help them succeed.
7) Define your values and live by them.
Ok, that sounds like a pretty grown up task. But we form our own personal code of ethics when we are young. When I work with a young person, I’m asking them what kind of person they want to be. I help them to formalize these ideas and choose the ones that are the most important to them. Then we reinforce this through hypnosis.
8) Be willing to make changes in your life.
When we continue to live the same way, we continue to make the same mistakes. That can be a revelation to a kid. They not only think they can’t change, they don’t think that others can change; adults or kids. What I show them is the hope that if they change themselves, that change will occur around them. This is critical to learn as a child because many adults come to see me and they have never learned this.
9) Voice your opinion.
Does your child keep her opinion to herself because she thinks no one cares? You might say as her parent that she knows she’s loved and can come to you with anything but think about yourself as a kid. Did you thinks your parents really could hear about your innermost thoughts? Kids will often just clam up with parents. But I’m not their parent so they will usually open up to me.
10) Minimize time spent with others who don’t appreciate you.
Kids will often keep a friend around who is toxic to them. They need to be told that it’s OK to start spending less time with that person. They don’t realize that reducing face time and screen time with a bad friend will start to taper off the friendship. They might not see that a particular friend is not good for them but it’s easier for me to point out the bad points of a friendship than a parent. And we practice different conversations that might help with approaching that person.
11) Make decisions.
Waggling around unable to make a decision creates stress and frustration. It’s also a way of avoiding responsibility. I work with kids to teach them how to decide and relieve the stress of sitting on the fence.
It’s not uncommon for kids to have low self esteem. With hypnosis, we can influence the Subconscious Mind to improve this state of mind. Through fun homework assignments, I help kids build a foundation for a lifetime of positive mental health. They can learn to be proud of who they are. And life is good.
About the Author Angie J. Hernandez, C.Ht.
A graduate of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, Angie J. Hernandez, C.Ht., has her private practice in Milford, Indiana. She is certified in hypnotherapy by the Hypnotherapist's Union Local 472. Angie is the author of "Weight Loss Epiphany: The Workbook", "Charlie's Cuddly Animals for Little Geniuses" and "Weight Loss Hypnosis: Lose Weight with Hypnosis Scripts & Recordings". You can find out more about Angie and how to schedule private sessions by calling (574) 658-4686.
