Society is obsessed with self-esteem, but what about your self-worth? Your self-worth is vital to your overall happiness, confidence, and mental health. Everyone has self-worth, even if they don’t see it. Psychotherapist Virginia Satir explains that your thoughts and interactions with others are largely influenced by your self-worth. She also explains how to boost your self-worth with a simple visualisation activity.
So, how do you increase your self-worth? A great place to start is with a simple self-esteem-building activity. A recent article on cpydcoalition.org offers the perfect example. It’s an activity featured in Virginia Satir’s article Self-Worth: The Pot Nobody Watches. In this article, she used the metaphor of a pot to represent a person’s self-work. The following activity is based on this idea. As you complete it, you’ll create three separate pots that you fill with negative and positive messages.
First, you need to create a pot of ‘pot drainers. The pot drainers include negative messages. Fill this pot with the self-critical messages that make you feel bad about yourself. This typically includes messages from the inner critic during moments of self-doubt.
The second pot includes ‘pot cleansers’. The pot cleansers are positive messages and thoughts. Think of the things that you like about yourself. Pot cleansers help cleanse the negative thoughts from the previous pot. You can use the positive messages to reframe the negative messages. Balancing these two pots helps transform your outlook on life.
The third pot includes ‘pot fillers.’ The pot fillers are positive messages sent to you from others and yourself. Filling this third pot with compliments and recognition of your skills, abilities, and positive traits.
When your first two pots are balanced and your third pot is full, you’re likely to experience more positivity in your life. You’ll be able to see more opportunities around you instead of feeling stuck in place. For more details, read the original article here.
If you’re a high achiever looking to build greater confidence and broaden your horizons, I highly recommend using Satir’s visualisation activity. Your confidence is linked to your sense of self-worth. If you don’t believe in your skills and abilities, it’s difficult to build confidence. The visualisation activity makes it easier to analyse your self-worth. Combating your negative messages with positive ones reshapes your perception of yourself.
Visualisation activities also give you the tools for boosting confidence in critical situations. You can use your ‘pot cleanser’ pot to replace negative feelings as they occur. You also alter your thought patterns related to how you think others perceive you. Filling your ‘pot fillers’ with positive messages from others provides anchors for maintaining confidence.
One of the main points of Virginia Satir’s visualisation activity is the importance of self-worth. It’s tied to your self-confidence. For best results, I recommend repeating the activity frequently. If you want to explore additional techniques to beat imposter syndrome, I can help. Learn more about my one-to-one coaching and online courses at https://thinklearnsucceed.com.au.