The Canadian Mental Health Association states that in order to thrive, there are 6 things we need to have a sense of : self, purpose, contribution, hope, resilience and belonging. In today’s post, we will look at sense of self.
What does it mean to have a good sense of self? Our self-identity is how we define ourselves, and is a life long process. Starting when we were children, our self-identity is often created by the roles we played in our families, what we heard about ourselves from our parents, and the experiences that we had throughout. When describing ourselves, we can identify with our occupation, the role we play within our family, our attributes and qualities, our affiliations, our spirituality.
A good sense of self incorporates our self-identity; however, it is also about how confident we feel in who we are. It is about the overall feeling that we can have opinions that will be respected, even if they are different from someone else’s; it is about the feeling that we know ourselves best and can make decisions based on that knowledge. Having a good sense of self is also about the feeling that we deserve to live a full, good life.
We can create a good sense of self through exploration, self-reflection and positive affirmations. Having a good sense of self promotes an overall feeling of agency and feeling grounded.
Tomorrow’s post will look at sense of purpose.
To visit the Canadian Mental Health Association Website: https://cmha.ca/
Photo credit: http://Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash
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