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Of all the judgments you make in life, none is as important as the one you make about yourself. The difference between low self-esteem and high self-esteem is the difference between passivity and action, between failure and success. Now, one of America's foremost psychologists and a pioneer in self-esteem development offers a step-by-step guide to strengthening your sense of self-worth. Here are simple, straightforward and effective techniques that will dramatically improve the way you think and feel about yourself. You'll learn:
How to break free of negative self-concepts and self-defeating behavior.
How to dissolve internal barriers to success in work and love.
How to overcome anxiety, depression, guilt and anger.
How to conquer the fear of intimacy and success.
How to find — and keep — the courage to love yourself.
And much more.
Blue_Lily
Posted May 8, 2010
In my opinion the author, Nathaniel Branden, who was born in 1930, is an expert in the field of psychotherapy. This book is just one of many he has published. Some of his other works include: Honoring the Self, and The Six Pillars of Self Esteem; both of which I intend to read at some point. Mr. Branden worked not just as an author but also as a psychotherapist working privately with clients and in group sessions.
Throughout the entire book he demonstrated extensive knowledge by giving examples of situations from his therapy sessions. These situations would correlate with the subject he was discussing.
How to Raise your Self-Esteem gave me step-by-step instructions on how to raise my self-esteem. Each chapter highlighted a different aspect pertinent to raising the self-esteem. I would like to start this off with a line that struck a personal chord with me, "I can project an image of assurance and poise that fools virtually everyone and yet secretly tremble with a sense of my inadequacy." This seems very accurate to me, whatever I do, no matter how I succeed, I find this line to be true.
This book gave lots of examples, listing stories of events during therapy sessions. One of the things he wrote about was the self-image. I had never really thought about the self-image as being something that really affects and creates my future. Even though, now, it seems very apparent.
Throughout the entire book Mr. Branden lists different exercises to use for the particular chapter headings. One that he used in almost every chapter was something he called sentence completion. He would start a sentence, like "What I hate most about myself---" and we were instructed to write down six to ten endings. Then we were encouraged to complete the rest of the sentences that followed in the same manner. After doing so we were asked to reflect on what we had written.
Mr. Branden stresses the point that we must live our lives authentically, to be honest with ourselves and with what we want to get out of our lives. Basically, what makes us happy? How can we achieve that goal? Does lying to ourselves help? Are you doing something, your job, marriage, going to events, having children, just to make someone else happy and does it make you happy?
Another part of this book that struck me was the discussion on the child-self and how our self-esteem is reflected through what we learned as children. Mr. Branden called it a subpersonality, stating that if we didn't become aware of things that have influenced us in the past they could suddenly form in our everyday lives. Example: our ability to love or form lasting relationships. Although the information about the child-self did not affect me very much, the section on the teenage-self did since I was in more emotional turmoil during my high school years. He also mentions that there are several different other "selves", such as the "mother-self" or "male-self" but he did not really touch on those subjects very much. I thought that the child-self and teenage-self were very close to what we talked about in Human Relations and the difference between being a teenager and being an adult. I found this truer when Mr. Branden wrote about living consciously and unconsciously. When you live consciously you are living as an adult and owning up to your mistakes. When you are living unconsciously you are acting as a child or teenager, blaming others and not taking responsibility.
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 16, 2001
I found this book very helpful. The method Dr. Branden used really help me understand and love my inner child. It was awesome and very exciting to read. It was so intense, that in many occasions I closed the book and asked my self, ¿How does he know that, what is he doing to me? That was because I was really finding myself. I read other books about self-esteem, but this one really lead me to understand the origin of low self-esteem and how to grow in self-esteem. I agree with the author, ¿Self-esteem is the key to success or failure¿. I really want to thank him for this wonderful book, that I will continue to recommend to others.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 22, 2000
More than anything this book teaches you how to be yourself and take action in our life. The book helpd you understnd what self esteem requires and asks you to look inside yourself and discover what is holding you back. Buy this book it is worth the small price.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 11, 2012
Excellent book. I highly reccomend it. Very thought provoking. Very self awakening. I am now looking into some of his other books.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 25, 2012
You cant be anybody if you cant be yourself. Let the sun rise, and youll be free.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.ML100
Posted March 29, 2012
Branden gives life stories to illustrate self-esteem building concepts. I found the book very helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.DebMI
Posted February 17, 2010
Thought provoking read which provides many examples to grow from.
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
Of all the judgments you make in life, none is as important as the one you make about yourself. The difference between low self-esteem and high self-esteem is the difference between passivity and action, between failure and success. Now, one of America's foremost psychologists and a pioneer in self-esteem development offers a step-by-step guide to strengthening your sense of self-worth. Here are simple, straightforward ...