Firstly - what is self esteem? Generally, Self-esteem is a term used in psychology to reflect a person's overall appraisal of his or her own worth.

Self-esteem encompasses beliefs, for example, "I am competent" or "I am incompetent" and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame. A person's self-esteem may be reflected in the way they behave, such as being assertive, being shy or having confidence. Self-esteem sometimes applies to specific situations, for example, "I believe I am a good writer, and feel proud of that in particular. Sometimes the self-esteem may be general, for example, "I believe I am a good person, and feel proud of myself in general".

So whilst some people may have a high sense of self-esteem in some areas of their lives there may be other areas where their self esteem is lacking.

As you already know, people are complex! Two children brought up in the same household, with the same parents and same schooling my grow up with two completely different personalities and traits. Now why would this happen? There are many theories around this area, however, the one I tend to favour is based around gestalts and Time Line Therapy.

Gestalts can be described as the way our memories are stored internally. If we use a metaphor, such as a string of pearls. And if each pearl represented a Significant emotional event (SEE), then the first pearl on the string would be the first SEE. So lets say we had a separate gestalt (or string of pearls) for each of our negative emotions such as anger, sadness, fear, hurt, guilt, shyness, shame etc etc.. each emotion (or pearl) can be considered to be based on a generalisation of the previous pearls on that gestalt.

So in effect, we all have different SEE's throughout our lives. So if for example our brother or sister got praised and was given a reward for passing an exam but we were not acknowledged by our parents this could cause a pearl to be formed on our gestalt.

If a number of these things happened the negative feelings ciould get worse. And so we can end up with a low self esteem whilst others seem to have boundless confidence, even with the same upbringing.

Now this may also be a factor in the way negative feelings are stored around a phobia!

Wouldn't it be good to get rid of that baggage of negative pearls that we keep with us hidden away in our unconscious minds? Well the most effective method for dealing with negative emotions, in my opinion - having looked into nearly all methods available, is Time Line Therapy (coupled with NLP's fast phobia model - to deal effectively with phobias)

You can think of time line therapy as a method of cutting the first SEE (pearl) on the gestalt (string of pearls) so that the rest of the pearls (emotions) just slide off the string. This leaves you feeling fresh and like a weight you have been carrying has been lifted. And the best bit - All this can be done in one session - unlike the other therapies on the market!

If you would like more information - visit http://www.nlpTrainingCompany.co.uk or email me on info@nlptrainingcompany.co.uk Nadeem Malik BSc ATT CTA MANLP MABNLP MABH MTLTA Master Practitioner and Certified Trainer of NLP and Coaching Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nadeem_A_Malik