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.              My Declaration of Self-Esteem

The following was written in answer to a 15-year-old girl's
question, "How can I prepare myself for a fulfilling life?"

                        I am me.

In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. There
are people who have some parts like me but no one adds up exactly
like me. Therefore, everything that comes out of me is authentically
mine because I alone choose it.

I own everything about me - my body, including everything it
does; my mind, including all my thoughts and ideas; my eyes,
including the images of all they behold; my feelings, whatever they
might be - anger, joy, frustration, love, disappointment, excitement;
my mouth and all the words that come out of it - polite, sweet and
rough, correct or incorrect; my voice, loud and soft; all my actions,
whether they be to others or myself.

I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears.

I own all my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes.
Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with
me in all my parts. I can love me and be friendly with me in all my
parts, I can then make it possible for all of me to work in my best
interests.

I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other
aspects that I do not know. But as long as I am friendly and loving
to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for the solutions to
the puzzles and for ways to find out more about me.
However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever
I think and feel at a given moment in time is me. This is authentic
and represents where I am at that moment in time.
When I review later how I looked and sounded, what I said and
did, and how I thought and felt, some parts may turn out to be
unfitting.

I can discard that which is unfitting and keep that which proved
fitting, and invent something new for that which I discarded.
I can see, hear, feel, think, say and do. I have the tools
to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, to make sense
and order out of the world of people and things outside of me.

          I own me and therefore I can engineer me.

                    I am me and I am okay.

                     By Virginia Satir
              from Chicken Soup for the Soul
          Copyright 1993 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

  ..jus sharin'...  Gail