"Self-esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves." - Nathaniel Branden
This pattern can help you rapidly recover from an attack of bad self-esteem. It is excellent for recovering from a failure, or from someone who had a toxic effect on your self-esteem.
Step #1. Select a negative self-esteem image. Think of a time in your life when you felt bad about yourself, when your faults and weaknesses were totally in the foreground of your mind. This first step is the only one that is unpleasant. The most powerful memory may be one in which other people were trashing you, and this negativity infected your self-esteem. Step into the experience. Notice where in your body these negative feelings are located. Intensify them and notice anything else about them, such as their size and shape. Notice the images that come up for you as you do this.
Step #2. Dissociate from the experience. Now, we'll step out of this experience. Stand up, move around, and open your eyes. Do other things to break state.
For example: Blink faster, move your facial muscles, wave your right hand, stretch your left arm, think about what a UPS truck looks like. Continue with statebreaking activities until you are full extracted from the negative self-esteem state.
Step #3. Create powerful self-esteem imagery. Now you're going to create an image that represents the strong resourceful and positive self-esteem you're about to own. Imagine seeing yourself with profound self-esteem. Use all major rep systems. • How would you appear in terms of your expression, gait, gestures, and posture? • How would you sound? • How would people react as they are enjoying your pure self-esteem?
When this has some momentum for you, imagine yourself in a new situation, propelled by this self-esteem. Notice how it is stimulating and motivating to be in a new situation. Add to this the sense that this reality is in the very near future. It crowds out any previous caring that you had about past attacks upon your selfesteem or well-being. This state is very much in the moment and involved in creating a bright future. Now amplify the sub-modalities of this state. Enlarge and brighten it. Saturate the colors in your mind. Include the submodality of attitude and thoughts by becoming aware of your resources such as you sense of choice, support, and creativity. Notice how this image and state are attractive. Connect with this attraction, becoming more drawn to it. Build the attitude that you need this and must have it. Build your sense of the possibility of it, and the ways that is already real, whatever they may be. Put a mysterious smile on that image of yourself. Imagine you can hear your image think, HI feel good to be me."
Step #4. Challenge yourself to handle extreme pleasure. Positive self-esteem can dramatically enhance every part of your life and make it much more pleasurable. This step attaches your compelling image of high selfesteem to all aspects of your life. Self-esteem affects every single detail in your life. Since memories are such triggers, we'll start by attaching this positive state and image to the past. Then we will do new situations, since they are your opportunities to trigger effective states. Finally, we'll do the future in order to make your goals and plans more attainable. Reach out with your hands and grab the strong image of high self-esteem, just like you would grab a big mirror. Grab it, lift it and notice something new: there are thousands of thousands of high self-esteem images behind it! These images are of you being successful in everything you do in life. In these images, you are strong, committed, powerful, happy, thrilled, excited, and pleasurable. As you lift the image, all the other images are lifted with it. Smile to yourself and throw it up high above you. Everything spreads out in the open air above your head. Get in touch with the growing internal state of confidence in facing challenges. This state is supported by the memories of your power.
Send any remaining images of you that are negative back behind the positive images. These images continue to interrupt any negative or wandering thoughts with, "Look at me. I feel GOOD being me!"
Step #5. Future pace. Imagine yourself waking up tomorrow and finding that these images are still all around you, blinking and yelling for attention. See yourself with that mysterious smile. Imagine people enjoying this quality of yours, and how you affect them in positive ways.