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While self-esteem touches virtually every aspect of our existence, there are two aspects to which it is related in very distinct and powerful ways: wo...more

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Most people do not erode their self-esteem over big issues but over small ones, little acts of betrayal and hypocrisy forgotten (repressed) very quick...more

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The first act of honoring the self is the assertion of consciousness: the choice to think, to be aware, to send the searchlight of consciousness outwa...more

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It is naive to think that self-assertiveness is easy. To live self-assertively--which means to live authentically--is an act of high courage. That is ...more

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A bully hides his fears with fake bravado. That is the opposite of self-assertiveness.

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One of the great self-deceptions--and one of the great foolishnesses--is to tell yourself, Only I will know. Only you will know that you are a liar; o...more

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We are parts of one universe, true enough. We stand within an almost infinite network of relationships. Yet each of us is a single point of consciousn...more

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The idea of original sin--of guilt with no possibility of innocence, no freedom of choice, no alternatives--inherently militates against self-esteem. ...more

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Anyone who engages in the practice of psychotherapy confronts every day the devastation wrought by the teachings of religion.

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If you choose not to live self-responsibly, you count on others to make up your default. No one abjures self-responsibility on a desert island.

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The challenge for people today--and it is not and easy one--is to maintain high personal standards even while feeling that one is living in a moral se...more

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It is humiliating to realize that when you drive yourself underground, when you fake who you are, often you do so for people you do not even like or r...more

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One of the hardest expressions of self-assertiveness is challenging your limiting beliefs.

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Out of fear, out of the desire for approval, out of misguided notions of duty, people surrender themselves--their convictions and their aspirations--e...more

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It sounded, I told him, as if he had never learned to balance projecting goals into the future with appreciating and living in the present....To the e...more