Women often suffer from self esteem issues.  Sometimes the issues impact their everyday life and prevent them from excelling when they could accomplish more and other times the self esteem issues only affect one aspect of their life.  Regardless of how compartmentalized the self esteem issues are, it is important to address them.  There are a large number of self help books on the market aimed at improving self esteem but one of the best in my opinion is the Self Esteem Guided Journal:  a 10-week Program which was written by Matthew McKay and Patrick Fanning.  Although the book is part of a series which consists of 3 separate books, the journal is good enough to stand on its own.  If the Self Esteem Guided Journal is introduced to adolescent girls, it can help to prevent esteem issues that could plague them later in life.

While there are myriad books on self esteem, the reason I like the Guided Journal is because it does not focus on other people’s esteem issues but it helps to show the reader all of the wonderful gifts in life and it helps the reader to focus on the positive.  Each page has a short summary and area for writing.  There will be a task given each day and these tasks are ones which can serve as daily reminders about how strong an individual is, of how important they are and of how much they are loved.  When a girl looks at herself and thinks “I am fat”, the journal helps her to re-assess her body and be much more specific such as I am carrying a few extra pounds of weight around my stomach, but it also has her look at the positive aspects of her body so that she will realize that she may not be perfect and life may not be perfect, but that she has good qualities.  The book shows the reader that her inner critic brings her down and encourages her to fight back and turn the inner critic off by focusing on the positives.  Although this book is not specifically written for women, it is extremely helpful to female readers.

Another thing which sets this book apart from other self esteem books is that it does address children and the best ways to raise a child with positive self esteem.  Negative self esteem is a learned attitude and can be unlearned just as it can be at least partially prevented.  It’s important for children and adults to recognize that life is not perfect and this is done in part by setting limits but just because there are limits or someone does not have the perfect life does not mean they are less worthy of love, life and their future. Nurture self esteem in children and in yourself, if you are not sure how, use this guided journal for better direction.