Wellbeing and Self Esteem - What us teens should think about once in awhile

Health Assignment 2010

“A person’s wellbeing is related to their self esteem”

This statement was something that I had to think about for awhile, not because I couldn’t decide whether or not to agree to it, but because how do you approach a subject that is such a wide one? Self esteem and wellbeing as topics alone are huge and putting them together is...difficult to comprehend. So I gathered my own knowledge and experience to try and explain to you why I believe that this statement is quite true.

Wellbeing: –noun
a good or satisfactory condition of existence; a state characterized by health, happiness, and prosperity;
welfare: to influence the well-being of the nation and its people. (www.dictionary.com)

Self Esteem: –noun

1. a realistic respect for or favorable impression of oneself; self-respect.

2. an inordinately or exaggeratedly favorable impression of oneself.

(www.dictionary.com)

To have wellbeing, as I understand, means to be a healthy being who feels secure, happy, comfortable and safe. Self esteem is something that seems to inflict a danger to your wellbeing because feeling happy in your own skin is a major factor to feeling these things. I know as a teenager in this day and age that containing wellbeing is certainly not easy, what I have found is that everyone seems to have self esteem issues whether big or small. The difference is that certain things affect people in different ways e.g. there are people who are quite vain and depend on their looks to feel like they’ve had a good day and there are people who don’t care much at all and walk out the house with bed hair. Having wellbeing is to be a healthy human being and to be healthy you must factor in the five aspects of health; physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual. All of these factors can relate back to self esteem and issues that affect our self esteem must affect our health therefore also affecting our wellbeing.

A good self esteem, as we have established, is important so why are we each feeling as if we’re not good enough at some stage in our lives? Issues that affect our self esteem seem to be present in everyday life ranging from the way people treat you as a person to plainly that another is looking quite gorgeous today. There is also the media that has a major influence on what people think you should look and act like. Also things that influence one’s self esteem are how many protective factors and risk factors they have in their lives. Protective factors being the parts of our lives that help keep us safe from harm and that encourage us not to take risks and risk factors being the parts that can be quite harmful to our health and may lead to us making unsafe choices.

Developing a good image about ourselves starts way back when we are first learning about the big wide world right in the hands of our parents or guardians. Young children absorb knowledge from other people and their own experiences as they learn and this is a stage where they are also gathering thoughts about themselves. Even if bad attitudes towards oneself are formed at a young age, although it may prove hard, they can be changed and a good self esteem to be developed. There is no actual cure for low self esteem, because what makes someone feel good about themselves varies from person to person, but there are tips that others can provide. I have friends that like to take a long, hot shower then pamper themselves when they’re feeling low and I also have friends that resort to chocolate or a long gym session. So if you haven’t already, find an activity to engage in while feeling not so good and remind yourself about all the good, positive aspects of your life. Surrounding yourself with things you love also helps you feel more in-touch with yourself. Something else that has also worked for me is writing everything down, sorting out your feelings can be helpful and pen and paper can help you do this as I have found. Always remember; we are all individuals that we should each be proud of being.