Today I had a conversation with a friend. He and I were talking about my self confidence and self image issues. He was well aware of these issues before, and he knew that I have a hard time seeing my self worth. We had talked before about how I have a harder time seeing the things that others love so much about me. I told him I was working on it, but that its not an easy task.
As we talked, he made a very interesting suggestion. He asked me to hear him out, but to try and imagine a close friend that you really trust and am close to. He suggested I imagine them listening to me say the things I am about my self confidence, and to imagine what they would say. He said "imagine, if they had something they love about you that they wish you would know and they told you this. What do you think they would say?" This was so hard to think of. Trying to pinpoint what others love about me, especially a specific friend, loves about me. But my friend persisted, so I played along. I picked a special friend, like he said, and thought long and hard about what she would tell me. I finally had an answer for him.
This exercise he had so marvelously come up with (I love him for it) taught me something really important. If you ever feel low on self-confidence/image/esteem/whateverwordyoucanthinkof, try and imagine one of your closest friends telling you what they cherish about you. You might be surprised how well this works, and what they say in the hypothetical situation. Who knows, maybe even actually asking them can work even better. Either way you do it, I think you will find that it is a great way to remember what value you bring to the table of life, and you can also be reminded of what is important. As individuals, a lot of us have a hard time remembering the important things we bring to others lives. Its not the aesthetic or shallow things that are so "valued" in today's world. Your friends love you for the best, most important parts of you. Sometimes we all need a reminder, and by stepping out of ourselves and imagining us as others viewing ourselves (makes sense?) we can truly see the true, pure value of us, as an individual.
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