What Are the Roots of Your Self-Esteem?

Self-esteem is a person’s subjective assessment of his or her worth to himself or herself. Self-esteem covers various beliefs about oneself (such as “I’m a failure,” and “I’m beautiful”) as well as physiological states, including sadness, joy, and shame. The more we believe that we are worthy of happiness and good things in life, the more self-fulfilled we will be.When we don’t believe that we are worthy of these things, our ability to enjoy them can suffer. 【小题1】

Healthy self-esteem as an adult can be a gift that you are given in your childhood. It is a blessing that most people overlook. There are so many ways that adults with high self-esteem were supported as children that resulted in them having high self-esteem. For instance, they were praised for what they had achieved. 【小题2】They likely experienced affection and were given enough attention. It is also possible that they excelled in studies or in sports and were admired for it by peers.

【小题3】 As children, many of these people were criticized harshly, yelled at, or abused in one way or another. There is also a high chance that they were given little to no attention by the adults who were supposed to care for them. In some cases, adults with poor self-esteem were often ridiculed for their shortcomings or bullied by peers.

It is common that these adults also were made to feel that in order to be appreciated they needed to be perfect. 【小题4】 There are people who are obsessed with their careers or hobbies because in their mind they need to tie their worthiness to something tangible. Oftentimes these people have to pretend to be something they are not just to get approval.

How you feel about yourself impacts how you live your life. People with high self-esteem tend to have better relationships than those with low self-esteem. 【小题5】 So if you struggle to reach out for assistance it could be rooted in your low self-esteem.

People with high self-esteem are better equipped at achieving their life goals because they have faith in themselves. They face failure too but they understand that failure or success doesn’t define them. Having high self-esteem allows you to accept yourself for who you are. Flaws and strengths, you know that these make up the essence of who you are.

Why you should work on your self-esteem

Since self-esteem is connected to how we perform in various areas of our lives, it is important to work on it. To build better relationships, careers, and health and achieve goals, you need to first understand that you are worthy of all those things.

That understanding comes from building high self-esteem. If you had a terrible childhood, it doesn’t mean you are doomed. You just have to work a little harder to build high self-esteem and it is possible. However, it isn’t easy.

There are many resources out there that can help you with simple exercises that you can do on a daily basis to achieve this. If you are struggling in many areas of your life, take a step back and evaluate the relationship you have with yourself.

How do you talk to yourself? How do you treat yourself? What do you think of yourself? Do you feel worthy of receiving good in your life or do you feel bad about the good things that happen to you? If you find yourself experiencing something good and you tell yourself “I don’t deserve this” or “I didn’t work hard enough for this,” you may have low self-esteem. And when you have that kind of negative self-talk, you self-sabotage.

What would it be like to live on Mars? Volunteers are spending eight months in an area that looks much like the surface of Mars. They are isolated(孤立)high on top of Mauna Loa, a volcanic mountain on the Big Island of Hawaii, living on a simulated(模仿的) or make-believe, Mars Base.

The project called HI-SEAS is in the charge of Kim Binsted. She says this wild environment is as close to Mars as you can find on Earth. Because it is so high, the land is not warm or rich with plants, like the rest of Hawaii.

“You will see there is really no visible plant life or animal life. And you have got this wonderful volcanic material.”

Mauna Loa, 2,500 meters above sea level, is geologically very similar to Olympus Mons on Mars and almost as tall as the Martian mountain. When measured from its base, deep in the ocean, Mauna Loa is the second largest mountain in our solar system, after the one on Mars.

The six member HI-SEAS crew is mostly self-sufficient. Food and supplies are brought to them. But the individuals bringing those supplies cannot communicate with volunteers inside the habitat, or base.

Kim Binsted says this experiment looks at how the astronauts get along with each other. “We study how well they work together, how we can keep them happy and supported, and not wanting to kill each other over these long durations (期间).”

Crew members communicate with the outside world through e-mail and blogs. They also produce video on the YouTube website, like this one from mission commander Martha Lenio. “I am really enjoying this opportunity to live here and pretend that I’m on Mars and get to learn all sorts of new skills.” One of them said. “Whoever gets there first, the trip will not be easy”, says Kim Binsted, “It is going to be challenging.”

Astronauts traveling in space meet forms of radiation that are uncommon on Earth. Some of this radiation has been shown to be harmful to human health. It is linked to cancers and heart problems. Yet a new American study suggests the radiation does not shorten astronauts' lives.

Researchers studied nearly 60 years of health records and other data about male astronauts from the United States. They then compared this data with information about a group of men who are in good health, richer than most Americans and receive good health care-professional athletes. The study found that neither group has higher rates of dying at a young age. In fact, both groups generally live longer than other Americans.

Astronauts are usually well-educated, earn more money and are in better physical condition than the average American. Some earlier research has linked being an astronaut to a lower risk of early death, the researchers noted. The findings were reported in the publication Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

Much of the existing research on mortality rates in astronauts has not yet explored the mental and physical demands of this job. There also has not been a lot of research on whether astronauts show what is known as the "healthy worker effect". This effect leads people with employment of any kind to have fewer medical problems than people who are unable to work, said Robert Reynolds.

Reynolds said, "The challenge has always been to understand if astronauts are as healthy as they would be had they been otherwise comparably employed but had never gone to space at all. To do this, we need to find a group that is comparable on several important factors."