Elaine Aron on our emotional challenges
In addition to helping fuel creativity and a richer experience of life, being highly sensitive can make us more vulnerable to emotional overwhelm, anxiety, self-criticism and other issues. Healthy self concept and self esteem can be especially challenging.
As John Lennon once put it, “Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.”
Elaine Aron, PhD describes her new Psychology Today blog Attending to the Undervalued Self as “the result of years of puzzling over the ultimate foundation of our universal emotional problems.
“One answer I addressed in The Highly Sensitive Person: Evolution has made about 20% of us more susceptible to both the good and bad things in life.
She continues in her first post: Ranking and Linking, For Better and For Worse :
“Innate temperament cannot be the whole story, however. Research (and my own experience as a therapist) finds that low self-esteem underlies most depression, anxiety, and failed relationships.
“Yet in spite of our focus on raising self-esteem, we have had little success. In fact, research [indicates] low self-esteem is in a sense natural, one result of our instinct to rank ourselves among others… repeating self-affirmations, the most common self-help treatment, only increases low self-esteem in those already feeling bad, as many hapless souls have found.”
She adds, “Are you often stuck in ranking? Then you are often undervaluing yourself. It’s natural. No wonder raising yourself in the self-esteem ranking is not the answer. To get out of ranking, switch to linking, my next blog entry.”
Her upcoming book is The Undervalued Self: Restore Your Love/Power Balance, Transform the Inner Voice That Holds You Back, and Find Your True Self-Worth
Also see Self concept posts / articles
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