I had to share this with you.....

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-27-2006
I had to share this with you.....
3
Thu, 02-22-2007 - 8:32pm

I saw this poem up in my *T's* office and fell in love with it! I came home and instantly looked it up on the net. The author is a renowned psychotherapist who was known for her work most for family therapy I think. Anyway, here it is, I thought it was perfect.

My Declaration of Self-Esteem
-- Virginia Satir

I am me.

In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. There are people who have some parts like me but no one adds up exactly like me. Therefore, everything that comes out of me is authentically mine because I alone choose it.

I own everything about me - my body, including everything it does; my mind, including all my thoughts and ideas; my eyes, including the images of all they behold; my feelings, whatever they might be -- anger, joy, frustration, love, disappointment, excitement; my mouth and all the words that come out of it -- polite, sweet and rough, correct or incorrect; my voice, loud and soft; all my actions, whether they be to others or myself.

I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, and all my failures and mistakes.

Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By doing so, I can love me and be friendly with me in all my parts. I can then make it possible for all of me to work in my best interests.

I know that there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know. But as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for the solutions to the puzzles and for me to find out more about me.

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is me. This is authentic and represents where I am at that moment in time.

When I review later how I looked and sounded, what I said and did, and how I thought and felt, some parts may turn out to be unfitting, and keep that which proved fitting, and invent something new for that which I discarded.

I can see, hear, feel, think, say and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me.

I own me and therefore I can engineer me.
I am me and I am okay.


iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-2006
Fri, 02-23-2007 - 8:16am
Erin-
LOVED the poem! Thanks for sharing it! it is personally inspiring!
You are so thoughtful to post it for all of us!
Hope everything is well with you!
Be you! :)
Hugs!
Lynne
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-24-2007
Fri, 02-23-2007 - 1:35pm

I had to copy and paste that poem. Very inspiring! I am going to put this on my dresser mirror so I can read it everyday as I get ready. Thank you sooooo much!

Mandi

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-02-2004
Fri, 02-23-2007 - 4:39pm

Thanks so much! I was struggling with that derealization feeling the other day and this is very helpful.

Kim