My sister is back with words of wisdom and guidance to help uplift and enlighten the masses. I hope you enjoy this read as much as I did. Thank you so much sis, love you 🙂

The Importance of Self-Empowerment

As a therapist, I see many people that come in reporting that they have low self-esteem and low self-confidence. More often than none, we find ourselves attaching how we feel about ourselves based on how another person is treating us. For example, I hear people say “My Husband is emotionally abusive, so I feel like I am unlovable or think I am a bad person and deserve it.” I too, at times have fell into the tight grips of low self-esteem and negative societal norms. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness there are 6.9 % (16 million) Americans that suffer from a Major Depressive Disorder” (http://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers). I would bargain that these numbers are in correlation with how the person was treated by a love done, friend, co-worker or peers. Them being mistreated by a person exacerbated their depression symptoms. This is a problem and is the reason why I decided to write. We must reconstruct our way of negative thinking and self-talk. We should challenge those thoughts and get in the habit of saying positive statements about ourselves. One way to increase positive self-talk is incorporating positive affirmations into our daily activities. According to New thought practicing positive thinking and self-empowerment fosters a belief that promoting a positive mental behavior by creating affirmations will help you achieve success in anything. Furthermore, this practice can be one of many tools to promote strong mental health. Some positive affirmations to say out loud daily include: “I Am Strong,” “I Am Beautiful,” “I Am Amazing,” “I Am greater than my worse mistakes,” “I Am Enough.” When you are done completing these affirmations you should smile. Yeah, yeah, I know this sounds weird. However, research shows that when we smile, it sends a message to our brain and releases serotonin which is a natural anti-depressant. So, smile even when it is difficult 😊 It is imperative that we understand that self-love is essential in being our best self. We cannot expect for others to love us at the capacity we deserve to be loved, if we do not even love ourselves. Being self-absorbed, arrogant or conceited is not the type of self-love I am referring to. I am speaking of just being happy waking up in the morning, looking in the mirror and being pleased with your reflection. We must tell ourselves frequently how phenomenal we are. Once we can master the importance of self-love we will exude this love, which in turn we will attract, love. Embrace who you are! Love who you are, flaws and all. This is when we will reach true happiness within.

Be Light,

Kamisha Johnson, LGSW

Holistic Psychotherapist