Category Archives: Self Esteem

Loving Yourself by The Human Awareness Institute


I spent last weekend at a workshop on Loving Yourself run by The Human Awareness Institute (HAI). It’s the second in a series of workshops they run on the topic of Love, Intimacy and Sexuality. While the confidentiality agreement prevents me from talking too much about the content of the workshop, what I can say is that it was an opportunity to profoundly deepen the connection that I felt with other people, and with myself.

I’ve always struggled with the idea of really loving myself, and when I first heard about the HAI courses I knew that this workshop was for me. I did the pre-requisite level 1 workshop about a year ago, and then had to wait a year before having the opportunity to do level 2. Over the course of the workshop I found myself gradually losing the inhibitions and fears about other people’s… Continue reading…

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Voice Dialogue, Self Awareness and Your Inner Child

We like to think that we’re consciously in control of everything we do, but the reality is that the emotions, beliefs and memories buried deep in our subconscious are running the show most of the time. And while the subconscious baggage we accumulate may have served a purpose in the past, sometimes it isn’t so helpful in our present day lives. Getting in touch with our subconscious to change what’s lurking down there so that it works for us rather than against us is hard because our conscious thinking gets in the way and we can end up just over-analysing ourselves.

A few years back I decided that some self-awareness was what I was missing. I just didn’t see myself as positively and as capable as I seemed to be in other people’s eyes. So I found a group working on self-awareness by doing inner child work. They used… Continue reading…

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My Life So Far by Jane Fonda

My Life So Far (Paperback)

By (author) Jane Fonda



I am a generation too late to really know much about Jane Fonda, and started reading her autobiography when a friend recommended it. There is lots of name dropping; clearly Ms Fonda was well-connected in her prime, but I don’t recognise most of the names since they were just before my time. Nevertheless, it’s a compelling story.

I was fascinated to read how such a successful woman could be haunted all her life by feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. Despite her feminist leaning and her

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Help Yourself For Teens by Dave Pelzer



Real-Life Advice for Real-Life Challenges

This is a self-help book aimed at teenagers by the best-selling author of A Child Called “It”. The book gives practical advice on a number of life issues and is interspersed with stories from Pelzer’s other books concerning the horrendous abuse he suffered at the hands of his alcoholic and psychotic mother.

I’m not a teenager by a long way, and I found this book a bit too preachy for my liking. I wondered how

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