Psychological Analysis of Self-Esteem and Stress Management

This essay examines the crucial relationship between self-esteem and stress, exploring how an individual's self-perception impacts their mental and emotional well-being. It defines self-esteem, differentiating between positive and negative forms, and highlights factors that influence it, such as relationships, addiction, and mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. The essay emphasizes the importance of positive self-esteem in stress management and overall happiness. It provides practical strategies for building self-esteem, including cultivating optimism, developing positive self-talk, embracing new challenges, and avoiding negative influences. The conclusion reiterates the significance of positive self-esteem in navigating life's challenges and maintaining a healthy, stress-free lifestyle. The essay also includes a comprehensive list of references to support the presented arguments.

Introduction
Self- Esteem refers to the kind of feeling that a person has due to the surroundings or
circumstances. A person feels positive self-esteem when he believes that he is good in
everything and worthy as per the other’s point of view. Negative feeling of self- esteem comes
when a person believes that he is not as worthy as the other people around him. There are
many factors that helps in determining the self-esteem like how we view our appearance and
performance and where we rate ourselves in relationship with others. It is not necessary that
everyone have equal self- esteem because it may vary from one person to the another
depending upon the situation. If a person succeeds in something or have done something big
then he feels that he is valued by everyone and it results positive thoughts but at the same time
if a person fails, then he feels criticized and ignored.
Positive self-esteem is significant to overcome the stress because it results in high self-
confidence. Low self-esteem is not related to any mental issue but there is a connection
between the outcomes of both. So, if a person has positive self- esteem then they can be happy
and stress free. Low self- esteem creates stress and many health issues. There are some points
that low downs positive self- esteem:
 Poor Relationships: Relationships are important for every human being because they
need to interact with people for developing positive relationships. So negative relations
result in negative self- esteem and on the other hand positive relations results in
positive self- esteem (Insoon Wang & Cho Ok-Kyeong, 2011).
 Addiction: There are many psychological studies that shows low self-esteem in
childhood and early adulthood can result in predisposition to addiction in life. There are
people who are addicted to drugs, smoking or alcohol to low down negative feelings.
But after a period, such things turn into addiction that affect esteem levels of a person.

 Depression and anxiety: Low self- esteem also results in depression and anxiety. This is
an important issue that employees are facing in an organization nowadays. People are
suffering from mental illness because of low self- esteem (SS, 2018).
It is very difficult to create self- esteem as it is a crucial task. When a person learns to love
himself then he is able to create a happy relationship and a happy career as well. But if there
are some negative feelings then it will result in negative self-esteem (Hulme, Hirsch & Stopa,
2012). The main challenges are to adjust all the negative thoughts and convert them into
positive self- esteem. A person can create positive self-esteem by start caring about the mind
and the body and that can be done by adopting a healthy lifestyle. Proper diet, meditation and
exercise is very important to become emotionally strong and gaining emotional confidence.
When a person feels loved and supported by everyone around then he starts getting positive
self-esteem. Helping other people is also a good method to create positivity (Elkin, 2013).
Positive self- esteem affects the level of happiness and make life less stressful. When a person
starts trusting his ability then it becomes easy to survive in all difficult situations. It also changes
the vision and the person consider all the difficult situation as challenge instead of threat. Self-
efficacy is very important because it makes you feel that you are important and capable, and it
helps in stress management as well (Carters & Byrne, 2013).
By using some methods, it becomes easy for a person to raise self- esteem as well as self-
efficacy and both can help in releasing the stress. There are multiple things or ways that help in
controlling the life and create build resilience. It also helps in making the life more joyful
(Thompson & Gomez, 2014).
 Work on the Optimism- It is necessary to be stress free and build positive self- esteem
and that can be done by working on the optimism level. A person has to develop the
feeling of positivity for the peace of mind and overall happiness. Optimism is helpful in
many other ways like it helps in creating a bigger sense, preparation of positive thinking

habits. Optimism means to look on the bright side. Optimism helps in creating positive
self-esteem (Besser & Zeigler-Hill, 2012).
 Develop Positive Self- Talk- This is one of the major things for stress relief- “self- talk”.
The way people talk to themselves shows their thoughts about the life (Pepping,
O’Donovan & Davis, 2013). When it is a habit of a person to think negative then it
creates a negative view about the life and it causes other issues as well. Develop
positive self- talk helps in gaining the confidence and create positive self- esteem.
 Try New Challenges- It is beneficial for a person to try new challenges as it clears out the
capabilities and increase positive self—esteem. Hobbies are also good as it helps in
relieving stress.
 Maintain distance from Toxic people- It is very normal when people feel negative about
themselves and there is friend who tear you down instead of cheering you up. So, it is
very important to stay away from such people as it may result in creating negative self-
esteem. A person should learn to create boundaries with the people who creates
negativity in your surroundings. Building up relationship with supportive friends helps in
cultivate the social life.
Conclusion
It has been concluded that Positive self-esteem is significant to overcome the stress because
today people are very much stressed due to personal issues, professional issues and work life
balance and it is important to think positive so as to maintain overall stress management. There
are many ways by which a person can create positive self- esteem as well as gain confidence
that results in achieving bigger things. Stress results in depression and mental illness and people
need to cope up with this issue. Positive self- esteem gives a feeling of confidence, boldness
and positivity. People should start adopting measures to create a healthy lifestyle so that they
can have a happy and stress-free life.

References
Besser, A., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2012). Positive Personality Features and Stress among First-year
University Students: Implications for Psychological Distress, Functional Impairment, and Self-
esteem. Self And Identity, 13(1), 24-44. doi: 10.1080/15298868.2012.736690
Carters, M., & Byrne, D. (2013). The role of stress and area-specific self-esteem in adolescent
smoking. Australian Journal Of Psychology, 65(3), 180-187. doi: 10.1111/ajpy.12019
Elkin, A. (2013). Stress management for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons
Hulme, N., Hirsch, C., & Stopa, L. (2012). Images of the Self and Self-Esteem: Do Positive Self-
Images Improve Self-Esteem in Social Anxiety?. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 41(2), 163-173.
doi: 10.1080/16506073.2012.664557
Insoon Wang, & Cho Ok-Kyeong. (2011). Effects of Loving-Kindness Meditation on Self-
Compassion, Mindfulness, Self-Esteem, Positive and Negative Affect, and Perceived
Stress. Korean Journal Of Health Psychology, 16(4), 675-690. doi: 10.17315/kjhp.2011.16.4.003
Pepping, C., O’Donovan, A., & Davis, P. (2013). The positive effects of mindfulness on self-
esteem. The Journal Of Positive Psychology, 8(5), 376-386. doi: 10.1080/17439760.2013.807353
SS, K. (2018). Effect of Natural Vestibular Stimulation on Self-Esteem Levels in Relation to
Stress. International Journal Of Biochemistry & Physiology, 3(3). doi: 10.23880/ijbp-16000133
Thompson, J., & Gomez, R. (2014). The Role of Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy in Moderating the
Effect of Workplace Stress on Depression, Anxiety and Stress. Australasian Journal Of
Organisational Psychology, 7. doi: 10.1017/orp.2014.2