SELF-ESTEEM

Be yourself, everyone else is already taken- Oscar Wilde

So I made it to New York! The drive was long but I did it! Along the way I stopped in DC for a night. Had dinner at the bar of the hotel I was staying in and met a principal of an inner city school that was holding their senior prom at the hotel. By the end of our conversation I had promised to come back to DC in the fall and hold a yoga workshop for the students who were interested. I gave her my card and I hope she takes me up on it.

My vision for the future is to create a wellness program that schools can use to help our children live and grow in these troubled and complicated times we are living in. Through a yoga practice, mindful breathing and meditation wouldn’t it be amazing to have a whole generation of kids turning inward to help themselves out of any situation successfully instead of lashing out and blaming everyone else and not accepting responsibility for their own actions?

It seems like we are living in a society where people feel like they can behave badly, (to put it mildly), and get away with it. Character really does count and we need to tell our kids that. It all boils down to self-esteem. The quality of the life you lead revolves around your self-esteem. How you feel about yourself gets reflected in every aspect of your life. There is so much pain in the world today what if we reached out and gave everyone an opportunity to feel great about themselves? It doesn’t matter if you are wealthy or poor, young or old, foreign or domestic all children/people have to love themselves. Pay attention to your ‘self’. Who you are, what resonates with you?  Yoga, (or movement of any kind, physical activity), breathing, quiet introspective moments all develop self-esteem.

As I have mentioned before I have been saying ‘Jiminy Cricket’ to my kids their whole lives. His famous quote to Pinocchio is one of our rules we live by and that is, “Always let your conscience be your guide”. You say that to a kid as they are walking out the door and they will think about it! Not that they won't make mistakes but they will have that in their heads, and if you teach them that they have a responsibility to themselves that if they know better they must do better. Development of intuition and listening to your inner guide and trusting yourself is empowering. Self-esteem is not something you can buy, even though we try to with our cars we drive or our clothes we wear or the bags we carry. Living your life without the approval of other people develops true self-esteem. The masses don’t like this theory. (As my friend Marilyn’s father says, The Masses Are Asses! Classic!!) Don’t be afraid of thinking outside the box. You don’t have to live small to make other people feel big. Be big, bold and brave. Support, inspire and encourage each other and above all love yourselves. That is the message I would like to send to every kid I work with. Think of how awesome the future would be with a whole generation of people who truly loved themselves. I say let's do it.