Oh, san, thank you so much for your reply and for your understanding. What you've written here is exactly what I'm talking about. It's such a huge burden, that we have no choice but to carry. So unfair!
About a year ago, I got some positive self-talk tapes (well, not really tapes, digital files, but Gen X thankyouverymuch), and have listened to them nearly every single day. Of course I knew better than to believe that "You can change your life in just 30 days!", but still, I would have hoped for more improvement than I feel I've gotten after a whole year. I've thought about putting the script into first person and making a recording of it in my own voice, but I'm afraid that if I did it would not sound sincere and that would make me feel even worse about myself. I think the very phrase "self-esteem" has negative connotations for me. I think that in my household it was sort of a putdown, like saying someone was egotistical. And then there's the word "esteem", with which I realise I have a certain history. Here's a weird one: When my stepfather and my mother were first married, he gave me a copy of his Pulitzer-prize-winning book about something-something-American-history that he had inscribed "to (my name) With love and esteem, from (his name)". What a strange gift to give to a small child. What a strange thing to inscribe it with. I was maybe 6. I didn't know what "esteem" meant, although I understood it to be positive. I know that when my mother and stepfather got married, she told me that he was excited about us being a family because he had three sons and had always wanted a daughter. I think from these I got the notion that I would be appreciated and treated kindly by my stepfather. Which of course I was not. So perhaps I associate the word "esteem" with a broken promise.
About a year ago, I got some positive self-talk tapes (well, not really tapes, digital files, but Gen X thankyouverymuch), and have listened to them nearly every single day. Of course I knew better than to believe that "You can change your life in just 30 days!", but still, I would have hoped for more improvement than I feel I've gotten after a whole year. I've thought about putting the script into first person and making a recording of it in my own voice, but I'm afraid that if I did it would not sound sincere and that would make me feel even worse about myself. I think the very phrase "self-esteem" has negative connotations for me. I think that in my household it was sort of a putdown, like saying someone was egotistical. And then there's the word "esteem", with which I realise I have a certain history. Here's a weird one: When my stepfather and my mother were first married, he gave me a copy of his Pulitzer-prize-winning book about something-something-American-history that he had inscribed "to (my name) With love and esteem, from (his name)". What a strange gift to give to a small child. What a strange thing to inscribe it with. I was maybe 6. I didn't know what "esteem" meant, although I understood it to be positive. I know that when my mother and stepfather got married, she told me that he was excited about us being a family because he had three sons and had always wanted a daughter. I think from these I got the notion that I would be appreciated and treated kindly by my stepfather. Which of course I was not. So perhaps I associate the word "esteem" with a broken promise.