Hello there! =)
I have issues with my self-esteem and i recently found a video that kind of spoke to me. My issues aren't necessarily a result from my time with the Witnesses, but i do know that perhaps many of you feel down about yourselves sometimes due to the things you have heard from the Watchtower Society and some Jehovah's Witnesses.
You get told that you aren't welcome with you're friends and families because of what you believe in and the morals that you stand for. The shunning practices, in my opinion, are intended to make a person believe that they are worth NOTHING without the love and support of the congregation. This makes me sad. You might start believing these things, as you probably hear them a lot in everyday life.
I believe that EVERYBODY in this world has worth and deserves to feel love. These shunning practices are wrong and there is no doubt in my mind that many people who are shunned develop self-esteem issues. Perhaps in some cases these self-esteem issues may even lead to suicidal thoughts.
The video that i was talking about is on YouTube. It is by a lady called Sister Unity, she is an orange Hindu drag nun. She looks VERY funny and that can be quite distracting, but i really connected with the message that she was trying to put across. Her target audience is obviously people within the LGBT community, but i thought that i would share the video so that the people here with self-esteem issues could hopefully gain something from it.
I really like the technique that she used to overcome her self-image problems and i think that it could be applied to a variety of self-esteem issues. The technique appears, to me at least, to help the individual self-deprogram from the way of thinking that was forced upon them.
If you have any tips and techniques that have helped you to improve your self-esteem, I'd love to hear them. =)