It’s such a loaded concept that ties into many different feelings and reactions to life’s challenges. When you combine self-esteem and any issues you might have with your own and twist them around into a witches’ brew with possible neuroses of other peoples’, say like when you open yourself up to dating, well it’s always going to force you to confront yourself in new and interesting ways!
You might be resurfacing into the wonderful world of middle-aged dating after a long-term relationship, or you might have come out of a lifetime of relationships halfway through your 30’s on the other side of a decade ago and might only now be remembering, post-pandemic, that you’re actually a single gay man with an incredibly rich life to lead…
Enter Monkeypox!
Or maybe you’ve been a serial dater your whole life, happy in the knowledge that your final days will be spent not alone, but surrounded by family, friends and lovers, BUT – you gotta find those people first!
It’s obvious if you spend any time talking to people but all of us have something we are insecure about – the only thing you can be sure of is that most of us don’t realise that we are all having the exact same insecure conversations in our heads.
Self Esteem is hard!
And sure, not everyone is specifically worried about whether this body part is too big or that part of the face isn’t right or the fact that no matter what happens in the gym or while in training for that next fun run, a slim swimmers build is just never going to happen, for certain people!
And even if it takes you until your almost mid 40’s to finally get that, opening yourself up to the naked scrutiny of others can be such a liberating experience because you might soon realise that people aren’t even looking at the bits you’ve been worried about with such ravished attention.
More often than not, you’re shocked that someone might be complementary about those same bits so the next time you’re looking in the mirror, ready to twist your face into one of disgust and start checking off the things you don’t like, remember that those bits are actually quite popular with some people and the journey of self love and acceptance begins – and you start to glow – that there?
That’s Self Esteem.