What is self-esteem? Self-esteem is what you think about yourself, it is the value that you assign to yourself. High self-esteem means giving high value to ourselves. Low self-esteem means giving low value to ourselves. Self-esteem is a belief and therefore it may not reflect reality. Self-esteem can be seen as the difference between our ideal self, that is what we want to be, and our perceived self, that is how close we think we are near to our ideal self.

How to change how we interpret past experiences? There is a method called Cognitive reframing that consists in the following steps: Identify the past experience that we want to reinterpret Identify what is the thought that is useless and bring us to feel negative emotions. Do what follows: Question the thought to prove that it is not always true Find other meanings of the past experience that are more useful and bring us to feel positive emotions.

What is the cognitive dissonance? Cognitive dissonance is the situation we live when we receive new information that are in contrast with our existing beliefs. When we experience cognitive dissonance, our brain tends to: do not considerate the new information that are in contrast with our existing beliefs reinterpret the new information to align them to our existing beliefs find new information that supports our existing beliefs (confirmation bias) instead to be open to the new information and try to revision our beliefs.

What is psychological flexibility? Psychological flexibility is the ability to: adapting to a situation, including the ones that cause us pain, and acting coherently with our values. be aware of the present moment and all the emotions, thoughts and sensations we experience. sometimes living in the future to clarify and plan goals, sometimes living in the past to lesson learned but always in a positive way without continuously returning on negative thoughts without taking action.

What is self affirmation and why is it important? Self affirmation means: reflect on our own life values and on what matters for us acknowledge that our life has value. It is important because various researches suggest that self affirmation reduce stress level. Higher stress level indicates low happiness and viceversa. The stress is the result of a tension. A tension is caused by at least two difference forces that act in different directions.

The topic of the importance to know our own life values to be happy is present in several books and courses (Benjamin Franklin – An American Life, Drive, Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, Introduction to Self-Determination Theory, The Happiness Trap ). So I decided to know more about it. What are life values? Life values are: what is important for a person in his life.