Nisargadatta Maharaj (”I Am That“) has an esteemful answer to these concerns: “There is no question of failure, neither in the short run nor in the long. It is like traveling a long and arduous road in an unknown country. Of all the innumerable steps there is only the last which brings you to your destination. Yet you will not consider all previous steps as failures. Each brought you nearer to your goal, even when you had to turn
back to by-pass an obstacle. In reality each step brings you to your goal, because to be always on the move, learning, discovering, unfolding, is your eternal destiny. Living is life’s only purpose.”

Each step in our life is important. It is important for us to give esteem to each one of them.

The Fresh Air Fund, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Nearly 10,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2010, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.

Fresh Air children are boys and girls, six to 18 years old, who live in New York City. Children on first-time visits are six to 12 years old and stay for either one or two weeks. Youngsters who are re-invited by the same family may continue with The Fund through age 18, and many enjoy longer summertime visits, year after year. A visit to the home of a warm and loving volunteer host family can make all the difference in the world to an inner-city child. All it takes to create lifelong memories is laughing in the sunshine and making new friends.

This program is a real gift for children, but also for host families. If you’re interested in becoming a hosting family for this summer, the Fresh Air Fund is happy to give you all necessary information. What a great gesture of esteem toward children!

A man knocked at the door of his lover.
A voice asked: „Who is there?“
He answered: „It’s me.“
The voice said: „There is no place here for me and you.“
The door remained closed.
After one year of loneliness the man knocked at the door again.
A voice asked: „Who is there?“
He answered: „It’s you.“
The door was opened.

On Oct. 4, 2010, in recognition of World Habitat Day, Habitat for Humanity will raise awareness of the need for improved shelter and highlight Habitat’s priorities: the worldwide connection between human health and housing, and, in the United States, neighborhood revitalization. These themes echo the United Nations’ chosen theme for 2010 for events in the host city of Shanghai, China and the rest of the world: “Better City, Better Life.”

Habitat for Humanity hopes that by raising awareness and advocating for universal decent housing we can dismantle and alter the systems that allow for poverty housing and make an affordable, decent place to live a reality for all.

By giving public attention to World Habitat Day we give esteem toward housing generally and in our neighborhood.  We give esteem to the fact that housing improves health, has a positive impact on children and strengthens communities.

When we want to give esteem to the wildlife of our country we can plan a visit of one of the numerous Wildlife Refuge places in our country. Observing the wildlife can create very esteemful thoughts toward animals, plants and landscapes making us think about how to conserve this rich beauty of our country.

He defined with this statement self-actualizing people. Self-actualization was first coined by Abraham Maslow. He explained it like this: “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call self-actualization … It refers to man’s desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one is capable of becoming …”

When we know about our talents and skills and we live them, we are self-actualizing, then we are what we can be.

Including esteem in our lives allows us to develop our self-esteem. Having a high self-esteem means that we know ourselves and we acknowledge ourselves in what we are and in what we do. Esteem creates a situation in which we can develop our own unique talents and we can live them. This is what Abraham Maslow defines with self-actualization.

There was an Indian Chief who had four sons.
He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly.
So he sent them each on a quest, in turn,
to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.
The first son went in the Winter, the second in the Spring,
the third in Summer, and the youngest son in the Fall.
When they had all gone and come back, he called them
together to describe what they had seen.
The first son said that the tree
was ugly, bent, and twisted.
The second son said no, it was covered
with green buds and full of promise.
The third son disagreed; he said it was
laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet
and looked so beautiful, it was the most
graceful thing he had ever seen.
The last son disagreed with all of them;
he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit,
full of life and fulfillment.
The Chief then explained to his
sons that they were all right,
because they had each seen but only
one season in the tree’s life.
He told them that you cannot
judge a tree, or a person,
by only one season,
And that the essence of who
they are and the pleasure, joy,
and love that come from that life
can only be measured at the end,
when all the seasons are up.
If you give up when it’s Winter,
you will miss the promise of
Spring, the beauty of Summer,
and the fulfillment of Fall.

This is a story speaking about esteem of its most real core.

When we are stereotyping others it has the same negative impact on us as it has on the persons being touched by it.  The team of Michael Inzlicht, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto found that stereotyping has a lasting negative impact on us.

In order to determine whether negative stereotyping in a particular situation had lasting effects, Inzlicht’s team performed a series of tests. They placed participants in situations where they had to perform a task in the face of negative stereotyping. After the participants were removed from the prejudicial situation, researchers measured their ability to control their aggression, eat appropriate amounts, make rational decisions, and stay focused.

Their results show that prejudice and stereotyping have lingering adverse impacts.

Living esteem prevents us from stereotyping by two reasons. First we realize that everything we do has the same impact on us as it has on the people.  Second esteem makes us see people in their own uniqueness which prevents us from stereotyping.

On which basis do we value ourselves?  With high self-esteem we can handle critics or reproach better.  A high self-esteem means that we know us in who we are and in what we do.  Doing so we don’t need to line ourselves up with our fellow men.  We know that we are unique as well as each other person is unique.

How positively you see others is linked to how happy, kind-hearted and emotionally stable you are, according to new research made by Wake Forest University psychology professor Dustin Wood and his team. The researchers found a person’s tendency to describe others in positive terms is an important indicator of the positivity of the person’s own personality traits.

This study confirms what esteem is creating in our lives.  By giving esteem toward others we give esteem toward ourselves. When we see others in a positive way we speak about them in positive words and reveal with it how positive we are ourselves. Esteem creates esteem.