6. Mix with positive and supportive people. Who you associate with influences your thoughts, actions and behaviour - another form of subliminal learning. Negative people can put you and your ideas down and it lowers your self esteem. On other hand, when you are surrounded by supportive people, you feel better about yourself, which helps to raise your self esteem. Learn how to develop your positive personal support network.

7. Acknowledge your positive qualities and skills. Too many people with low self esteem constantly put themselves down (back to no 1 again!) and don't appreciate their many positive attributes. Learn how to truly affirm and value your many excellent qualities. If you find this difficult, ask others to tell you. They'll come up with things you would never have imagined!

8. Stop putting up with stuff! Not voicing or acknowledging your needs means that you are probably tolerating more than you should. Find out what you're putting up with and zap those tolerations. By doing so, you're giving yourself message that you're worth it.

9. Make positive contributions to others. This doesn't mean that you constantly do for others what they could be doing for themselves. But when you do make a positive contribution to others, you begin to feel more valuable, which increases your sense of your own value and raises your self esteem.

10. Involve yourself in work and activities that you love. So many people with low self esteem stop doing those activities that they most enjoy. Even if you're not in a position to to make immediate changes in your career, you can still devote some of your leisure time to enjoyable hobbies and activities.

and..............................

Start taking action! The universe rewards action. Backing away and avoiding challenges means that your self esteem muscles become weak and flabby. When you start to take action -regardless of outcome - you will start to feel better about yourself, develop your self confidence and raise your self esteem.

For those searching for New Age lifeboat, it is in your yard and in your home. You book passage on this ship by learning to feed yourself. Not by using utensils as you were taught as a child, but by growing food you need to live a healthy and prosperous life. Produce basics of life and trade surplus for rest. Love yourself. Feed yourself. Love your neighbor. Feed your neighbor. Sounds like a big job, no? It isn't. It can be done with less time and effort than most folks expend to buy poisoned, processed, disease causing groceries.

Farming is hard work for lousy pay. This is true enough for anyone who has not learned better ways than grandpa and corporate farmers have. New Age methods of profitable gardening, orcharding and vinting are readily available for reading of a few books. It is a spiritually liberating exercise to produce good food, by pound or by ton. Even small towns form garden clubs to share know-how.

The next best thing for you to do is to help your neighbors grow good food for you, by purchasing their surplus at local markets, regardless of price. You are not just buying food from such people, you are buying insurance, that there will be food for you when ship hits bottom and you are swimming for lifeboats.

The thugs of world governments hold power by creating dependents from otherwise free people. They borrow credit, pay salaries, collect taxes, make rules, hire and arm enforcers with lethal weapons. All because people let them do this and expect them to. Then people are taught they have no power to change anything. The people believe what they are taught by repetition from cradle to grave and nothing changes for generations.

Personal independence allows thinking person to withdraw support from her/his providers, because indirect provision is no longer needed or desired. So ends support of national and global secrecy and oppression of poor by rich. So ends exploitation of peaceful and humble by ambitious and boastful war mongers.

He who creates an empire on an acre or a continent, is obligated to defend it against every threat, internal and external, real and imagined. He is in competition with every other empire builder, seeking to expand his holdings. War is unavoidable. Peace is what they call cease fires between battles.

The empire builders need our support. They will have it if it takes scaring us to death and a lifetime of hypnotism. But as Ronald and Nancy Reagan told us, we can just say no. No, I won't depend on warmongers to protect me from all threats they themselves create. Nor will I pay them to provide you with their wonderful services. It is so clearly a gang style protection racket they run, in name of people. Throw out some life lines. Man lifeboats.

Ed Howes

For more Ed thoughts go to Bedinghamstudio.com.

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