A quick overview of steps on how to feel better about yourself

There are so many ways to feel better. We don't have to suffer. I think the simplest way to start to feel better is to think about the seven gateways to happiness. You deserve to go through all seven gateways but wherever you start, even going through the first one, you're going to feel some improvement. So, let's quickly go over them. The first gateway of happiness is the gateway of self-esteem. If you start to recognize how valuable a human being you are, you will start to feel better about yourself. And here's a quick simple way to do it: make a list of your talents, strengths, coping skills and potential right now! And don't be harsh on yourself. If you love to play to piano, that's a talent even if you're just playing simple songs. If you love cooking, that's a strength! We all have to eat. Well, you may be you're not a gourmet cook but put it on your list! We need the food! You need the food. So get going with a list that will help you recognize and reward you with the feeling of better self-esteem. The second gateway of happiness is to recognize who you are in the generations of your family. Are you the first person that's not an alcoholic? Or maybe you're the first person you were an alcoholic but you've gone to AA and you're not drinking? Are you the first person that graduated college? Are you the first person that has had a stable marriage? Are you the first person that has broken certain habits that perhaps were not the most positive in your family? Perhaps everybody yelled too much and you've really worked on controlling your temper. Give yourself a pat on the back. Getting to know who you really are because we all come from origins of go back many generations and we can't be that far beyond what we have learned and experienced. So, give yourself a reward for where you have broken beyond the past that you came from. Now, the third gateway to happiness, and by the way I talked about all these gateways on my website, theenchantedself.com, and also on a book I have on Amazon, Seven Gateways to Happiness. The third gateway is learning how to meet your needs and negotiate. How can you feel good about yourself if you're not meeting your needs? And you don't know how to get a job or hold a job or get along with people. So, this is a big gateway and it may take a lot of time but if you work on your education, you work on your relationship skills, you are eventually going to feel so much better about yourself. And you'll be much happier because you'll be more productive and more successful. The fourth gateway of happiness is finding pleasure, finding what we enjoy, not running on empty. So many people just roll on an empty gas tank with their own beings. We have to recognize that we need to be happy, that we need to have fun, that we need to feel good about ourselves. So that means, any area you want to get into: "Do you want to go to the opera? Well then, you need to find a way to get a ticket or watch it on TV or something. But it will replenish you with the lovely opera. Maybe you love clothing and makeup as a woman. That's great! So you find ways to find out about the latest styles to try, different makeups, you know [inaudible] it may be something that you just get a kick out off that goes all of the way back to being a young teenager and learning makeup tricks with your girl friends. If that is your pleasure and you got a kick out of it, don't let anyone tell you you're wasting time. You do it because it has meaning and meaning and fun will integrate itself until you're feeling better about yourself. The next gateway to happiness is not isolating. One of the things we do that makes us feel lousy but we don't really realize it 'til we're way into it is once we're a little bit down, we pull back and we don't relate as much to other people.