Declaration of Self Esteem

by Virginia Satir

I am Me.

In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. 

Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it.

I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. 

I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. 

I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes.

Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. 

I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know.

But as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me. 

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. Later, if some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. 

I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do.

I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. 

I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. 

I am me, and I am okay.