Dr. Aziz explains why affirmations like "I love myself" don't work: they clash with what you actually believe about yourself. Real self-esteem comes from doing the things you're afraid of, like approaching someone or giving a talk. Success at those things builds confidence as a side effect.
Affirmations for self esteem almost never work. In my experience of working with people over the last 18 years in core confidence and self esteem. I love myself, I'm beautiful, I'm awesome. Or even more elaborate, affirmations don't seem to stick. Why? Because if you have a negative self concept, a negative perception of yourself, you kind of just don't believe it and it falls flat, right? Just see if that's true in your own experience. So here's how you shift your self esteem instead. Because I'm not whatever you tell yourself. Pretty enough, smart enough, good enough, attractive enough, funny enough. Therefore you can't talk to people. You can't give a public talk, you can't take the risk in business, you can't put yourself out there. So the way you boost your self esteem is by doing the very thing that you believe that you can't. So you approach the person, you put yourself out there, you give the talk and as a byproduct your self esteem skyrockets.
