A person’s overall valuation of their self-worth is their self-esteem. It can also be called self-worth, self respect, self integrity, or self regard. It can also be discussed in terms of levels. These range from poor self-esteem to equally unhealthy problems with narcissism. Psychologists, coaches, teachers, and others may evaluate the relative level of someone's self-esteem when establishing whether change may be required. There are two other areas that I believe directly impact on a person's self-esteem. These are the related concepts of self perception of competence and stress. The reason that these are related is that stress can be defined as a situation where a person's capability is exceeded by the perceived difficulty. Thus if they feel like they are highly competent, there will be fewer situations that cause stress. Therefore, a person with low self-esteem may also feel that...

The concept of hypnosis is one that involves many misconceptions and incorrect definitions. Some tried to define hypnosis based upon a variety of results that may be observed. For instance, a hypnotic subject may experience mental and physical manifestations that are somewhat different than normal. Heightened awareness, which is also called a trance state, frequently happens when a person undergoes what would be considered some form of hypnotic ritual. The existence of a trance state is central to the definition used by many hypnotherapeutic associations and the American Psychological Association. However, this seems to be a very weak definition if one would choose to focus on results rather than observations. The other approach is to look at the consequences or results of the hypnosis session. The subject is able to significantly narrow their awareness and attention and therefore...

Like many other phobias, a fear of heights can be overcome. I know this personally, because it is a phobia that I suffered most of my adult life. Although I did not realize it until I was in my early 40s, it started when I was only four years old. It was then that I observed by older sister fall off a cliff behind our house in France. My father, with the time was a young airman, and several of his friends were able to rescue her. However, during my teen years I began discovering that I had a very significant hesitancy whenever I was asked to do anything involving heights. During my early military training several instructors and even my colleagues recognized that although I never refused it will permit that involve heights it was very obvious that I had a deep fear. This surprise some who knew that I had successfully jumped out of a perfectly good airplane in order to be recognized as...