Self Esteem and Confidence: Why Self Acceptance Accelerates Personal Growth

All about Amy Lang, MA
Amy Lang wants to cause a major cultural shift in how adults and kids think and communicate about sexuality, love, and relationships. She believes every parent and caregiver has what it takes to talk to their kids about this hugely important part of life. Amy says,Parents really need to calm down, step up and get thesex talks party started as soon as possible!

With her help and support adults discover that talking to kids aboutit doesn’t have to be scary, overwhelming or tedious. Her engaging, humorous and inspiring style, shows parents how to turn conversations they dread, into something they look forward to and embrace whole heartedly.

Take the STING out of talking to kids about sex!

Worried, anxious and overwhelmed parents are drawn to Amy’s open and causal style. Her real world, pragmatic, non-religious approach, coupled with her delightful (and occasionally raunchy) sense of humor puts parents immediately at ease. As a mom, she knows how hard this stuff is to talk about. Her clients know she understands where they are coming from because she’s been there herself!

Amy changes adults’ perceptions about whatthe talk should look like, how long it should take, and even which topics should be covered. They learn it’s not one knock-down-drag-out screamingly uncomfortable conversation with their thirteen year old. Parents lean in and look forward to lots of short and sweet conversations starting age 5 and beyond.

Sex educator extraordinaire!
From the tender age of 22, Amy has worked as a sexual health educator providing pregnancy, STD/HIV, and birth control counseling to pretty much anyone you can imagine. She’s seen everyone from 13 year old girls to 63 year old grandmothers to cheating 55 year old men.

One consistent theme throughout her work was the lack of information people had about their bodies, sexuality, relationships and in particular, the lack of communication between young people and their parents. This didn’t really hit home until her son had questions about his body and its workings and she was surprisingly uncomfortable talking to him.I freaked out and panicked because I had no clue what to say to him – and I’m a sex educator!

Spurred by her own discomfort, she had alightbulb moment and in 2005 she decided to start Birds + Bees+ Kids to help parents become informed, confident and comfortable talking to their children of any age about sexuality, love, and relationships.
Her MA in Applied Behavioral Science from Bastyr University/Leadership Institute of Seattle is a huge benefit, as she is specifically trained in adult education. She’s also a certified parent educator and this means Amy knows just what parents and caregivers need to learn and parent at their best. She puts this knowledge to work in her talks, videos, books and workshops.

Learn from Amy!
You’ll be thrilled and impressed to learn Amy won the Mom’s Choice Award for Birds + Bees + YOUR Kids and The Ask ANYTHING Journal. She was also a recipient of the Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneur Award in 2009. Amy is also the author of the forthcoming book Is This Love? A Teen’s Guide to Dating and Romance and the star of her new video Birds + Bees + Kids: The Basics.

Amy has been featured in Seattle Magazine and Seattle’s Child. She is a regular guest on NW Cable News’Northwest Parenting segment and other radio and TV programs.

Her website is chock full of great info so zip on over and take a gander, sign up for her newsletter, and get those talks started! www.birdsandbeesandkids.com
Self Esteem and Confidence: Why Self Acceptance Accelerates Personal Growth20844Self Esteem and Confidence: Why Self Acceptance Accelerates Personal GrowthCore confidence, coming from an inner place of authenticity by default will cultivate a healthy sense of self-esteem. Let’s get clear here: self-esteem as I define it is not narcissism and is essential to personal power and a secure self-image.

If you buy into the idea that putting yourself down ishumble or that what others say about you defines who you are and determines your level of confidence, you cannot live an empowered life.

Haven’t you noticed how fickle people can be? They can love you one moment and vilify you the next. This is because what they think about you really isn’t about YOU. It’s about how they see life and how you fit into their paradigm ofreality. Reality is relative and as Albert Einstein said:

Reality is an illusion; albeit a very persistent one

It’s an illusion because your view of the world seems real andright to you because your nervous system serves to keep you feeling as safe and asright as possible. To the degree that you are aware that who thereal you are, the essence, theconsciousness that you are is not the same as what you think, you can run your life by conscious choice.

The minute we think that we are our thoughts or that what other people think about us is thetruth, we are setting ourselves up for a life filled with fear, struggle and overwhelm. It is very difficult to feel confident and like yourself if you base it on what the media says about what isbeautiful (seems to change with the weather) or if you are afraid to make a mistake and beat yourself up constantly.

How will you learn anything new of substance if you are fearful of falling down? Trial and error comes with the territory of growth. It’s just a matter of practice. Of course confidence grows with experience. Confidence does not mean you won’t have fear; it is just the ability to feel the fear and go ahead and do what you want to do anyway.

When you understand what fear is in the first place, it becomes easier to manage. When we reject ourselves and fill our minds with stories of shame and guilt, we essentially paralyze our lives and constrict our possibilities for expansion.

Shame is just the illusion that there is something wrong with you at an identity level and guilt is the story that what you did is judged as unforgivable. Well, welcome to planet earth. Everyone makes and will continue to make mistakes. We do have laws that penalize certain errors more heavily than others, but forgiveness and releasing self-rejection is the doorway that we have to pass through if we want to take back our power from the external world.

You, the essence of YOU, is not the same as what you did, do or will do. Those are experiences. Accepting where you are does not mean condoning it and staying there, it’s just that what you resist, persists. What you focus on expands.

If you look at yourself and others through the eyes of judgment, you block compassion and you block the powerful emotion of love. You slow down the ability to change. Love is a magnetic force, haven’t you noticed? When you don’t love and accept yourself, you make it very difficult to attract others who will love and support you also.

You will tend to attract relationships and situation to prove youright you are not lovable. I broke through this FEAR Fictitious Evidence Affecting Reality and it has make all the difference between itty bitty personal growth and quantum leaps to peace of mind, joy and increasing expression of love manifesting all around me.

My self-esteem and confidence comes from the inside, from my core. So, more and more what others think and say about me with destructive intention (and you know what this is, it is not the same as feedback), bounces off likewater off a duck’s back. This is true empowerment.

When you can increase this perception about life, you are less vulnerable to the fickle changes in other’s projection about the way that they see life. Your confidence and self-esteem can be healthy and intact for no reason; it’s just because you breathe.
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Valencia Ray MD, The Confidence Doc, is a former eye surgeon who with clear intention sold her medical business to now show women entrepreneurs and professionals how to eliminate blind spots that block their true potential and limits vision for business success, happy relationships and good health. She shares a unique blend of science and ancient success principles in herBreakThrough to the Real You coaching process.

She is a professional speaker and the author ofEmpower Up and Play Big: Winning at Life from the Inside Out!

Having been a successful business owner of a busy medical practice, she also understands the importance of leadership, marketing, sales and management. It has never been more important than in today’s world, that women entrepreneurs and professionals have the skills and abilities to adapt to our rapidly changing marketplace and at the same time maintain a healthy level of peace of mind and satisfaction within their personal lives as well. You can contact her by visiting her website at: http://www.ValenciaRay.com