Power of Self Image

Adnan Rafique M.D.

”If you don’t love yourself, nobody will. Not only that, you won’t be good at loving anyone else. Loving starts with the self.”

– Wayne Dyer

Most people are too hard on themselves, they don’t realize that negative thoughts about themselves create negative actions or no actions, which in turn, create a sense of worthlessness. You cannot achieve success when you don’t trust yourself. Having a positive self image creates a force within you that pushes you to change the course of your life when things don’t seem to work out the way you like in your life.

Many researchers have written about self image and how the very complexed organ God has created, called “the human mind” works. Two components of the human mind are conscious and subconscious mind. These two are interconnected: whatever information you process through your conscious mind, it shapes up your subconscious mind. Your mind follows the simple rule of garbage in, garbage out. Your behavior will reflect the outcome according to the information you feed your brain on a consistent basis, which ultimately affects the outcome of your life.

When a child hears negative comments from an authoritative figure, like father or a teacher, it imprints in what researchers call "Limbic Memory”. If a child hears these negative comments repetitively from these authoritative figures it usually changes the neuron processing for a very long time which results in damaging the self-image of a child. In one of my favorite book, Psycho Cybernetics, Dr. Maxwell Maltz narrates several examples of how each individual can learn how to repair these negative self image problems and how important it is to learn how the subconscious mind works in creating a better life and happiness. Maltz says, “Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.”

This book is a must read for people who are struggling to create better self image.

In another book on self-image, my friend and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Imran Khawaja writes, “Your success in any endeavor, will never be greater than the image you have of yourself. In other words, you cannot outperform your self-image". He described in his book, The Power of your Dream Self-Image, how we can learn to use dreams to improve our self image and train our subconscious mind, another great read.

Improving self image is the first step towards improving self confidence because most of the time these two are interlinked. People who care too much about the negative opinions of others and let others dictate who they are, find it extremely difficult to build positive self image. Sometimes sincere criticism is beneficial to open the eyes of a target person, but if inflicted in a very young age, it leaves long term memory in their subconscious mind which most people are unable to repair or overcome.

The bottom line is, training your subconscious mind with positive learning helps to create a positive self image which is necessary to achieve long term and consistent success and fulfillment in our lives. Staying away from negative people and negative books & news channels help your subconscious mind build a positive image about yourself and give you strength to repair any damaging memory in your neurons.

I would like to thank my friend, Dr. Imran Khawaja for giving us a guide on how to train our mind for success. Also there are other books that can change the way most people think about themselves. Please read the following books:

The New Psycho Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz

Mind over Golf by Dr. Richard Coop

Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins

The Lion Inside – Rachel Bright ( best for Kids)

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself.”

– Harvey Fierstein