What does self-esteem mean to you?

The mind will play tricks on you if you're not careful. Guard your mind as well as your heart. Everyone isn't built to love you and you are not built to settle for everyone that crosses your path. It is good to be in a healthy place before you begin dating.  Date yourself first!  You should know what you want and love. You should know what you will accept and will not accept. You should know the qualities that you want your significant other to have. You should know what qualities you can tell your significant that you bring to the table. Your self esteem has an impact on your thought process and your heart strings. Self esteem is your control towards how you handle your "reality" situations. Self esteem can involve a variety of beliefs about self, such as your appraisal of one's own appearance, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. Your self esteem have factors which are a major influence. These factors are: culture, family, relationships, work, health, friends, sexual relationships, television, newspapers, commercials, and internet. 

There are three components of self-esteem: self-esteem is an essential human need that is vital for survival and development; self esteem arises automatically from within based upon a person's beliefs and consciousness; and self esteem occurs in conjunction with thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and actions.  I recall when I was a teenager and I used to feel self conscious about my legs.  I have skinny legs and I would never wear dresses or shorts because I didn't want anyone to see my legs .  As long as I had on pants I had very high self esteem.  When I wore wear dresses (to church) I would hurry to get where I was going (to a seat) and hide my legs by sitting down quickly and ensuring that no one saw my legs or I wore dresses which went to the ankle.  My mind played tricks on me having me to believe that everyone was looking at my skinny legs when in fact no one cared but me.  The older I got the more I embraced my petite frame- long slender legs (most women would die for, lol).  I've never been one to care about what others thought to the fact that it affected my self esteem but there are many women who do.  To those women I say, Love you, all of you, imperfections, flaws, and all!!  If you don't love yourself, how do you expect anyone else to do?