Hair, Heads, Feet and Self-Esteem

I don’t completely enjoy trips to the beauty salon. It almost always takes more time then I want it to, and I’d often rather be doing something else. But, I want my hair to look the way I want it to look, and to attain that goal, trips to the beauty salon are required. Good-looking hair is one of the pluses, the other is the good conversation with Chris, he is great at his job and I love talking with him. If anyone wants a good colorist, let me know and I’ll give you his contact information.

The last time I saw him we were chatting about podcasts and he recommended the Freakecomics podcast, recorded by the authors of the book of the same name. The last one he listened to was about football players belief that their helmets are so improved that they no longer need to be concerned about head injuries, so they end up using their heads as weapons, which ends up causing other types of serious injuries. The next day I read an article in the New York Times about runners incurring more injuries when they use expensive running shoes. The article quoted a study that found there was a “tendency in humans to be less cautious when using new devices of unknown benefit because of overly positive attitudes associated with new technology and novel devices.”

This relates to some thoughts I’ve had about high self-esteem, which enables us to take risks. Can it be dangerous? I recently read a blog post about the “danger” of high self-esteem, claiming that it leads to a lack of empathy for others. However, the post was based on the incorrect definition of self-esteem as feeling superior to others. Real self-esteem has little resemblance to arrogance or grandiosity. It both develops from and results in greater acceptance and empathy for others and ourselves. Real self-esteem is reality based and earned, and does not vary based on what others around us do or think. It enables us to take changes, to cope with change; it doesn’t lead us to believe that we are superhuman or superior.

So we should all take good care of our heads and our feet, and build as much self-esteem as we can to get the most out of life!