Life has its Ups and Downs. It is not the same always. Your moods keep changing; sometimes you are happy and sometimes you are sad. Recession has added to your stress and depression. It is possible you are not able to pay your mortgage or your salary has got reduced because your employer's business is slowing down. There are some who have even lost their jobs and struggling to make ends meet. These are the situations where your self-esteem begins to diminish.

What can you do to build your self esteem in such trying circumstances.

The first thing to do is to understand that you are not the only one who is facing problems. There are many others like you. In these situations your mind begins to chatter and a lot of thoughts flow in your mind. You think why you have been destined to face these difficulties. Why it is you who has to struggle. These thoughts make your self-esteem diminish. You should shut out such negative thoughts. There are many things which are not under your control. You can do very little in bringing them under your control. What you should do is find out how to live with them, manage them. We must make the best of what is under our control, and take the rest as its nature is. .

We should talk to others, you can talk with your wife, grown up children, your parents and friends. When we talk to them you may get suggestions from them. You will feel relieved of the burden that was weighing in your mind. In such circumstances many of you may feel ashamed and shy. You would instead prefer to keep such things bottled up within them. This will lead to more stress and depression. Sharing you problem with others will help you in relieving the stress and getting rid of the depression.

Uncertainty also leads to stress and depresssion, which in turn diminishes our self esteem. At the same time, it is uncertainty that brings up new opportunities. Uncertainty will make you think and find out what are the options available to you and to find out which would be the best out of them. When you lose your job many of us find ourselves in wilderness. We have been following a routine all these days and our day was clearly set. We had a timetable available to us for doing things. Now with the job not there we suddenly find there is a lot of time available to us and don't to what to do. Now this is the time when you should not allow inertia to set in. Keep yourself in the company of active people who are positive in their outlook. Postive thoughts and actions are contagious. They can easily flow from one person to another. Find out or learn how to use the free time fruitfully. Take up a new course to upgrade your education. Learn a new subject. These things will help you in looking for a better job, better opportunities, to start your own business.

Volunteering work in another area where you can find opportunities and contacts that will help you in shaping your future, getting a better job or starting your own business. Volunteering work gives you an opportunity to understand the lives of others, the difficulties they are facing. You will find that compared to them you are in a far better position. This thought itself will boost your self-esteem.