Two Trees - Therapeutic Exercise

In our view, self-esteem is what you think about yourself and your abilities when other people are physically or mentally present around you.

Self-worth, on the other hand, is primarily related to the states you experience when you are alone with yourself in your physical and mental environment.

Instructions:

Take an A4 sheet of paper and draw two trees with colored pencils. The first tree should reflect your negatives: emotional, intellectual, physical, spiritual, i.e., all the minuses you recognize in yourself. The second tree should reflect all your positives, all your strengths and resourceful aspects and abilities that you truly possess at this moment.

In an analytical dialogue, find answers to the following questions:

1. Which tree holds more energy for you?
2. What percentage of energy does each tree contain, assuming that together they make up one hundred percent? How do you feel about the percentage representation of each tree in you at this moment?
3. Which tree is more associated with your mother's traits in you, and which with your father's traits or character?
4. Who in your family system taught you the most about supporting yourself during life's challenging moments? How did this usually happen, and what phrases, words, or advice were given?
5. In which tree are the roots more defined and subjectively felt, and what do the roots of self-esteem mean to you?
6. Are there fruits on the trees, and what do the fruits of self-esteem signify for you?
7. Which tree has life on it (birds, butterflies, bugs)? Do these creatures support or destroy the tree?

Take a pencil of the color that you associate with your inner strength, and add what you feel is necessary for both trees to come alive, for awareness and acceptance to emerge there. Try to sense what exactly will bring more life and ease into each of the trees. While drawing, test the accuracy of your actions by the presence of a pleasant feeling in your body.

You might discover that you have a pronounced negative pole, focusing on the tree of shortcomings.

This happens because you might be very curious about the outcome, enduring negative emotions and heavy states for a long time purely out of curiosity, which is a dangerous trap. It's important to recognize, accept, transform, and work through the negative aspects of personality and to establish new constructive models. This technique helps you unfold when your inquiry involves any kind of balance in life, relationships, and choices.

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Thank you for reading and engaging with this technique. If you'd like to share your experience or discuss further, please don't hesitate to contact me.

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