At the end of my research questionnaire I left a open comment box and I got 235 comments from aerialists about what affects their self-esteem (thanks to everyone who did this🤗).
Many people mentioned how comparing themselves to others affected their self-esteem negatively. On social media, in class, in a training space, etc, comparing body size, skill level, strength, etc.
As you can see from the chart this was a lot more common in the comments of professionals. Does this surprise you?
I guess as professionals we are competing against eachother for work?
I get that there’s a completely healthy side to comparison. We are naturally going to compare things as humans, it’s how we learn. However, it can be a way to repeatedly tell ourselves that we are inferior and I think this is how it’s affecting how we feel about ourselves.