I wonder if the focus on self esteem leads to a heightened focus on the ego. Low self esteem “my ego is bad". High self esteem “my ego is good". But too much of a focus on the ego (the narrative of who we are seen by ourselves in the third person) leads to anxiety and depression.

Instead of teaching kids to constantly refer back to their ego whenever they have a good or bad experience, perhaps a greater focus on the experience itself would be more healthy?

After all we are vessels for experience, all we are is experience, and yet we focus so much on the ego as if the “thing doing the experiencing" matters more than the experience itself.