Durable self-esteem manifests as grace, self-compassion, and other-focus

Evidence

People with durable self-esteem are like big, strong oak or redwood trees; with their roots firmly in the ground, they can bend with the wind. They love openly, laugh at themselves, and savor the moment. They know they have made plenty of mistakes and own them, but they don’t brood over them; they have enough self-compassion to understand that mistakes are an opportunity for learning. If they miss their flight, they don’t get nasty with the person at the ticket counter; they get another ticket and wait for the next plane. In conversation, they are more interested in talking about you than about themselves. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 261

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘oak tree bending with the wind’ metaphor resonates with the trees-as-infrastructure article, and the behavioral markers link to self-compassion research by Neff. — connects to: Grace is the appearance of freedom embodied as necessity in the body-as-instrument.
• ADDENDUM: The ‘bend with the wind’ oak/redwood image could enrich the trees-as-infrastructure piece as a personality-worldbuilding parallel.