It can be easy to lose touch with one's inner worth. Indeed, some people live their entire lives never experiencing what they are worth, and believing they are less than they are.
When a person becomes lost in the people, places and things around them, it drains one's capacity to find inner worth. No amount of outer worthiness – not social capital, a respected career or all the money in the world – can create inner worthiness or its corollary self-esteem. That is because self-esteem flows from a sense of inner worth, not the other way around.
A sense of self is developed through learning to use methods and tools designed to cultivate it. A few of these are:
1) Being alone, meditation, contemplation, spiritual practice
2) Therapy, writing, journaling, having deep conversations with oneself in nature
3) Respecting one’s body - stopping substance abuse, eating right, sleeping right, exercise
4) Talking kindly to oneself. Refusing to beat oneself up. Treating oneself like a loved child.
If you are afraid of finding out who you really are, that is understandable. Find someone to help you with the process. But nothing will ever come to a person who plays it safe. Remember, you are as worthy as anything or anyone has ever been. You are made of reworked stardust. No one can make you feel less than that without your consent. Don’t give it!