9 Simple Ways to Improve your Self Esteem
Self esteem is an individual’s evaluation of their own worth. It is what you believe to be true about yourself. I’m not sure why, but we tend to be our own harshest critics. Low self esteem can negatively affect every part of your life including your relationships, your job and even your health. So it’s probably not a stretch to say, that seeing your worth and loving yourself can definitely change your life for the better. So let’s do it!
How to Improve Self Esteem
Are your thoughts True? Are the thoughts and views you are having about yourself consistent with facts and logic? It is difficult to see mistakes in your thinking because many of these thoughts are ones that you have long held and they can feel normal and factual even though they are just opinions or perceptions. Write down these self defeating thoughts and challenge them. Make yourself come up with definitive facts and reasons for the bad things you are thinking about yourself. You will be very surprised to find that you won’t be able to come up with facts for what you are thinking, and you will see there is no reason to be beating yourself up!
List Your Accomplishments: Write down everything that you’ve done in your life that you feel proud of and everything that you feel you have done well. These are facts about yourself that you can read when you need a boost of self confidence!
Create Personal Boundaries: What are your personal boundaries? Many people allow other people to treat them poorly. It is hard to feel good about yourself if you are allowing friends, family or co-workers to take advantage of or disrespect you. The first step is to define for yourself what someone crossing the line looks like to you. Then when someone crosses it, you need to know how you will respond to them. This will give you a clear idea of what you will put up with and what you won’t, then when that personal boundary is crossed you will be aware and know how to handle it. Standing up for yourself shows you have self respect and that you are your own best advocate. It will also without a doubt help you to feel better about yourself!
Exercise: I cannot say enough about exercise as a way to boost your self esteem. It’s benefits are two fold. First, when you exercise and get your blood pumping, your overall mental state will improve. Cardiovascular exercise increases endorphins, dopamine and adrenaline. These are all brain chemicals associated with feeling happy, confident and capable. They also help you feel less anxiety, stress and less physical pain. Secondly, exercise makes your body look better, thus making you feel better about yourself. Exercise gives you a lot of bang for your buck in improving the way you feel and see yourself!
Do Things That Make You Happy: We are so busy these days. We run blindly from one commitment and chore to another. It is easy to go weeks and even months without doing anything that you find fun and relaxing. Schedule a little time every day to do something that you enjoy and let it be something that is just for you. This is a great way to get to know yourself and to find out what makes you happy. It will make you a more content person and thus will make you feel better about yourself and your life.
Celebrate The Small Things You Do Well: This is very simple. At the end of each day, write down 3 things that you did well. It doesn’t have to be anything earth shattering. It could just be the cool outfit you put together for yourself, or crossing 3 things off your to do list, or the delicious chicken parmesan you made for dinner. It is just a way for you to acknowledge the good stuff you do every day, but usually just ignore. Give your self props every day, you deserve it!
Become Mindful Of Your Self Talk: Negative self talk is not good. You need to become aware of it and by doing that you can work on not believing it and then add some positive self talk to balance it out. Meditation teacher Allan Lokos says, “don’t believe everything you think, thoughts are just that, thoughts.” My father told me something when I was a teenager that changed my life. He told me my mind was just a huge computer, full of information – information goes in and thoughts are made, but my mind is just a tool, it is not my master. If you look at your thoughts as just random manufactured things made up by a computer, you probably wouldn’t take everything you thought so seriously. Use your mind as a tool, be discriminating about your thoughts and you be the master of it. This will change your life and the way you feel about yourself!
Don’t Compare Yourself To Others: I know when you look around on social media or in your own neighborhood it seems like everyone has the perfect life with no concerns or worries. Believe me when I tell you that this is a false narrative and one that will only lead to you being unhappy. Everyone has their own set of obstacles and challenges. Nobody in this thing called life gets away without things to overcome. That is what life is all about, without these, we would not enjoy when things are going great. Remember nobody has a charmed life except in the fantasy worlds of Instagram and Facebook!
Being of Service To Others: Volunteering or lending someone a helping hand takes you out of your own head. If you are busy helping someone who is less fortunate then you, it gives you a different perspective and it keeps you from thinking too much about yourself. Also when you help others it makes you feel proud of and respect yourself, which makes it easier to recognize your own worth!
I hope that this blog has given you some tools to use to help you to feel better about yourself and puts you further along the path to loving yourself. Remember you are an amazing, unique and wonderful human being who deserves all the best this life has to offer!
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