How to Raise Low Self-esteem: 7 Self-worth Exercises
Increasing self-esteem is possible, but first, you have to identify where that feeling comes from. Then we will help you raise your self-esteem. Self-esteem is not something that is born innately in us, but it develops over time. Increasing self-esteem will help us feel good about ourselves and at the same time, we will see how things around us improve.
With a higher level of self-esteem, the relationship with other people will improve and we will feel more active and motivated to perform tasks that with low self-esteem we would not feel capable of doing. If you want to improve your life, you can start by raising your self-esteem. However, if you don’t know where to start, don’t worry; we are going to show you how you can do it! So,
What is self-esteem?
Self-esteem can be defined as the set of thoughts, emotions, and perceptions that we have about ourselves. It is what we think and how satisfied we feel about our own self.
In the event that our self-esteem is low, that is to say, that we do not feel valued or worthy of being loved by others, changes in our way of behaving can be triggered and our social relationships can be affected because we create a shell around our self to feel more protected against situations of social rejections. Here’s How to Stop Negative Thoughts?
How to know if I have low self-esteem?
It’s indeed a considerable question many of my students ask from me. So, here we are going to mention several common symptoms that occur when we have low self-esteem: When you have low self-esteem,
- You don’t like your life.
- You have negative thoughts about yourself.
- When you receive compliments, you don’t believe the compliments people give you.
- You compare yourself to others, you overvalue other people. As a result, you undervalue yourself.
- You do not forgive yourself for failing at any time.
- Every time you make a mistake, instead of admitting it and learning from it, it makes you feel bad.
- You prefer to attend to the needs of others over your own.
- You pay little attention to yourself.
- When you look in the mirror you only see flaws.
- Also, you don’t like your image.
- You are very demanding of yourself, you set goals that you cannot achieve, and that makes you feel worse and that you easily become demotivated.
- You hold third parties responsible for your happiness and/or well-being. For example, you think that your happiness depends on your friends, life partner or your children.
- You feel that others do not value you. You think they don’t value your work or your achievements.
Analyze what is the origin of your low self-esteem?
The first step to improving your self-esteem is finding the source that causes you to feel this way. Low self-esteem develops little by little. It is not something that appears just because there’s a reason for it and discovering it will make it much easier for you to feel good. You should try to analyze what is the origin that makes you think negatively about yourself.
Once you’ve determined the source of your low self-esteem, what you should do is think about whether there is a way to change it. If you cannot change it, you should think about how to redirect the problem so that it does not affect you or affects you less and, finally, think if you are giving it more importance than it has.
All these analytical thoughts should be as well-argued as possible. It is not worth trying to convince yourself that we are giving it a lot of importance unnecessarily if we do not use solid arguments.
7 essential steps to raise Self-esteem:
1. Live a Healthier Life:
A good diet, good sleep, doing some exercise, and forgetting habits such as tobacco or alcohol, can help us much more than we think to improve our mood and therefore improve the perception we have of what surrounds us and what holds us back in life.
2. Make a list of good things about Yourself:
It is important that we learn to see positive things about who we are and how we are. So, you should make a list of good things that you think you have, and if you find something negative you have to try to find how you can improve it or find a way what you would change to feel better for having a certain defect. If we do this, we will be minimizing what makes us feel bad about ourselves and we will emphasize our good things.
3. Pamper yourself, indulge yourself:
Take time for yourself, all relationships, even the one we have with ourselves, must be actively maintained. We will not be able to have friends if we do not pay attention to them, for example, if we never call them or if we do not meet to do something together.
In our relationship with ourselves, a bit similar happens; we need to pay attention to ourselves. So, at least once a week, do something that you love to do for yourself and to raise your self-esteem: For example, go shopping, spend a relaxing afternoon at a spa. Do something you like!
4. Don’t compare yourself to anyone:
You are you, with your strengths and weaknesses; do not try to compare yourself to others. No one in the entire world is like you. So, don’t find yourself in others rather compare yourself with successful people only to get inspiration. Increase your self-confidence by utilizing your own thinking and by constantly testing and revising your knowledge.
5. Improve your Outlook:
Spend time on your appearance and outlook. Do not forget the habits of personal care, or never neglect your clothes. You can get inspiration and confidence from your wardrobe. So, try to improve your appearance: if you look good, you will feel much better.
6. Review your Goals:
When we are with low self-esteem, we tend to set goals that we are not able to achieve, which makes us feel like failures and inferior. We must try to set goals that we are capable of achieving. A good idea is to try not to cover big goals, but to take small steps towards the final goal. Moreover, the study has shown that people work better when they know what their goal is and why.
7. Surround yourself with Positive People:
Your Company matters a lot. People you are living with have a great impact on your thoughts, your personality, and also your self-esteem. Surround yourself with people who need you and accept you with all your flaws. There is nothing better than surrounding yourself with people who have a positive view of things to help us change our point of view in relation to ourselves and what surrounds us.
So, these were the few very basic and needed steps that our opinion can help you raise your self-esteem. If you are going through low self-esteem, analyze the cause for it and try to overcome and eliminate those flaws that are constantly holding you back in life. Raising self-esteem is a step-by-step process; the more you will put in your efforts the more positive results you can get from it.
So, in your opinion, why most people are struggling with their self-esteem?
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