Improve Your Self-esteem with These Top Tips
Self-esteem is the way that you feel about yourself. If you have a lot of it, you’re probably comfortable in your own body and mind. People who have low self-esteem often struggle with negative thoughts and criticizing themselves. Suffering from a lack of self-esteem can have a tremendous impact on your life. Even if you appear confident on the outside, you can spend a lot of time struggling internally. For example, you might confidently give a presentation in front of people at work. But then spend days thinking about what you think you did wrong. If you want to improve your self-esteem, try some of the tips below to feel better about yourself.
Do Things You’re Good At
Having hobbies and activities to keep you occupied is a great way of keeping negative thoughts at bay. If you pick something you enjoy and believe you’re good at, it can remind you that you have lots of good qualities. It can be particularly useful to do something creative or crafty. For example, baking a cake, knitting a scarf or writing a poem. Looking at what you have made can give you a sense of achievement and confirm your skills and talent. It doesn’t hurt to show it to others too, but don’t rely on outside compliments entirely. What’s important is how you feel about yourself, not what other people think.
Stay Positive
Negative thoughts can be very distressful when you have low self-esteem. If you have a tendency to beat yourself up over the smallest things, it can be very hard to stop. It isn’t always easy to avoid negative self talk, but you can develop techniques to deal with it. Some people choose to have cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help them combat these thoughts when they arise. It’s important to learn to identify and challenge the negative beliefs you have about yourself. Some people find that it’s useful to write down their thoughts and reactions. This then helps them challenge them and come up with rebuttals.
Build Supportive Relationships
You shouldn’t rely on outside influence to raise your self-esteem. But it helps to form positive relationships. You want to spend your time with people who won’t criticize you, and will instead be supportive. Make friends with people that you feel comfortable talking to about your feelings. If there are people in your life whom you feel reinforce your negative feelings and beliefs, it’s important to learn how to deal with them.
Be Assertive
Learning to be more assertive can be useful to address people who criticize or take advantage of you. You may have problems saying no to people or feel unable to respond when someone is negative toward you. But you can learn to put yourself forward and be more assertive. Some of the techniques include paying attention to your body language and being more open, as well as making it clear when you’re upset.
It can take a long time to raise your self-esteem. It might be something you deal with for a short period, or you could struggle with it for your whole life. Either way, you can learn to combat the negativity and feel better about yourself.
