Believe In Yourself: Steps To Improve Your Self-Esteem
“Be messy and complicated and afraid and show up anyways.” –Glennon Doyle Melton
No one person is the same. That’s why accepting who you are as you are can lead to a happier life. Having a healthy self-esteem is important to have in life. Your self-esteem impacts your motivation, your ability to take risks, and how you see yourself. Having low self-esteem can have a negative impact on how you live your life, but there are ways that you can learn that can improve your self-esteem.
Self-esteem is the way we value and perceive ourselves. As you live your life, there will be times when your self-esteem is lower than other times in your life. A low self-esteem can cause self-criticism, depression, loss of resilience, loss of motivation, relationship problems, lack of boundaries, and people-pleasing tendencies. It makes it harder to deal with life’s challenges and pursue your goals. Taking time to learn skills to improve your self-esteem can help improve your life and confidence in yourself, but first, you need to take time to get to know yourself better.
I know it may sound absurd, of course you should know who you are. But sometimes in life, we can feel lost or lose our sense of self. Taking time to remind ourselves of our likes and dislikes can remind us of the values we hold dear to our hearts. Also, learning to forgive ourselves for our past mistakes can bring back a sense of hope. As someone who has had my fair share of trauma, I understand some of my actions in the past I learned in order to survive. I have made plenty of mistakes in my past, but I have been able to forgive and accept my flaws that made me who I am today. Without mistakes, we can not learn and grow.
After taking time to remind yourself of who you are, you can focus on your strengths and weaknesses. We all have flaws, but allowing ourselves to only focus on the negative will have a negative impact on our self-esteem. Make a list of the flaws you feel you have and categorize them into what can be changed and what can not. Knowing the flaws that you can and want to change can allow you to make an action plan for improving yourself. Once an action plan is in place and you start taking the necessary steps, allow yourself to focus on your strengths more and celebrate your victories as they come. No one is perfect, and learning how to accept your flaws and who you are as an individual can help bring a sense of peace and boost yourself.
Everyone has their flaws, and though you may be envious of someone’s social media, you are only seeing what they want you to see. Comparing ourselves to others can reduce self-esteem and happiness, and lead to anger, frustration, and negative self-talk. If you ever find yourself comparing yourself to others, take a step back and remind yourself of the accomplishments you achieved in your life. The success of others doesn’t make your successes any less grand.
As we live our lives, our self-esteem will fluctuate as we go. There will be high points and low points. When we find ourselves having low self-esteem, it’s important to remind yourself that you are perfectly imperfect. You are worth the time it takes to remind yourself of who you are and all you have achieved. Having a healthy self-esteem is a huge part of anyone’s healing journey. It’s a need that is required for you to accomplish before moving forward with our more advanced needs. Come back next week as I talk about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the five stages we go through before we can become the best versions of ourselves. Always remember, we all can rise from our ashes and soar.