5 Ways to Improve Self-Esteem
by Practicing Self-Love
Low self-esteem and a lack of downtime to spend on ourselves and our health has taken a collective toll on all of us and the world we create for our families. Many of us have been taught that taking care of other people and other responsibilities are more important than what we do for ourselves.
In fact, many people are told that they are selfish if they take time out for themselves, then we feel unnecessarily guilty when we do so.
The truth is that we cannot take care of anyone else with pure love and acceptance if we can't love and care for ourselves first. We must work on our self-esteem to live our best lives and to show others how to live theirs. Let's figure out how to accomplish that.
5 Ways to Improve Your Self-Esteem By Practicing Self-Love
Learning how to love yourself for who you are, and for whom you want to become, doesn't take thousands of dollars and hours upon hours every day. Smaller, consistent, and positive changes to the way that you speak to yourself, both aloud and in your head, can change your entire outlook. And you don't have to give up anything to win.
Practice Awareness of Thoughts and Beliefs
Do you often give up your power? Many of us, especially those of us with depression and anxiety, tend to let other people make decisions for us about our day. For example, when you are with a few friends, and it's time to go out to dinner, do you volunteer an option that sounds good to you? Or do you say that you don't really care and that you will go along with what they say?
Practicing becoming aware of what you think, what you believe, and how truly important it is to know yourself, is key in creating a habit of doing this naturally, instead of talking ourselves down. We need to get to know ourselves. What do you think, or what are your beliefs, about religion, politics, food, partners, etc.? Your thoughts and beliefs are what make you unique, they are what makes you you. And you are awesome.
Accept Thoughts Without Judgment
We can all get pretty down on ourselves sometimes, and we can speak to ourselves, about ourselves, rather harshly. While it takes time to change our thought patterns, we need to be nicer to ourselves and structure our thoughts in a constructive way, instead of destructive. Even if we aren't speaking to ourselves in the nicest way, we shouldn't ignore the subject of the thoughts.
While we figure out how to speak to ourselves in a nicer way, we also need to learn what we are actually saying? What are we angry or irritated about? When we speak this way, we are only trying to communicate something to ourselves in the only way we know how.
For example, if we got down on ourselves for breaking something precious, we are actually reminding ourselves to be more careful, to be more aware, of what we are doing. There is nothing wrong with reminding ourselves of this, as long as we speak to ourselves with the respect we deserve.
Spend Time With People Who Make You Happy
We have learned how to think and speak negatively because other people thought that they had the right to do so to us in our younger years. Life is much too short to spend our time with people who don't appreciate the love we have to give. We should be spending time with the people who love us and lift us up.
The best part of spending time with loved ones is that you can learn, by the way they speak to you, how to speak to yourself. They know just how awesome you are and when you look into their eyes, and hear their words, you will see, and understand, exactly what your strengths are.
Practice Self-Compassion
Go easy on yourself. None of us are perfect. In fact, many of us suffer from self-esteem problems, depression, and trauma that we can't seem to shake. We are hard on ourselves because we expect more from ourselves than we do from other people. When we don't measure up to our own expectations, we punish ourselves.
Be patient and loving to yourself. Be kind when you think and speak about yourself. Most importantly, you are worth receiving all the kindness and compassion that you offer other people.
Practice Self-Forgiveness
Forgive yourself. We are all a work in progress, and we can all stand to change things about ourselves. But any change must come from within, and feelings of guilt or shame can destroy the progress we have made. Holding grudges, especially towards ourselves, is detrimental to our mental health and to our soul.
When we can forgive ourselves of anything, we can grow to truly love ourselves and appropriately care for those we love. Self-hatred comes from a lack of, or a negative sense of, self-esteem. You can change your entire life by increasing your self-esteem and self-knowledge. And if you find you need support, it is here for you at any time.
Contact us at The Resilient Minds for guidance, support, and further information.