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Instead, try to focus your energy on identifying the things that are within your control and seeing what you can do about them. Try to schedule in a little you-time every day. You got up on time this morning. You poached your eggs to perfection. Celebrating the small victories is a great way to build confidence and start feeling better about yourself. Find people who make you feel good about yourself and avoid those who tend to trigger your negative thinking. You do you Comparing yourself to other people is a sure-fire way to start feeling crummy.
Celebrate the small stuff You got up on time this morning.
Surround yourself with a supportive squad Find people who make you feel good about yourself and avoid those who tend to trigger your negative thinking. What can I do now? Read our tips for practising positive self-talk. Check out our tips for feeling better about yourself. Get an endorphin hit. Our best friends are a reflection of the good in ourselves.
Determine your core values in life, the principles around which you want your life centered. Examine your life to see where you are not in alignment with the values and make the necessary changes to fix that. Think back through your life to all that you've accomplished as a youth and adult. List everything you have done that you feel proud of. Read books and articles that uplift you and make you feel positive.
Stay away from negative television programs, web sites, advertising or anything that reinforces a poor self-image. Step outside of your comfort zone in some way. Stretch yourself to try something new, meet different people, or approach a situation in an unconventional way. Focus your love, time, and attention on the people you care about most.
Nurture your relationships and find ways to communicate fully and enjoy a richer experience with your loved ones. You have skills and abilities to share with others. Teach someone who is interested in learning. Offer your knowledge and experience as a gift. Keep an affirmation journal in which you write positive, loving statements about yourself. Repeat those affirmations daily when you awaken and before you go to sleep. When you catch yourself thinking negatively about your self-worth, challenge the beliefs with evidence to the contrary.
Find reasons why your limiting beliefs are untrue — or at least not completely true.
If you have not found your life passion, make time in your life to seek it out. The process of having a goal to find it will give your life a sense of purpose. Offer and receive physical affection from family and friends. Physical touch supports bonding between people, reduces anxiety, improves your mood, and creates connections.
Encourage yourself, Support yourself. This may also help you to stop the cycle of negative thinking about yourself that reinforce our negative self-esteem. Make an effort to be more fair and more realistic with your own self, however, and I think you may be pleasantly surprised by the results. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Adjust your perception of yourself to match up with the realities of your current life. More success stories All success stories Hide success stories. If you have not found your life passion, make time in your life to seek it out.
Begin to demand more of yourself in various areas of your life. Challenge yourself to do a bit better, go a bit farther, behave more lovingly than you have in the past. Set the bar higher, and you will feel proud of who you are. Start considering what your life purpose might be. Why are you here? What could be your legacy and how can you make that a centerpiece of your life?
Are you living in a community or city that makes you feel comfortable and at home? Or are you living somewhere that doesn't reflect your values and ideal lifestyle? If there are people in your life who put you down, drain you of energy, or take advantage of you, begin to gently let them slip from your life. Surround yourself with loving and supportive people who value you.
Expand your network of friends and associates to broaden your horizons and create new life and career opportunities. If you have wronged someone, don't live with guilt or shame. Apologize, make it right, and ask for forgiveness. Living with debt can drain your self-esteem and cause on-going anxiety.
All of these excesses are unhealthy, make you feel bad physically and make you feel undisciplined and dependent on substances to soothe your emotions. Know what your personal boundaries are and how you will react when people cross them. Don't allow others to take advantage of you or manipulate you. Be there for someone who needs support, leadership, and guidance.
Their respect will add to your self-respect. An over-scheduled and complicated life will lead to stress and overwhelm. Begin to clear things off your to-do list and simplify all areas of your life. When you worry about what others will think of you, you never feel free to be yourself completely. Begin making choices and decisions based on what you want, not what you think others want for you. Gossip may be momentarily powerful and thrilling, but it leaves you with a residue of distaste for yourself. Make a point to stop gossiping.
Don't wait for others to make the plans, call the shops, or come up with the ideas. Be the initiator, the first responder, the one who takes charge.
Practice this even if it feels uncomfortable at first. Anger is often a response to feelings of low self-worth and despair. Find appropriate outlets for your feelings. Express them to a supportive person before they turn to anger. Shift your thinking about perceived failures. See them as a necessary part of growth and learning. Failures are evidence of effort, and you always learn something from them. Jump off the gerbil wheel of repetitive thoughts that percolate constantly in your brain.
Instead, take some kind of positive action that is distracting and worthwhile. Find productive, creative, life-affirming ways to spend your time, rather than watching endless hours of TV, surfing the net, or playing video games. Asking for help and support isn't a sign of weakness.
It's a sign of determination and courage. Asking for help means you are ready for positive change. If you are living a lie, telling yourself or others stories about who you are and how you feel, you are entrapping yourself in unhappiness. You must be authentic and accepting to open your heart to self-love.
It is the only reality. When the past and the future feel painful, focus on the task at hand and do it with your full engagement. Every day, write down encouraging words and all that you feel grateful for, all of your blessings, all of the people whose lives have touched you in a positive way.
Stop comparing yourself to others and measuring your worth against what they might have and you don't. View everyone you encounter as your equal and your potential friend, regardless of their station in life, appearance, or intelligence. View yourself as a life-long learner and approach all things with a beginner's mentality — open, eager, and willing to learn. Begin to shift the feelings of fear to energy for change. When you feel fear, use this powerful emotion to take action on something positive and forward-moving.
What is success for you? Is it wealth, power, or possessions? Begin to view success in terms of fulfilling experiences, loving relationships, and meaningful work.
Every day, set one or two small goals for yourself that are non-negotiable. At the end of a year, you will have achieved more than you ever expected. Become a forever student of personal growth and self-improvement. Read, listen, study, and learn about how to live with emotional intelligence and maturity. See personal evolution as a life-long journey.
Never hesitate to show your love, even if you've been hurt by love in the past. The move love you give away, the more it comes back to you. Begin to love yourself the way you would love your best friend or sibling. Self-esteem often takes practice and commitment.
You must value the importance of feeling good about yourself, having self-worth and being comfortable with who you are. The alternative is staying stuck in depression, unhappiness, and negative thoughts. Begin to practice self-esteem fostering thoughts and behaviors. Start acting as though you believe in yourself and love who you are even if your feelings haven't caught up.
Give yourself legitimate reasons to feel proud, accomplished, and worthwhile through learning, personal growth, goal-setting and achievement. Once you accept the unique perfection of who you are and what you offer the world, you will find that you are more deserving than anyone of your own love and affection. M suffering from depression. Acne scars have worsen my skin n texture…… Suicidal tendencies have also cropped at times in my mind…..
I hve lost interetst in every thing I likes…. M low in confidence in meeting ppl…. N do not look at myself in the mirrion at all. Living with low self-esteem is living in self created hell. I have experienced the joy of doing what I love and trying to understand who I am and the sense of permanent happiness it brings. That is a great way to put it Rehasana — a self-created hell.
Just loved your article. Thanks for sharing it. Exercise helped me more to get rid of this!
I wish to talk even more to you regarding all this. Barrie, I love this post. I take special notice of these five items in particular: Get clear on your values Read something inspirational Let go of draining people Eliminate time-wasting behaviors Practice gratitude Using these intentionally has allowed me to leave an unsatisfying career and pursue my dreams. I love what I do now and I love helping others achieve the same results. Thank you for your efforts; we are helping the world one reader at a time. With love, Trent Hand. Thank you so much Trent. What a lovely comment.
I am so thrilled you found a way to move from your career to something you love. Possessing AND maintaining healthy self-esteem can, for some be like shooting at a moving target. It seems to me that someone with a fragile, or low level of self-esteem may have to take a giant leap in order to even take the first steps to achieving healthy self-esteem. This post should be printed out and used daily as a study guide for those who sincerely desire to make real change in how they view themselves.