Self-esteem is how you feel & what you believe about yourself, or the idea you have about yourself. Everyone has times when they feel a bit low or find it hard to accept themselves. However, if this becomes a long-term condition then it can lead to problems, including mental health issues such as depression or anxiety.
Understanding Self-Esteem
Some people consider self-esteem as their inner voice, the voice that tells you whether you are good enough to do or achieve something. Self-esteem is actually about how we value ourselves, and our thoughts about who we are and what we are capable of.
Why Do People Undergo Low Self-Esteem?
There are various reasons why someone might have low self-esteem. However, it begins in teenage, possibly with a feeling that you were unable to live up to expectations. It can also be the result of adult experiences such as a difficult connection, either in private or at work.
Ultimately, having high self-esteem is certainly a good thing, but only in moderation. Very high self-esteem like that of narcissists is quite brittle. Such people might feel great about themselves much of the time but they also manage to be extremely vulnerable to review and negative feedback and react to it in ways that stunt their psychological self-growth.
That said, it is surely possible to improve our self-esteem if we go about it the correct way. Here are five ways to support your self-esteem when it is low:
Know your competencies and expand them
Self-esteem is developed by showing real ability and success in areas of our lives that matter to us. If you pride yourself on being a good cook, throw more dinner gatherings. If you’re a good runner, sign up for sports and train for them. In short, figure out your core competencies and find possibilities and professions that strengthen them.
Exclude self-criticism and include self-compassion
Sadly, when our self-esteem is low, we are likely to destroy it even further by being self-critical. Since we aim to enhance our self-esteem, we need to replace self-criticism with self-compassion. Precisely, whenever your self-critical inner talk kicks in, ask yourself what you would say to a close friend if they were in your place and direct those comments to yourself. Doing so will avoid hurting your self-esteem more with critical ideas, and help build it up rather.
Affirm your real merit
Make a list of conditions you have that are meaningful in the special context. For example, if you got rejected by your date, list qualities that make you a good relationship prospect (for example, being faithful or emotionally ready); if you failed to get a work promotion, list attributes that make you a valuable employee (you have a strong work ethic or are effective).
Then choose one of the items on your list and write a brief essay (one to two paragraphs) about why the quality is valuable and likely to be appreciated by other people in the future. Do the practice every day for a week or whenever you need a self-esteem aid.
Learn to Accept compliments with Grace
One of the complex features of improving self-esteem is that when we feel bad about ourselves we tend to be more resistant to compliments, even though that is when we most need them. So, set yourself the aim to accept compliments when you receive them, even if they make you awkward.
The best way to avoid the reflexive reactions of striking away compliments is to prepare simple set answers and train yourself to use them automatically whenever you get good feedback (e.g., “Thank you” or “How kind of you to say”). In time, the drive to reject or ignore compliments will fade which will also be a helpful hint your self-esteem is growing stronger.
Use certain affirmations precisely
Positive statements such as “I am going to be a great leader!” are quite natural, but they have one problem — they tend to make people with low self-worth feel sad about themselves. Why? Because when our self-esteem is low, such statements are simply too headstrong to our actual beliefs. Ironically, positive affirmations do work for one subset of people, those whose self-esteem is already high.
For affirmations to work when your self-esteem is lagging, tweak them to make them more convincing. For example, change “I’m becoming a great leader!” to “I’m winning several awards at my office for the fabulous work that I do!”
The Importance of Small Starts
It is quite doubtful that you will go from Low to High self-esteem overnight. Rather, you will probably find yourself making small improvements over a while. The key is to look over the long term, rather than day-to-day, and focus on the big idea, not the aspect of how you felt at a particular moment recently.
When you feel good, or you do something good, observe it, but don’t beat yourself up if you seldom slip back into negative models of thinking. Just pick yourself up again and try to imagine more confidently. Eventually, this will become a habit and you will find that your self-esteem has tremendously improved.
Do comment what all ways this blog added value to your life and don’t forget to share it and follow me on Instagram & Facebook -
No comments:
Post a Comment