How to raise your self esteem

April 13th, 2008 by Jenny Charles MBACP (Accred)

When your self esteem is high you view life in a positive way, you feel confident, you enjoy life, you see difficulties as challenges, you are able to be assertive and say what you want and feel and you don't allow other people to treat you badly and take advantage of you. You are able to stand up for yourself, believe in yourself and believe that you are worth just as much as anyone else.

Of course it's OK to have ups and downs in your feelings, but having low self-esteem isn't OK. Feeling like you're not important can make you sad and can keep you from trying new things. It can keep you from making friends or damage how you do at work. It's important to know you're worth a lot.

If you think you might have low self-esteem, here are a few things that you can try to increase your self-esteem:

When you hear negative comments in your head, mentally tell yourself to stop. The critical voice inside you will soon lose its power. Write a list of all the things that you like about yourself, what your strengths are, remind yourself of the things you do well, of compliments others have paid you, of small goals you have achieved Put post it notes on your cupboards with positive sayings like I am doing okay; Today is a good day; I always do the best I can and that is good enough. Your mind will unconsciously absorb the message. Remember that your body is your own, no matter what shape, size, or color it is Remember that there are things about yourself you can't change - such as skin color and shoe size - and you should accept and love these things because they are part of you Remind yourself of things about your body that are okay Give yourself three compliments every day. Don't just say, "I'm so great." Be specific about something good about yourself, like, l was a good friend to Jill today" or "I did better on that test than I thought I would." While you're at it, before you go to bed every night, list three things in your day that really made you happy. By focusing on the good things you do and all your great qualities, you learn to love and accept yourself, and that's the main ingredient for strong self-esteem. Even If you've got room for improvement (and who doesn't?), realizing that you're valuable and important helps your self-esteem to shine