10 Tips to Improving Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem can lead to various problems in your career, relationships and personal life. Low self-esteem can easily be transformed into depression which can further affect one’s mental, physical and social disposition.

Respected psycho-therapist, Dr. Nathaniel Branden, defines self-esteem as the “disposition to experience oneself as being competent enough to be able to keep up with the challenges in one’s life.”

Having a healthy self-esteem is important. It gives you a positive outlook in life and this is reflected in your performance on the job, in your relationships and basically in everything that you do.

Here are 10 helpful tips on how one can boost his self-esteem.

1) Accept yourself

People should remember that everyone is unique and beauty is to be found in every human being. Yes, other people can be better in doing certain things but this fact shouldn’t hinder people from being the best that they can be.

Everybody is special and unique. A person’s true worth cannot be seen in only one dimension of his life. For example, people usually envy the rich, thinking that they have everything and thus they are the happiest people in the world. However, the best things in life can never be bought by money. Stories of unhappiness among the rich are everywhere around us and this is a sign that wealth cannot be equated with happiness.

 

2) Self-Appreciation

Accepting oneself is different from appreciating oneself. Self-acceptance is a pre-requisite to self-appreciation but the latter must always be present. One might accept oneself under a pessimistic light and this is not very healthy. “I accept that I cannot do the things that I really want to do because I am weak” is a sample statement which depicts an unhealthy self-acceptance.

Appreciating oneself under a positive light is a definite self-esteem booster. One must highlight the good things about oneself and reinforce and improve those qualities.

3) Refrain from Comparing

Low self-esteem can be caused by your environment. Everybody is different and you have qualities that no other person has. A general sense of self-worth should be built without comparing oneself to other people.

4) Don’t Put Yourself Down

Nobody’s perfect. Making a mistake is definitely normal and people should start accepting this fact. People with low self-esteem tend to put themselves even lower by continuously and harshly putting themselves down. An inner voice which reverberates inside their heads tells them that there is no hope. This should not be the case and having control over the inner voices can be the solution for this problem. Cut yourself some slack, you’ve done your best and that’s what’s important.

5) Befriend Positive People

Having friends who are positive towards dealing with life’s challenges can influence someone into seeing life in the same light and eventually build his self-esteem.

6) Remind Yourself of the Positive Things about You

Again, there is beauty in everyone. Remember all the things that you like about yourself and the good things which you have done and make a list. This will definitely give you something to smile about.

7) Use tools

Buying books, cd’s and other materials about building self-esteem wouldn’t hurt, would it? These materials can definitely provide some informative ways on how to deal with low self-esteem. However, buying these materials would be useless if the lessons which they give wouldn’t be applied in real life.

8) Engage in Fun Activities

Having fun once in a while releases stress, takes the negative ideas out of one’s head and leaves space for positive thoughts to fill in. Having fun makes one feel happy about oneself.

9) Hangout with Friends

Having fun can be done privately but nothing beats fun with friends. Friends are usually a part of the primary support group of a person and can provide much needed conversations for a down-and-out person.

10) Seek Help

When all else fails, seek professional help from a psychologist. There’s nothing wrong with talking to a professional and taking care of you since low self-esteem can lead to more serious problems.

Having low self-esteem can be solved with the right tools and the right attitude. Loving yourself leads to a healthy and a better “you.”

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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