Nour doesn’t like how she dresses, what she sees in the mirror, or how she interacts with people. She’s constantly second-guessing herself and her worth, feeling like she’s accomplished nothing in life.
She’s critical of her performance and cannot seem to practice compassion towards herself. She doesn’t see her self-worth and is always looking for ways to be more confident.
Nour has low self-esteem, but she’s trying to improve how she sees herself. She is on the journey of healing.
Are you feeling a little bit like Nour? Below is how you can better your self-regard, one interaction with yourself at a time!
What is self-esteem?
Self-esteem is best described as the opinion you have about yourself. It’s how you perceive yourself to be with all your capabilities, accomplishments, and physical appearance.
Self-esteem is defined by:
- Self-confidence
- Identity
- The feeling of competence
- The feeling of security
- The sense of belonging
When you have healthy self-esteem, you are equipped to deal with life’s challenges and good moments. You’ll feel positive about yourself and what is happening around you. But having too low or too high self-esteem can make things difficult.
Why self-esteem is important
Can self-esteem impact a person’s day-to-day life? Yes.
Self-esteem influences our decision-making process, the relationships we have with people, our emotional health, our motivation, and overall well being.
When you have a favorable view of yourself, you’re more likely to understand and impartially criticize your accomplishments and what you need to do to get to your goals. Having low self-esteem can make us see ourselves in a critical and negative light.
Low self-esteem makes you unable to see your potential, unmotivated for new challenges, and without a proper understanding of your skills. Your expectations of yourself are not realistic, and you wouldn’t be able to identify your needs nor express them to others.
So how does one create and maintain a healthy relationship with themselves?
How to raise your self-esteem?
So can self-esteem change? Of course!
Boosting your self-esteem comes down to how you think about yourself and how you treat yourself every day. Here are some of the steps you can take to feel more comfortable within your own identity:
So can self-esteem change? Of course!
Boosting your self-esteem comes down to how you think about yourself and how you treat yourself every day. Here are some of the steps you can take to feel more comfortable within your own identity:
1. Identify when you self-criticize.
Becoming more aware of your negative thoughts about yourself is essential for reassessing how you view yourself. Try to catch yourself in the situations that deflate your self-esteem and see a pattern between what triggers these emotions.
Does this happen when you’re around certain people? At work in specific? During fights with the people you love?
Identifying the triggers can help mitigate the damage to your self-esteem.
2. Challenge your thoughts.
Now that you’ve caught the distorted thoughts lowering your self-esteem, it’s time to challenge them. If you’re jumping to conclusions without sitting down and looking over the facts, you need to start taking your time with your reality checks.
Are you too harsh on yourself? It’s time to change your perception of your accomplishments.
Try taking in all the facts in front of you without dwelling on the negatives.
3. Visualize the positives.
If you’re only focusing on the negatives, you’ll always have a distorted view of yourself.
Try using positive self-talk and writing down all your qualities and strengths, and keep adding to that list after you’ve hung it up somewhere where you can read it. Recognize that you are good at some things and bad at others, just like everyone else.
Don’t let your shortcomings reinforce the idea in your head that others are better than you or that you are not ‘enough.’ You are more than enough; you’re here trying to improve yourself, and that in itself is complex. Be proud of yourself!
4. Take care of yourself.
Having low self-esteem can make us unable to maintain a healthy lifestyle or relationships with others. It’s good to check in with yourself, see if you’re ignoring your needs because of your low self-esteem, and try to rectify that.
Ensure to nurture your body correctly, spend at least thirty minutes outside every day, and don’t forget to see people you enjoy. Sometimes all we need is someone to tell us we’re okay and that everything will be okay eventually.
It’s alright if you don’t get it right from the start. Building your self-esteem can take time. Just know that you’re growing and developing yourself slowly and that it takes time to reach healthy self-esteem..
