At some point in life, we all lack self-esteem and self-worth. Too many times, it’s stopping us from achieving our dreams. Luckily, you have the power to break through that wall of low self-esteem and come out stronger and more confident than ever.
In this post, I’ll list five quick ways you can boost your self-esteem and start feeling better about yourself. But first, let’s take a look at what self-esteem is.
What Does Self-Esteem Mean?
Self-esteem is different from self-confidence and is how you value yourself and believe in your overall worth as a human being.
Having high self-esteem makes you resistant to rejection and failure because you know that your self-worth does not depend on any of those things. You’re confident and trust in your judgment and abilities.
On the other hand, if you’ve low self-esteem, you don’t believe in yourself and your ability to succeed. People with low self-esteem often feel incompetent, unloved, or inadequate. They are very self-critical and afraid of making mistakes.
Quick Ways to Boost Your Self-Esteem
Fortunately, you can overcome low self-esteem if you take action and put your mind to it. Start with these five steps to begin boosting your self-esteem:
1. Be Compassionate to Yourself
Despite everything that’s going on in your life, you’re deserving of love and kindness. This is your birthright as a person, and no one can take that away from you.
Try to create a judgment-free space for yourself where you can build trust and confidence. Be kind and pamper yourself with positive things, such as:
- Eating a healthy meal to nourish your body
- Write yourself a letter listing all your accomplishments and why you’re a good person
- Put on your favorite outfit
- Treat yourself a nice hot bath and indulge in a good book
- Surround yourself with positive people and say no to energy vampires
When you inevitably make mistakes, know that you’re deserving of love and kindness anyways, just from being you.
2. Create a New Personality
I don’t mean that you aren’t supposed to be happy with who you are and go and reinvent yourself or be someone you’re not. But if you quiet your mind with the help of meditation first thing in the morning, you can set the intention to only think positive thoughts about yourself and start creating a new personality.
In fact, you can train your brain to think positively instead of being stuck in negative self-talk. Your subconscious mind is like an old record player on repeat, so you need to fine-tune it.
Instead of unconsciously repeating negative thoughts, you can create a new personality who thinks positively about themselves and what they can achieve. Like magic, your self-doubts and destructive thought patterns will start to fade away.
3. Write Down Positive Affirmations
Writing down positive affirmations about yourself is powerful in boosting your self-esteem. The best is to write them in “I am” form since you’re the co-creator of your reality. It sets the tone for you being who you desire to become.
Here are suggestions of a few affirmations you can use:
- I AM worthy of everything good in life
- I AM proud of who I am
- I AM a beautiful person inside and out
- and whatever you want to improve in your life
4. Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
To compare yourself to people more successful or more beautiful than you will leave you miserable. The more envy you experience, the worse you’ll feel about yourself.
Take a break from social media, at least for a while. People often portray themselves as happy and perfectly complete on social media, which many times aren’t accurate.
However, you don’t know that when looking at their photos and what seems to be their perfect lives. It can easily make you feel envious, which will make you feel even more sad and worthless. So, log off and focus on your strengths and accomplishments instead.
5. Get Eight Hours of Sleep Each Night
If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll feel tired and foggy. But not sleeping enough will also affect your mood and can make you feel sad and depressed. Feeling down won’t help your self-esteem, quite the opposite.
On the other hand, if you get a full eight hours of sleep each night, you’ll feel more energized and eager to face the day. You’ll also experience other health benefits, like an improved immune system, heart health, memory, productivity, and performance, plus being able to maintain a healthy weight.
Over to You
Now it’s your turn to try out these quick ways to boost your self-esteem. Don’t let low self-esteem stop you from achieving your dreams.