Recognizing your own value, believing you are worthy of respect from yourself and others, feeling you are a good person, and feeling confident in yourself and your abilities can all contribute to a positive self-worth. How you feel about yourself can relate to how you believe you deserve to be treated in the world. Below are a handful of things to consider, which may contribute to enhancing your self-worth.
Be mindful of challenging situations.
Identify situations or environments that challenge your self-esteem. These could include events such as giving a presentation, a confrontation with someone close to you, making a mistake, or getting laid-off.
Understand how you feel during those times.
Take note of how you feel in those situations and what you tell yourself about what your experiences in those situations mean about you. Identify whether your interpretations are likely to be objectively true and whether they contribute to a positive, neutral, or negative view of yourself.
Challenge the way you are thinking.
Your way of thinking about such experiences may not be the only way to view or interpret the situation. Are there other ways to view the situation or interpret what it means about you that contribute to a more healthy view of yourself? Be mindful to try to reduce all-or-none thinking, focusing too much on negative interpretations of situations, jumping to quick conclusions, or gravitating toward beliefs which put yourself down.
Change your beliefs and thoughts.
Once you have identified potentially unhelpful thinking patterns about a certain situation, try replacing any unhelpful thoughts with more constructive, neutral, and positive beliefs. Be encouraging to yourself. Recognize your strengths and how you can grow from the situation and look for silver linings. Having a positive attitude can go a long way. Forgive your mistakes and know that you can learn from them. Remember there are many things that you do well and there is no need to be perfect.
Stop comparing yourself to others.
With social media today, many people are showing or posting online only positive aspects of themselves. This often is not the full story and keeping this in mind may help you gear away from feeling inferior or comparing yourself to others.
Keep in mind your circumstances do not define you.
Know that circumstances you may be experiencing and who you are at your core are different. Remember your inner worth, to love yourself, and work hard to move forward from any situation. If you live in Colorado and find yourself interested in improving your self-worth, you may consider reaching out to a therapist or psychiatrist to inquire about whether they might be able to assist you or guide you to other available resources.