How To Build Self-esteem
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It can be hard to feel like your best self when the world is telling you that the only way to be happy is by having perfect hair and a body that doesn’t clog up your drains.
Self-esteem is defined as how we feel about ourselves, and it makes a huge difference in our lives. When we have high self-esteem, we’re more likely to be happy and successful, but when we don’t have it, we can experience a lot of negative emotions and even get stuck in destructive patterns.
How can you build self-esteem? It’s a question that many people ask themselves, but few have definitive answers. But if you feel like your self-esteem needs a boost, here are some ways to improve it without the use of outside help:
Know your values.
Values are your guiding principles. They’re the things that are most important to you, and they can have an impact on every aspect of your life. For example, if you value honesty, this may be reflected in how much time you spend with your friends or what kind of work you do.
Values can also affect how comfortable or confident we feel in certain situations. If someone values independence and autonomy, they might feel more comfortable making their own decisions instead of relying on others’ opinions or ideas (or even asking for help).
Identify and challenge your inner critic.
The inner critic is that voice inside your head that tells you what you can’t do. It’s the one that says “you’re not good enough” or “you’ll never be able to achieve your goals”. Your inner critic may sound like a lot of different voices, but they all have one thing in common: they are based on past experiences, beliefs and negative self-talk from other people.
The inner critic can be very destructive — it’s responsible for all those voices in your head telling you not to pursue something new or challenge yourself because it won’t work out anyway. It also makes it hard for us to love ourselves because we don’t give ourselves credit for anything we do right or good about ourselves. And when this happens over time, the result is low self-esteem!
