Self-esteem is essential to your overall health and wellness, but it’s often hard to maintain healthy self-esteem today. Feeling confident and secure in yourself can be vital to happiness and health. Learning how to build self-esteem can help you reach this goal.
The constant influx of media messages, advertisements, and other influences bombard you with negative messages about who you are and what you can do, which leads to low self-esteem and poor mental health. To fight against these influences, focus on building self-esteem by incorporating these eight ways into your life.
1) Find your Purpose
As cliche, as it sounds, having a clear sense of purpose is essential to building self-esteem. Find what lights you up and makes you passionate about life, and don’t be afraid to follow that feeling—even if it goes against what others think is best for you. If your dream job requires travel and relocation, then go for it! If your heart sings when you get to paint with your hands all day long, then do it!
2) Work on Yourself and Set New Goals
It’s easy to feel bad about yourself when you can’t seem to change your life, but it all starts with changing yourself. Make time for things that help you learn more about yourself—reading, taking classes, joining clubs or organizations. Set new goals for yourself and work towards them every day. Always strive for improvement in all areas of your life; remember that success is built on small achievements over a long period. It might not seem like much right now, but one day you’ll look back and realize how far you’ve come.
3) Be Kind to Yourself
Focusing on your personal needs and happiness makes it easier to feel good about yourself. To build self-esteem, treat yourself well by listening when you need attention and giving yourself breaks when needed. Surrounding yourself with people who care about you is also essential for keeping your self-esteem strong. Be sure that you are kind to yourself because in doing so, you will learn how to give kindness to others. Also, don’t hold back from speaking out when something isn’t right or feeling helpless when something doesn’t go your way. Treat others with kindness just as they should be treated as an equal.
4) Get a Hobby
Hobbies help us see that there’s more to life than our day-to-day grind. They can also be a great way to meet like-minded people and gain new interests—which can further contribute to your overall well-being. So, if you feel something is missing from your life, take up a recent activity. It could do wonders for your self-esteem. For example, try joining a sport or participating in an art class at your local community center. You might surprise yourself with how much fun it is!
5) Get Rid of Things That Hold You Back
The key to building self-esteem isn’t learning to take in praise from others or fake it until you make it. Being true to yourself and eliminating things in your life hold you back. Be honest: What are your negative thoughts when things aren’t going well? Write them down, and then either fix them or let them go.
Some things are not limited to thoughts and mental health. It can be physical, too. Some people are conscious of their weight; the healthy way to overcome that is by working out and eating good food. Or it can also be within you — like allergies. Some people who have food and animal allergies have allergy-related self-esteem issues. Some allergy elimination solutions use holistic methods that focus on building up your immune system to learn how to conquer specific allergies.
6) Surround Yourself with People Who Support You
Regarding your self-esteem, you’re only as good as your friends. So if you surround yourself with people who constantly put you down or make fun of you for trying new things, it will be hard for your confidence to flourish. Instead, please try to spend time with people who encourage and support you; their positivity will rub off on you.
7) Exercise Daily
Exercise is one of the best ways to improve health and build self-esteem. According to a neuroscientist, working out for as little as 10 to 30 minutes daily causes neurochemical changes in your brain that make you happier, more innovative, and more productive. It produces growth hormones that are natural antidepressants. It gives you more energy, boosts your mood, and helps you sleep better at night. And when you look better and feel better about yourself, it builds self-esteem!
8) Learn How to Handle Stress
It’s easy to become overwhelmed with stress in today’s hectic world. Stress affects us physically, emotionally, and mentally. When we feel stressed, it can cause us anxiety and other negative emotions. Handling stress properly is one of the best ways to increase self-esteem. Exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, and reducing clutter are great ways to reduce stress.
If you have high self-esteem, self-confidence, and an optimistic outlook, everything can become easier for you. If your level of esteem is low, there are some things that you can do to raise it back up again. Your happiness lies within. Think good about yourself and always keep a positive mindset; everything will fall into place.
