Reena Goenka
Low or high self-esteem is our perception of our beliefs and feelings about ourselves. Our happiness is directly proportional to the levels of our self-esteem. Healthy self-esteem raises our confidence in facing daily challenges and fears. It helps us problem solve and not get stuck with anxiety, stress and worry.
There are many ways to improve self-esteem. Let’s look at ten tips that can be helpful.
Be nurturing towards yourself. As a part of you may be critical and demanding on you, give voice to your silent encouraging part. For example, you can hug yourself or stroke yourself, smile often, or say positive words about yourself.
Who has the remote control for your happiness? Are you ready to take it back? Start with small things, like taking responsibility for actions rather than blaming others.
We can make changes when we are willing to dive deep within ourselves. Start by writing one limiting belief that may be triggering your low self-esteem, and then work towards making desired changes to this belief.
A straightforward technique is to write down a few positive statements that seem alien to you. For example, “I am good at my studies or my work”. Stand in front of a mirror and repeat this statement minimum of three times with confident body language even if you do not resonate with it. Your brain will start resonating and create positive neural networks.
Other than self-affirmations, also make a note of sentences that start with, “I Deserve”. For example, “I deserve all happiness to come my way” or “I deserve to be successful”. It may not resonate initially but repeating it daily helps to convince the brain and body that you deserve good things.
Write your winning script and start practising daily visualisation. Our brain can imagine and build new neural pathways to help boost self-confidence and self-esteem.
Eating healthy food and regular exercise boosts our immune system, keeps feelings of guilt away, and increases accomplishment and happiness.
Practice mindfulness daily. You need not practice for 30 minutes at a stretch. Instead, you can do it for 5 to 10 minutes every 90 minutes. Mindfulness improves relaxation and fuels our body with positive energy.
Meeting family and friends helps self-esteem if they are not overly critical about you. If they are, you may want to stay away from the toxic environment and look at different ways of making new friends, like group therapy.
Learn to enjoy and celebrate your wins, however small they may be—for example, doing an extra lap in the swimming pool.
Each one of us has low self-esteem in different areas. For example, some are confident about their looks but not their work or academic skills or vice-versa; some are confident of their social skills, others their logical skills. Stop comparing yourself and look at areas you are confident at and grow confidence in other areas slowly
