How To Boost Your Self Esteem and Love Yourself More

How To Boost Your Self Esteem and Love Yourself More

We spend a lot of time focusing on our relationships with other people, but we often neglect the relationship we have with ourselves. The way we view ourselves and our level of self-esteem affects all of our other relationships, as well as the way that we make our way through the world. If you have low self-esteem there are lots of things you can do to improve it and start loving yourself more:

• Make a list of your good traits. What things are you good at? What do you do well? What qualities do you have that your friends and partner like? Make a list of all of the good things about yourself, even if they are small. For example, you might make awesome pancakes and you might be a great listener. Write down anything you can think of. Keep your list and pull it out anytime you start feeling down on yourself.

• Revisit your past accomplishments. What things have you done in your life that you’re proud of? Think back to your childhood and of all of the things you’ve accomplished. Swimming badges, piano exams, honor roll, places you’ve travelled, etc. all count. You might think you haven’t accomplished anything, but when you think back and add it all up, you’ve probably done way more than you realize.

• Think of what you loved as a kid – and do it. What were your favorite things to play when you were a kid? Have you stopped doing them now that you’re older? Boost your self-esteem by re-visiting the things that you used to love. Take up art again or start playing softball again. The things we loved as a kid were things we did purely for fun, so stop focusing on what you should be doing and start doing something just because you want to.

• Spend time with fun people. If you’re trying to rebuild your self-esteem, surround yourself with people who are easy going and fun. Avoid people who are negative because they’ll only bring you down. Fun people will build you up, and hanging out with them will make you feel great and inspire you to continue to choose positive things in your life.

• Say something positive to yourself each day. Make it a habit, like brushing your teeth and look in the mirror and compliment yourself on something every day. It could be something as small as saying “Your outfit looks good today”. It will seem silly at first but you’ll get used to it and look forward to it. Compliments aren’t just for other people!

• Banish negative self-talk. We have so many negative thoughts throughout the day that we probably don’t even realize all of the nasty things we think about ourselves. Try to be more aware of your thoughts and stop yourself every time you start to beat yourself up in your mind.

• Set goals and reward yourself. One of the best ways to feel good about ourselves is to accomplish a goal. Set some goals for the short and long term and set out to achieve them. Have a reward in mind for when you reach them. For example, a short-term goal might be to get your resume finished and you could reward yourself with a new video game or a new accessory. An example of a long-term goal could be saving up to buy a car. You’ll feel great about accomplishing what you set out to do and you get a treat out of it to make you feel even better about yourself.