Simple steps to boost your self-esteem

Lack of self-esteem essentially means you struggle to accept and appreciate yourself for who you are. This negativity can greatly affect all areas of your life – relationships, work, parenting skills, friendships, and your emotional well-being.

In order to feel better about yourself, it is important to find ways in which you can take pride in your abilities and accomplishments, and learn to appreciate your own worth. Below are some simple tricks you can employ to help you do so:

Reflect on past achievements

When you are feeling low, take a few minutes to reflect on your past successes and times when you were proud of something you did. You might want to write them down or just close your eyes and re-imagine the scenarios – either way this will help you to recreate the feelings of satisfaction and joy you experienced at these particular moments in time. This will help to bring about positive thoughts.

Stop comparing yourself to others.

Unfair comparisons can wreck havoc on your self-esteem, and so it is really important that you try to stop comparing yourself to others. Social media is a breeding ground for this type of behaviour, but although a certain someone may seem to have more, or something better than you, you do not know the extent of their lives, or what it’s really like to be them.

To overcome this negative behaviour, focus on positive, confident people in your life who you admire. Watch how they walk, how they talk and communicate with others. The next time you need a confidence boost, think of how they would behave and what they would do.

Walk tall

Confident people will stand up straight, walk purposefully and smile. Acting confident on the outside can help restore a sense of confidence on the inside – especially as others around you will perceive you as such.

Alter your perception of failure

Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is an area of personal development that supports the idea that there is no such thing as failure. Instead, constructive criticism is believed to be the key to encouraging individuals never to give up and push for something better. Realising a healthy self-esteem means you should try to view your mistakes as opportunities to learn and develop rather than as failures.

Pamper yourself

Re-energise your self-esteem by booking a beauty treatment or a therapy session. Yoga, facials and massages for example can help to soothe the mind, body and soul and make you feel more relaxed and revitalised – thus relieving negative thoughts, stress and tension. To find out more about the benefits of therapeutic treatments and which one can help you, please see our therapy topics page.

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