How you feel about yourself plays a very important role in how you shape your thoughts, live your life, manage your relationships, work and every other aspect of your life. Having a low self-esteem can be unhealthy not just for your psyche but it can also lead to a chain reaction of events that may take a toll on your physical health like thyroid and depression for example. However, once you recognize the fact that you have low self-esteem, there are always methods to boost self-esteem. If you are looking to boost self-esteem however, you must realize that you must accept having low self-esteem first. There is no way to boost self-esteem if you continue fooling yourself. The following are a few effective ways to boost self-esteem:
Identify Problem Areas In Your Life
You need to make a list of all the potential conditions and situations that play a part in deflating your sense of self-worth. Some of the most common triggering situations are:
– Workplace or business
– Problems at home
– A challenge with a loved-one, spouse, colleague, friend or anyone else whose opinion about you matters to you
– A drastic life event such as child leaving home or loss of job
These are only a few examples of trigger situations that may deflate your self-esteem.
Become Aware Of Your Beliefs And Thoughts
Each of these trigger events lead you to think in a certain pattern which eventually shapes your beliefs and opinions like a depression relapse prevention in a way. One of the most effective ways to boost self-esteem is to recognize these patterns. This may include a lot of self-talk which will include telling yourself what your interpretation and perception of each situation is. These thoughts may be positive, negative or even neutral in nature. However, keeping a tab on these thoughts is a great way to correct thinking and belief patterns.
Challenging Negative Thinking
Once you have identified your pattern of thinking, you will realize that you have a lot of negative and pessimistic thinking patterns that are not necessarily accurate or justified. In this situation, you need to rationalize with yourself and correct any form of thinking that seems unnecessarily negative. To get a self-esteem boost, ask yourself if this negative thought flow is consistent with all situations or does it fail your logic only in particular situations. You must beware of the fact that at most times; it is difficult to identify thinking inaccuracies because you mind would have already formed a defence mechanism. But achieving an objective and neutral view of these situations is a must if you are looking for a self-esteem boost.
Adjusting Your Beliefs Or Thoughts
This may take some doing at the beginning but you must find a way to adjust all your inaccurate thoughts and beliefs and to find an objective way to assess yourself. You can also get a self-esteem boost if you stop worrying about self-assessment altogether.
However, this is not always easy for one with low self-esteem. There are many more ways to boost self-esteem but the bottom line for each one of them is that you have to be willing to change the way you think in order to see any progress.