Self Esteem

Right now when you are reading this article, how do you feel about yourself?

Do you feel positive or negative about your own self? Simply, self-esteem is how we perceive ourselves as human beings. Most of the time, it is based on our beliefs, comments and opinions about ourselves due to past experiences in life. Sometimes it is very difficult to change. It has a connection with our confidence level too.

Hence, this month I would like to talk about self-esteem.

For me, it is my small negative voice which challenges me and prevents having the growth mindset depending on my mood. I believe that self-esteem plays a vital role in our lives as it can affect you in many ways. I always encourage higher self esteem amongst my students as it can

?·???????? make you feel able to try different things in life

·???????? recognize your capacity

·???????? show empathy and kindness towards yourself

·???????? move away from your mistakes without blaming yourself

·???????? make you feel that you are good enough

·???????? allow to enjoy the happiness you deserve

How can we improve our self-esteem?

Here are few things that I do to enhance my self-esteem. I would like to share them with you. Some may find them useful but different things can work for you too. Main thing is that you need to be comfortable when you are trying out these for yourself.

Say positive things to yourself and avoid comparison

First and foremost you need to know yourself better. List what makes you happy as a person. You need to challenge with the thoughts that automatically put you down. I suggest doing something nice for you every day. After all these years, I realized that many people like to select the life that they present in the social media platforms. What people share with you about their lives is not always giving you the accurate picture of their life. But in reality, they have various obstacles in preventing such lives. It is ok because nobody is perfect and no one’s life is also perfect. Every one of us has insecurities in life by the end of the day. As a person, I avoid comparison. Hence, I do not put my radar on other people’s latest developments via social media platforms.

?Build a supportive eco-system

The negative thoughts about me that come into my own mind cannot be true as there are many people who love me for being who I am right now. I always think like this way when I hit the rock bottom in some days. Honestly, I am really thankful to my supportive eco-system which is full of trustworthy persons. Hence, I try to spend most of my time with such people who make me feel good about me.

?Recognize your positives in life

No matter how small it seems, I take time to praise myself in my successful accomplishments in life. In addition, I accept both positive and negative compliments from the society in equanimity. Sometimes I ask people what they like about me as a person.? This helps me to recognize/identify few characteristics of mine which I have not even noticed as a person. Positive vibes are important to me because they can keep my head up as a cool person.

?Self care

You need to be fit and strong to do all the related activities of your life successfully. That means your mood and energy levels matter in self-esteem. So, I believe that sufficient sleep, diet, physical activities, practicing mindfulness and meditation should be part of our own self care routine.

?Give few challenges to achieve in a month

You can try new and different things in life by breaking the monotonous way of living. You can give yourself a greater sense of achievement by spending the time of yours for volunteer work. Even you can try a new hobby, read a book or start a creative activity which you have not done before. Doing aerobics has really boosted my self-esteem recently. I was so exhausted when I started it again after two years but I am determined to continue even I have many miles to go for my dream figure.

(This article originally appeared in Probe - October 2024)