Saima Ikram
You feel more anxious, helpless, and depressed when you have low self-esteem. Accomplishing goals seems impossible and it becomes hard to create a meaningful life. The possibilities are that if you are struggling with low self-esteem, you might see yourself in the below words. You may start to dislike your looks, your personality, or even your background. But studies have shown that people become successful in just about any goal they just set for themselves if they live by a positive system of values and do positive things. Although it takes some work to cultivate genuine self-esteem and it is a life-long process.
Following are the few simple ways you can cultivate self-esteem:
Find out your strengths:
Your self-esteem increases when you know you have something special that others don’t have. Find your inner character strengths as each person has five strengths or values and they can connect you more with others. Plan for activities that best suit your strengths, explore how you felt doing it and how you learned from them.
Remind yourself about your strengths:
Bragging is not good when it is done in front of others, but it is the best way to remind yourself about your strengths. Keep a bragging box in which you have the thank-you notes to yourself, certificates of appreciation, and other things that remind you of successes that you attained. When you feel low with self-esteem, just read all the notes that you have written to yourself and you will feel strong and confident.
Forgive yourself:
This is something people normally do not think about and it is a big reason they fail to cultivate self-esteem. Forgiveness to oneself doesn’t happen in this social vacuum and you beat yourself about the things that you have done wrong. Taking responsibility for your actions is a good thing; it makes you realize that you should be careful about making decisions. But you should also learn to forgive yourself and that will make you feel much better. Give yourself the same compassion you would give to a friend who did something wrong and feel terrible about it.
