mental health therapist Coral Springs, FL

6 Ways to Boost Your Self-Esteem

The relationship we have with ourselves is the most important relationship we will ever have. We are with ourselves every minute of our lives. When we like and love who we are we will be content and at peace and life becomes so much better. High self-esteem is obtainable for you regardless of what you’ve been through or what you’ve done in the past. Life will always be a struggle until we get to this point.

Many times, people will seek relationships so they can feel good about themselves. They think that if they have someone who “loves” them then all will be good in their world. But how can someone truly love us if we don’t love ourselves? The relationship can quickly turn to trying to be who you think that person wants you to be As a result, you never knowing who really are. In other words, a co-dependent relationship.

 

What Causes Low Self-Esteem?

So, what causes low self-esteem? Simply put, it’s negative thoughts about ourselves. These negative thought patterns usually develop early in life. Maybe you grew up in a family where there was fighting, arguing, and name calling. Or maybe it was an environment where whatever you did it was never good enough. Maybe there were choices you made in your life that you feel guilt or shame about, and you constantly relive those memories harshly judging yourself.

Most everybody struggles with not feeling good enough about themselves in some way. The difference is that some people have more positive thoughts than negative thoughts and with others it is just the opposite, more negative thoughts and in some cases all negative thoughts.

 

6 Ways to Improve Your Self-Esteem

Make the following suggestions part of your daily life and begin feeling better about yourself. There is no limit to how good you can feel!

*Always choose to have good thoughts about yourself. The old negative thought patterns will try to enter your consciousness but you don’t have to entertain them. Replace them immediately with positive thoughts. These positive, uplifting thoughts will begin to replace the negative thought patterns and eventually will become a natural part of your thinking.

*Look for the positive in everything. Yes, there is a positive in everything if you look for it. Maybe we’ve done something in the past that we don’t feel good about. Maybe we needed to experience that thing to help us realize that we don’t want to live that way anymore. Sometimes we grow the most from the mistakes that we’ve made.

*Refuse to judge yourself. Always choose to lift yourself up instead of putting yourself down. Be kind, loving, and forgiving to yourself. Realize that you are human. You’ve made mistakes, we’ve all made mistakes. Let’s learn what we need to from them and move forward as a better person.

*Do what you say you’re going to do and always speak the truth. We are not going to feel as good about ourselves as we could if we are not taking care of our responsibilities or not being truthful.

*Have a daily exercise program. Vigorous exercise is one of the best ways to feel good about who we are. It’s a feeling of accomplishment and also knowing that we are doing something for ourselves that makes us feel good physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually.

*Always make choices that are going to contribute to feeling good about yourself. Whatever you are about to do, think it all the way through. Ask yourself, “am I going to feel better about myself or worse from the choice I’m about to make”.

 

You Deserve to Love Yourself

Helping people build or rebuild their self-esteem is something that I am passionate about. Please feel free to contact me at 954-540-4583 or online if you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment.

Posted by David Schlagter, LCSW