8 Things You Need To Do To Boost Your Self-Esteem Today

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Your self-esteem, or your overall opinion of yourself, can have a big impact on nearly every area of your life. When you have a healthy self-esteem, it can be easy to feel confident about yourself, your choices, and the direction your life is going in. However, if you have poor self-esteem, you may have a negative outlook on life, even when there’s no real reason for it. Even though poor self-esteem can leave you feeling down in the dumps, the good news is that there are things you can do to change the situation and improve your self-esteem.

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1) Eat a mood-boosting diet

What you eat may not be the first thing you think about when it comes to boosting your self-esteem, but the reality is that what you eat on a daily basis can have a big impact not only on how you feel in general but on your self-image, too. When you eat a diet high in sugars and refined carbs, it can lead to weight gain and depression, as well as leave you feeling sluggish. Things like weight gain and overall poor health can not only lead to you feeling worse physically, but they can end up impacting your mood and ultimately your view of yourself, too. By taking steps to eat a more healthy and rejuvenating diet, you can not only feel better, but you can also feel better about yourself.

2) Take supplements

For those that struggle to make the necessary improvements to their diet, but still want to make positive changes, including a supplement into their daily health regimen can be a good way to go. One of the primary reasons supplements can help boost self-esteem is they can fill in nutritional gaps. While some are aware that a lack of certain nutrients can lead to poorer health, what they may not realize is that these nutrient deficiencies, like B12 and vitamin D deficiencies, can have a negative impact on their mood, and even their view of themselves, too.

3) Start a new hobby

Beginning a new hobby can often be a great way to give your confidence, and your self-esteem, a boost. When you learn a new skill or develop one that you already have, it can give you a sense of accomplishment, as well as pride in your abilities. This sense of accomplishment can be fantastic for boosting your mood, and your self-opinion as well. Not only that, but hobbies can have other benefits, such as reducing stress and promoting feelings of calm and contentment.

4) Begin a mindfulness practice

Sometimes poor self-esteem is due to negative thoughts crowding in. One simple way to help keep these thoughts at bay, and potentially reduce their occurrence altogether is to begin a regular mindfulness, or meditation, practice. Meditation is great for calming the nervous system, and can even be used to retrain your brain and banish old and harmful though patterns over time. The more that you take time to be still and listen to your thoughts and inner dialogue, the more that you can become aware of what kinds of things you think about yourself, and life in general.

Because of this, meditation can not only be great for self-esteem, but it can also be effective for helping with other mental health issues like depression and anxiety, which can have a negative impact on self-esteem. To get the most out of mindfulness, it’s best to do it regularly, for at least 15 to 20 minutes a day. If you struggle to focus for that long at a time, starting out slowly with smaller intervals of 5 to 10 minutes and then working your way up can be an effective way to build your focus.

5) Change your perspective with journaling

For many, poor self-esteem can be a sign that you need to change the way that you look at things in general. When you get stuck in old, negative thought patterns it can be easy to start seeing yourself in a negative light, even if those negative thoughts aren’t true. If this is the case, finding ways to look at yourself in a different light can be a good way to get to know yourself better and improve your self-opinion in the process.

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While there can be different ways to do this, journaling is often one of the most effective tools for this kind of self-exploration. There is some evidence that suggests that journaling can not only help improve self-esteem, but it can also help you work through other mental health issues and stress as well. If you like the idea of journaling but aren’t sure where to start, it’s important to keep in mind that your journal is just for you, and there’s no one right way to journal that will be better than any other. Ultimately, journaling is just about you writing down your thoughts and feelings, whatever they are, and then taking some time to understand any patterns that you see popping up. The more you notice patterns, the more that you can see what thoughts have been holding you back, and where you need to make changes in your life to start feeling better about yourself.

6) Make exercise a priority

Along with doing inner exploring with things like meditation and journaling, getting in touch with your physical body can be another effective way to perk up your self-esteem. There are a couple of different reasons for this, one is that when you exercise regularly, you will often be in better shape and feel stronger and healthier, too. Feeling strong and healthy can be great for your self-esteem.

Another reason why exercise can make a big difference is that it can change your brain chemistry. Working out regularly can increase happiness hormones in your brain like endorphins and serotonin. When your brain has a regular supply of these kinds of hormones, you are much less likely to experience feelings of depression and hopelessness, which can be two big contributors to poor self-esteem. Also, when it comes to working out, there are many different kinds of exercises that you can do to boost your mood, because it is more about getting your body moving rather than doing one specific kind of exercise. So, whether you enjoy going for long runs or would rather try some relaxing yoga, making exercise a priority can do a lot for your self-image.

7) Cut out your inner critic

The biggest culprit behind bad self-esteem is almost always a loud inner critic. While most people have one, they may be so used to it that they don’t even notice the negative self-talk that is occurring on a daily basis. This inner critic is often the voice of parents or adults that were in your life as a child, that may have made you feel bad about yourself or criticized you. These voices then become a part of your subconscious and continue to affect you throughout the rest of your life. Over time, because your inner critic has been with you for so long, it can be easy to begin believing it and accepting its negativity as true.

The downside of listening to your inner critic’s negativity is that it can be extremely damaging for your self-esteem, and your overall ability to be happy. While it may not always be easy, it can be important to tune into that inner voice, whether you do it through journaling, meditation, affirmations, or simply listening to your thoughts a little more throughout the day, and turn those negative statements into positive ones whenever you hear them. By substituting more positive thoughts for the negative ones, you can retrain your brain to see life, and yourself, in a better light.

8) Learn to accept what’s beyond your control

In the end, while there are a lot of things that you can do to boost your self-esteem and make positive changes in your life, there may be some things that you just can’t change. While it may feel tempting to beat yourself up when you feel that things aren’t going the way that they should, it’s important to remind yourself that some things are beyond your control, and that’s okay. There are some things that you have no power over, but that doesn’t have to reflect negatively on you, and you don’t have to let that hurt your view of yourself. By learning to accept that there are some situations you can’t control, you can relieve yourself of a lot of negativity, especially the kind of negativity that could be hurting your self-esteem.

A last thought

If you have poor self-esteem, it can end up having a negative impact on nearly every other area of your life. On top of that, the negative impact it has can lead to negative consequences, which can in turn make you feel even worse and create a bad feedback loop. The good news is, though, that you don’t just have to suffer from poor self-esteem. By trying things like eating a mood-boosting diet, journaling, and accepting the things that you can’t change you can turn your self-image around and start feeling better about yourself today.

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