Unfortunately, low self-esteem is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The less desire you have to take the necessary steps to improve your self-esteem, the worse you’ll feel about who you are and what you do.
From then, it’s simple to descend into a downward spiral of negative and circular thinking that keeps you stuck in detrimental and false beliefs.
How do you break out of this loop and start heading in a more constructive direction?
Even while it takes time and won’t happen immediately, there are things you can do to kickstart and maintain the process. Here are 9 quick and effective techniques to boost your self-esteem and start feeling more confident.
1. Back to your breath first
Dr. Morea advises that the best course of action when we catch ourselves being overly critical of ourselves is to actively confront our cognitive habits. Deep breathing techniques, like box breathing, are a terrific tool to pull out first in order to relax our bodies. She advises you to turn on a soothing podcast or song and concentrate on controlling your breathing to the beat.
Consider what set you off and what your negative thoughts were after giving yourself a minute or two. You can then go against your impulses by examining the facts with greater clarity. Dr. Morea proposes posing the following queries to yourself: What ideas and feelings popped into your head? Are they founded in reality or emotion? What might be a different notion that involves self-love, and how can I confront those ideas?
2. Develop a new talent
Your sense of expertise grows when you master a skill that aligns with your abilities and interests.
3. Focus on a physical action you can perform
We all occasionally need a reminder that we can do anything we set our minds to if we are kind and patient with ourselves. When you need a little self-confidence boost, Dr. Morea advises putting your attention on skill development. To remind yourself that you can and will learn something if you set a deadline for doing so, take up a new activity or pick up a previous one that you had abandoned. You’ll come to understand that mistakes are possible, but you’ll always learn from them, adds Dr. Morea. It’s a much-needed activity to help you remember that despite setbacks, you can still do amazing things, even if they need some effort and perseverance.
4. Make a list of your achievements
Write out your accomplishments after giving them some thought. Make a list of all the things you did that you are proud of and all the things you did well. When you require a reminder that you are capable of completing tasks and completing them well, refer back to your list.
5. Consider what you cherish most about your people
According to Dr. Morea, this activity is designed to help you see that you are way harsher on yourself than you are on the people you care about. Make a list of the positive and negative aspects of a close friend. According to Dr. Morea, “The list of things you appreciate will be simpler to compose and much longer.” You may become a little more self-aware and, ideally, develop a kinder, more forgiving view of yourself if you observe how simple it is to perceive someone else for the majority of what they are good at, with their imperfections serving as background noise.
6. Give up worrying about what others will think
You will never feel free to be wholly yourself while you are worried about what other people will think of you. Decide firmly that you will stop caring what other people think and that you will start making decisions based on what you want, not what you believe other people want from you.
7. Recognize what you can change and what you can’t
According to Dr. Morea, there will be aspects of ourselves that we simply cannot change. “That is a lot of wasted energy if you’re pouring all of your energy into such things.” After clearing your thoughts with some deep breathing or fast grounding exercises, she advises taking a time to consider whether the situation you’re caught up in is something you may possibly change. Your only real choice, if the response is “no,” is to accept this and move on to what you can alter about yourself to boost your self-esteem and your life.
8. Accepting failure as a part of growth
When you fail, it’s common to punish yourself harshly. However, it might help you maintain perspective if you can change your way of thinking to see that failure is an opportunity to learn and that it is essential to learning and growth. Also, keep in mind that failure is a sign of effort.
9. Define achievement
Describe your definition of success and what it means to you in terms of confidence. You must discover the confidence inside yourself to take action if this is truly something you want to do.
