Building Self Esteem

“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.” These are the words from Helen Keller, a lady who conquered the world with her self-confidence and self-esteem. Before getting into how to build self-esteem, you should be clear about the concept of self-esteem. In simple words, it is your opinion about yourself — impressive or unimpressive. Do you believe you are successful? How do you see yourself? What do you think of your social status? Your answers to these sorts of questions will give you an idea about your self-esteem. Maintaining a high level of self-esteem is very important, as low self-esteem can be disastrous to your happiness. It feeds your negative thinking and you will start criticizing yourself and thus, you may end up in a conclusion that you are simply useless. This may even lead to serious psychological problems and suicidal tendency. So, self-esteem is crucial in developing positive attitude towards life. Read on to learn about how to build self-esteem. 

You have A Low Self Esteem If

• You maintain negative view of life.
• You find it difficult to deal with rejection
• You dislike your body because of overweight.
• You feel you are so ugly.
• You always mistrust others, even those that show you affection.
• You can’t get along with people.
• You don’t dare to take risks.
• You fear to be ridiculed.
• You are so dependent on others and let others make the decisions.
• You feel insecure or not sure of yourself. 

How To Build Self-Esteem 

Sharp And Sensible Dressing
It is important that you maintain a good sense of dressing because it plays a major role in creating good impressions about you. It makes you confident while interacting with others. Always keep yourself clean and presentable and be aware of the latest trends. This does not imply that you blow away all your hard-earned cash on clothing but whenever you purchase, pick up fancy, stylish cloths. Cheaper choices can make you regret later. 

Maintain Good Posture
Do you know that your posture reflects your personality? Drooping shoulders and lethargic movements demonstrate low self-esteem. It shows that you are not enthusiastic about what you do and creates and impression that you don’t consider yourself important. So, practice good posture and this will bring lots of confidence in you. Always stand in a straight posture, keep your head up and maintain eye contact. Do not walk slowly because it creates an impression that you are always lethargic and lack enthusiasm. This is not a good impression. It is a general fact that confident people walk fast. 

Personal Commercial
Listen to motivational speeches and read motivational book. Just listening and reading will not do, you should practice it in your daily life. You can also scribble down your strengths, weakness, and goals and read it aloud in front of a mirror. Try it! It works wonders. 

Gratitude
It is quite natural that your mind pulls you inwards whenever you wish for something. Your mind may constantly tell you that it is impossible. If this is the case, just recollect your past successes and achievements and convince yourself that you are good at that. This is important to maintain self-esteem. 

Be A Front Liner
Some people are always back benchers. This shows that they are not confident enough and fear that they will be noticed by everyone. They just try to hide themselves behind others. If you are one of those, be bold enough to sit in front next time and encounter the situation. Being in the front row will provide you with confidence. 

Speak Up
Speak up whenever you get a chance to. Normally people keep shut due to the fear of sounding stupid. Attempt once and you will get rid of this fear. If you are really scared, then prepare yourself with some general topic to speak about. This will help you to speak confidently and gradually you can become a better public speaker, more confident in your own thoughts. 

Contribute
Always try to contribute something to the world around you. It may be some creative ideas or anything of that kind. This provides you with a confidence that you are important. Work on your goals constantly and achieve it faster so that you feel that “nothing is impossible.”  

Socialize
Socializing is very important. You can talk whatever you want within your friends circle. It makes you feel free to talk whatever you want to. You will develop self-confidence gradually. It also provides you with opportunities to connect with other people and thus develop good communication and interpersonal skills. 

Do Something You Are Good At
It is a good way to increase your confidence. Do something you are good at and this makes you feel that you can also do things. Besides this, it will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. Also try doing something that scares you. Achieving this hard task will provide you with a confidence that you can achieve anything. 

Set A Goal
Always keep some goal in life so that you can actively work for that. It gives you an idea on what to do next. Lack of goal in life will leave you passive, letting life to go by its own, not knowing what to do next. This leads to permanent boredom and gradually life appears to be meaningless. This affects your self-esteem very badly. 

Affirmations & Introspection
You need to use affirmations. However, make sure that you use it in the right way. Using positive affirmations will help you get out of the thought that you are not good at anything. Try telling yourself that, “I am highly motivated and productive,” but make sure that you put effort to make it real rather than sitting idle. 

No More Comparisons
Stop comparing yourself with any other person because each person is unique and have a distinctive set of skills and ideas. Comparing yourself with another person who appears to be successful than you may make you feel bad about yourself. So do not attempt for this, instead, utilize the skills and capabilities in you and try to give your best every time. 

Self-esteem springs up from self-dominion. The more you believe in yourself, the more you respect yourself. Unless you respect yourself, how will others respect you?  Always believe that you have a unique set of talents and abilities which no other person has. Rise in your own eyes and thus, rise in others’ too.