Have you been feeling down on yourself lately and have lost your self esteem, self love and all those other ‘selfs’ we struggle so hard to maintain? You’re not alone. Unfortunately, this happens an awful lot to so many of us. Little things trigger us and suddenly we feel worthless.
In this article we’re going to discuss ways on how to love yourself more and help give your self esteem a boost!
Why it’s so hard to love yourself
How many of you were raised without love, praise, affection or any kind of encouragement? When we aren’t shown these, we crave them as adults and will seek them any way we can. Unfortunately, sometimes we get them from toxic people and partners.
But what if that’s not the case with you and simply just have a hard time loving yourself? Some of us are just too hard on ourselves and lack self worth and self respect thus causing our self esteem to bottom out.
Loving yourself is hard work and it takes time, patience and practice. With consistent effort and work you will eventually reach a point where you truly do love yourself and you will have so much self esteem and self confidence it will ooze from your pores.
So how do we get there?
How to love yourself more and boost your self-esteem
The first thing you absolutely must do is stop comparing yourself to others. So many of us think we aren’t:
Good enough
Smart enough
Pretty enough
Valuable enough, or
Simply not enough.
You have to remember one thing, we are all beautiful in our own unique and magnificent ways. Each and every one of us has something (or many things) that make us beautiful and because of that, people admire you for that.
Whether you believe it or not, it’s a fact.
The first step in loving yourself more
If you were one of the people raised without love the first thing you must keep in mind is that you were raised by people who were a product of their environment. They raised you the only way they knew how. And none of that had anything to do with you.
You have to unplug all those limiting beliefs that you are worthless and remind yourself daily that you are enough, you are loveable and you’re not worthless. Self talk will go a long way here.
One simple yet powerful technique is to do daily mirror work. Every morning and each and every time you look at yourself in the mirror throughout the day, look deep in your eyes and tell yourself how beautiful you are.
Yes this may seem awkward but trust me, it works. It’s up to you to boost your self esteem. No one can do that for you. You will have to put in the work and some of the work may seem difficult. It will be. But with time it gets easier.
You may have a hard time doing this because you won’t believe yourself and it will seem like a lie. Again, with time, you will believe yourself.
The second step to loving yourself more and boosting your self-esteem
We show people how to love us and if we don’t love ourselves, then people will treat us poorly and with disrespect. The more you love yourself and start setting boundaries, the more people will start loving you properly and having respect for you.
Easier said than done but not impossible.
Instead of saying yes and ok all the time, start saying NO. Period. So many of us who lack self esteem and have a hard time loving ourselves are people pleasers. We will do anything to please anyone as long as they give us attention.
It’s time to stop doing that. That’s not the kind of attention you want nor do you deserve. It’s time to stop being a doormat and start standing up for yourself and having more respect for yourself. Sadly, we sacrifice our morals and values in order to make others happy and in turn, hopefully they give us love.
Next time someone asks you to do something that you absolutely don’t want to do just say no. No need to follow that up with an “I’m sorry but”. Just say no and suggest that maybe someone else can help them this time.
This is how you gain respect, boost your self esteem and start loving yourself more! By finding and using your voice.
Loving yourself more starts with your internal dialogue
Start telling yourself you are awesome, you are worthy and you are amazing. Write yourself love letters. Do nice things for yourself daily.
Start with little baby steps and before you know it, you’ll be walking with your head held high full of self love and self esteem.
You got this!
