As humans, we all have times when we feel low, lack confidence and do not feel good about ourselves but whenever this feeling persists, it becomes a problem which can be identified as "low self-esteem". Generally, self-esteem is how we think about ourselves. It is the overall level of admiration, respect and worth you give to yourself. As individuals, we can either have healthy self-esteem or low self-esteem. Healthy self-esteem makes you feel good about yourself and about life in general.

However, when your self-esteem is low, you tend to:

  • Believe that others are better than you
  • Put other's needs before yours
  • Struggle with confidence
  • Focus on your weaknesses
  • Frequently experience doubt and fear
  • Have trouble saying "NO" and setting boundaries
  • Feel intense fear of failure
  • Have trouble accepting positive feedback!

Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to boost your self-esteem. Here are 5 actions you can take to deal with low self-esteem:

1) Identify and challenge your negative thoughts/beliefs: Note those negative thoughts and beliefs and start to counter them with more realistic and positive ones.

2) Be kind to yourself: To boost your low self-esteem to a healthy one, you need to be gentle with yourself, forgive yourself for past mistakes and forge ahead by accepting all parts of yourself.

3) Build positive relationships: Surround yourself with people who make you feel good about yourself, who appreciate you and want to see you do better. Don't give room for people to make you feel down or low about yourself, avoid such people!

4) Recognize your good habit(s): There's something everyone is good at, pick up what you know how to do best and put it into practice. This will boost your self-confidence.

5) Learn to start saying "NO": You don't have to say "YES" to people when you don't want to. People with low self-esteem tend to do this a lot and this can make them become overburdened, resentful, angry and depressed. Learn to say "NO" when you are not cool with something, anything at all. Let your message be clear.

Dear reader, have you ever felt this way before or you're still feeling it? These little steps mentioned above will really help you in bouncing back and improving your self-esteem. Remember, no one is less worthy than the other. Always keep this in mind, it will help you maintain a healthy sense of self-esteem.

Thank you for reading. Do well to like, comment and share ❤️.