People who naturally have confidence just do not understand what it is like to suffer from low self-confidence.
You consistently find yourself holding back, in conversations, in life and all the happiness and success seems to get dished out to everyone else.
Most people with low confidence have tried various methods to improve the situation, be it positive affirmations or imaginations.
People who lack confidence spend too much time hiding away from life, and not enough time taking an active role. This can lead to all sorts of problems, a lack of success, a lack of love, and all lead to a lack of self-fulfillment.
This tends to compound the problem and lead to a further dip into negative feelings and low self-esteem.
If you were to magically find yourself feeling confident in one area of your life, it would lead to more confidence in other areas. Pretty soon this feeling would spread throughout your life.
If you directly learn how to increase the actual feeling of confidence, you will start to think and imagine positive thoughts.
Read Also: 5 Activities to Boost your Self Esteem
Confident thoughts lead you to positive actions.
You do not have to continue a life of low confidence. You can end that cycle and make the positive gains you want, in all areas of your life and you can do it with only a few minutes practice a day.
Self-esteem and Success
In fact, attempts have also been made to correlate high self-esteem to success in various endeavors – and it would seem as if high self-esteem doesn’t just result in higher levels of happiness, but also in higher degrees of success.
That is especially the case in things like business, where success depends on networking: an undertaking in which people with high self-esteem tend to be very good at.
So, if having high self-esteem can be so beneficial, many people ask, how can they go about improving their self-esteem levels?
And that is where we come to learn that there is one (ultimate) way in which you can change your thinking patterns – and hence increase your happiness.
There are ways that you can begin to realize where you are as far as your self-worth is concerned. The following tips will also help you build that much self-esteem so that you are then more courageous and truly valued by the one who matters.
Ways to Improve your Poor Self Image and Boost your Confidence
Affirming Yourself
One of the ways to improve your self-confidence is to treat yourself as a dear friend. Improving your self-esteem would be by affirming yourself.
Friends affirm each other (not necessarily through the use of the so-called ‘affirmations’ but also through their moment to moment dialogs).
Thus, if your moment to moment dialog with yourself is self-affirming, rather than self-depreciating, you are likely to end up with high self-esteem ultimately.
Another way in which you can treat yourself as a dear friend and hence improve your self-esteem would be by keeping promises you make to yourself. Friends keep the promises they make to each other.
In this context, this mostly means acting on your plans (rather than chronically messing up with your ideas). If you plan to do something, and you don’t do it, your self-esteem takes a beating.
Accept Yourself
Accepting yourself just as you are is another way in which you can improve self-esteem and increase your happiness.
Remember, there is a school of thought which holds the view that ‘the body is the self.’
Thus, when you accept your body fully (just as it is – which you can do through the use of the appropriate affirming statements) and carry it with pride, your self-esteem receives a considerable boost.
It’s up to you to shift your self-image.
Stop believing what people say to you. Erase what everyone else thinks about you from your mind and cultivate a new self-image that works for you.
Be conscious of your movements at all times. These changes can be physical, mental or emotional. Whichever, be sure to remain alert.
Self-reflection
This scares most people because they don’t want to face the fact they could be part of the problem and solution.
Looking in the mirror isn’t easy, but it’s the first step to cultivating a new self-image.
Why and how did you get a weak self-image?
How was your childhood?
Did you know that 99.99% of people were wounded in some way in their childhood?
They’re still carrying around baggage from their childhood which is why their life isn’t the way they want it. If your parents, teachers, grandparents, siblings, etc. treated you poorly.
Remember, most parents raise their kids based on how they were raised. This isn’t always a good idea.
Buy a journal or notebook and start reflecting on your life.
Don’t leave anything out. You’ll discover where you developed a poor self-image.
Keeping a journal and re-reading it will help to give you that real glimpse of yourself.
When you read your entries, look for the complaints or the shifting of responsibility. Look for the pleas for attention from others. They will help you with that honest look and accountability.
Once you get to the ‘root’ of your low self-esteem, you’ll be able to shift your perspective. It’s imperative to do the work; otherwise, you’ll always have a negative self-image.
The Mirror Exercise
Every day look in the mirror and say, “I love you!” Say it with feeling and mean it. Look into your eyes and see how beautiful you are.
Once you begin to love yourself, your self-image will change. If you don’t like yourself, no one else will. It must come from within you.
Read books, Listen to audios, go to events or programs or watch videos that help to build you up.
You are not ruined.
I am not telling you to take these steps so that you can feel low. The purpose is to realize that the value you place on yourself shows through the way you live your life and how you deal with others.
Allow the Process to Work by Working the Process
For any tips, suggestions or strategies to work, you must work them.
Writing in your journal without re-reading will make for good therapy, however, to take note of your perception of life, you must work the full process.
Buying the products, going to the seminars or hiring a coach will all be a waste of time if you do not want to work the process.
You must remember that you are worth a great deal, yet it is your very own actions and perceptions that set the stage for your life.
It does not matter what someone says about you; you must know the truth.
The truth is that you are something special and you deserve your dreams and purpose to come to pass.
You have the power to change your self-image. If you’re unhappy with your self-image, turn it. Have the courage to do the ‘inner’ work.
This will bring up a lot of emotion — just go with it. You may be surprised what comes up.
