Are you a people pleaser?
Do you have difficulty saying "no?"
Do you have difficulty being assertive?
Do you put your needs on the back burner?
Do you dislike or even hate your body?
Do you have difficulty liking or loving yourself?
Do you have difficulty forgiving yourself?
Do you have difficulty being compassionate toward yourself?”
Are you too hard on yourself?
Do you feel empty inside?
Do you know who you are?
Are you being your authentic self?
Do you feel unworthy or unlovable?
Do you struggle with feelings of guilt and shame?
Do you feel disconnected from your Higher Power?
If you answered yes" to any of these questions, you may be struggling with developing a healthy self-esteem and being able to love yourself.
The term "self-esteem" is simply a way of expressing
how you feel about yourself. If you feel good about yourself,
you have high self-esteem and if you feel badly about yourself,
you probably have low self-esteem.
Self-esteem and learning to love yourself are not to be confused with being narcissistic or arrogant. They
also do not feel the need to put others down, rather they
are more inclined to help others.
Learning to increase your self-esteem and love yourself can be accomplished by using twelve tools or techniques. Some of these tools are listed below.
One of the most powerful ways to change
how you feel about yourself, is by changing your thinking.
Most people with low self-esteem are critical of themselves,
that is, they have negative and often distorted thoughts about
themselves and the world that make them feel even worse.
Learning to say no," to be assertive, to forgive yourself, to have compassion for yourself, and engage in self-care activities, are also powerful tools to build self-love.
There is a cognitive-behavioral technique that
can be used to take your negative thinking and turn it into
more rational or positive thinking. This technique can take
one to six months before you feel a change, but it is a tried
and true, empirically proven technique to boost your self-esteem.
Another tool that can be used to raise self-esteem
is the use of daily affirmations.
These are positive statements people say to themselves over
and over again, until they feel like the statement is true.
This is another way to change your thinking and by changing
your thinking you are literally changing the neuro-chemicals
in your brain that help you feel better about yourself.
Exploring one's family history and childhood
can also be helpful. During this exploration, negative statements
that may have been told to you by your parents, siblings,
teachers or classmates are brought to light. Each of these
statements can then be turned into more rational statements
to help reprogram your brain.
No matter what technique you are drawn to,
low self-esteem is a very treatable issue and with repeated
implementation of these techniques over time, you will start
to feel your self-esteem gradually increase. This, in turn,
will allow you to feel more confident, empowered and good
about yourself.
To learn more about increasing your self-esteem and learning to love yourself, please schedule an appointment with Dr. Bailey or attend one of her self-love workshops.
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