Hey Bestie! Building your self-esteem is incredibly important in life.
Having low self esteem can keep you from going after the life you’ve always dreamed of. Most of the time, the things you dream of doing are God’s way of giving you a preview of the life he already designed for you.
What if building your self esteem is the catalyst to living your dream life and releasing the potential inside of you?
This post is all about building your self-esteem.
Are you ready? Let’s geaux!
What Is Low Self-Esteem
First, let’s take a moment to thank God that where we start isn’t where we’ll finish! Thank you God.
If you currently have low-self esteem, that’s actually the perfect place to start. Building your self-esteem from the ground up is exactly what you want to do.
Before we get into the thick of it, let’s talk about what low self-esteem is. Low self-esteem is when you have high doubts about who you are.
It’s when you have trouble believing in your greatness. Low self esteem equates to low self-respect, low self-confidence, low self-trust, and low-self worth..
Let me ask you a couple questions:
- Do you have a hard time trusting in your abilities without external approval?
- Are you someone who believes that you deserve the bad things that were done to you?
- Do you have trouble believing that you’re capable, deserving, worthy of love and respect, and the many great things that are coming your way?
- When someone compliments you, do you immediately think about the things that seem to need more improvement?
- Do you intentionally find flaws in others to feel okay about yourself?
Simply put, low self-esteem is seeing yourself as less than who you were created to be. Now that you have an understanding of what low self-esteem is, let’s talk about a couple causes of it.
{Download our free Self-Esteem Affirmation resource here}
What Causes Low Self-Esteem
From the moment you’re born, you’re molded and shaped by the people, and the world around you. Many of us grew up in environments where low self-esteem was the norm while some of us experienced moments where our self-esteem was damaged.
There are multiple things that could’ve happened to you that contributed to your low self-esteem. Maybe you grew up with a parent who tore you down.
You could’ve been touched inappropriately and told not to say anything. Maybe you’re constantly rejected by those who claim to love you.
As we grow through life, moments like these cause us to feel that were alone and that something might be wrong with us. We may even start to blame ourselves for things that have happened.
All of the “not so good” events that occur causes us to shrink back instead of rise up. They instill fear and self-doubt inside of us where confidence should dwell.
Today is the day where your confidence will begin to grow again however. No longer will you reduce yourself to poor habits, negative thinking, and negative self talk.
It’s time for you to start the process of shining again and get back to your glow. Your authentic self is ready for you and God is ready to help you exactly where you are.
Remember you’re at the perfect place to build your self-esteem.
5 Ways To Improve Self Esteem
1. Accept Where You Are Right Now
There’s no going anywhere if you don’t know where you are. You just figured out and/or accepted that you’ve been living with low self-esteem.
Take some time to sit and think about that in itself before rushing to try to fix yourself. You don’t have to rush this process.
This journey of overcoming low self-esteem is not a race. Take your time and accept where you are moment by moment.
2. Document Your Right Now
You won’t be in this place forever. Grab a journal and document where you are right now so you’ll be able to look back at all your hard work.
Take a moment and write down the things you don’t like about yourself. If you have a mirror, I want you to sit in front of it and write everything down as if you’re talking about another person.
I personally call this practice “Mirror Moments”. When I do mirror moments, I write things like:
- I want better for you.
- I don’t like how your tummy pokes out right now.
Please don’t mistake this practice with tearing yourself down. This practice is more about being truthful, holding yourself accountable, and coming up with a plan of action.
3. Write Out Where You Want To Be
This is the moment where you get to imagine your future. Obviously, you want to have high self-esteem, but what does your dream life look like?
What do you want to do? How do you wish to feel? What do you want to look like?
Brainstorm your dream life.
4. Make A Plan
Plans don’t happen all at once. They are full of steps that you’ll have to continuously revisit and reconstruct. After you brainstorm you’re dream life, break some of those things down into small actionable steps.
Each action should help you with the things that you don’t like about yourself. For example, if I don’t like my tummy, I can start to walk for five minutes a day.
The five minutes will eventually give me the confidence to do more to reduce the size of my tummy. It’s a small, but great start!
5. Put That Plan Into Action
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes have a horrible habit of making plans and not sticking to them.
Let’s make a promise to ourselves and each other that once we make a plan, we’ll see it through.
Deal? Deal!
15 Practices For Building Self-Esteem
1. Read The Bible
God’s word is full of truth about himself and you. Did you know that you’re created in His image after His likeness (Genesis 1:26 ESV)?
What this means is that everything that God is…you are! You’re a mini-version of Him.
- He is God…so you are a god.
- He is King…so you are a king/queen.
- He is Lord…so you are a lord.
There is much more truth to discover within the Bible. If I were to recommend a place for you to start, I would suggest the book of Psalms.
2. Encourage Yourself In Truth
Begin to speak the truth of what you learned from the Bible over yourself. God’s word about you is absolute! He knows everything about you because He created you.
Why not encourage yourself with truth that’ll never change?
3. Practice Obeying God
God has so many promises for you in His word. Most of these promises are based on you creating an environment that is conducive for the promise.
For example, Matthew 11:28-29 says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”.
In order to receive the promise of rest, you must first go to him. Your relationship with God is a partnership and your part is obeying Him.
4. Speak Life
Life and death is in the power of your tongue (Proverbs 18:21 NIV). What if all the things you spoke came true? People speak highly about manifestation, but you can manifest negative things as well.
It’s up to you to speak what you want to see. Your perception is your reality. Create a life of bliss with your words.
5. Journal
Journaling is a power spiritual practice that can help you along your journey. You can journal about anything! This is probably my favorite practice because it has helped me the most!
6. Move Your Body
Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV). When you move your body, you get a dopamine release that results in better mood, decreased anxiety, and better memory.
7. Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Getting out of your comfort zone won’t feel good in the moment, but once it’s done, you’ll have a sense of accomplishment. What is something that you always wanted to try, but were too scared to do it?
I dare you to go for it and step out of that comfort zone.
8. Get Vulnerable With Someone
Talking to someone about your real feelings is scary because there’s a fifty/fifty chance that they won’t be able to handle your vulnerable side.
When it comes to building your self-esteem, it’s a gamble worth trying. You never know what can come out of being vulnerable with someone you trust.
9. Set And Achieve Small Goals
Anxiety plagues the minds of many because the world teaches you that fast is the way to go. It also teaches you that the more you do, the better you are.
These are two lies from the pits of hell. When you are learning something, it’s best to take small bites of information so that you can grasp the material.
We see this in school all the time. There is no kindergartener writing full essays, but there are many who are learning how to spell words.
So what is a small goal that you can set and look forward to achieving?
10. Learn From Your Mistakes
I don’t know who told you that mistakes means that you’re a failure, but they lied. Mistakes are one of the best teachers because you learn what to do and what not to do at the same time.
If you made a mistake and learned something, you actually gained knowledge. Once you apply that knowledge, you gain wisdom.
Bestie, has anyone ever told you how wise you are?
11. Be Kind To Yourself
Somewhere along this journey, you may mess up or revert back to your old ways. Don’t beat yourself up.
When you mess up, acknowledge it and remind yourself that you’re not your behavior. You’re a person who deserves kindness especially from yourself.
Give positive self talk a try!
12. Forgive Yourself
Have you ever been so disappointed in yourself that you thought that God was also disappointed in you? I can’t lie, this happens to me quite frequently especially when I know better, but don’t do better.
If you ever find yourself feeling this way then it’s an indicator that you might need to work on forgiving yourself.
13. Establish A Routine
There’s nothing like a good ole routine! When you have a routine, you know what to expect and you are more productive which will help boost your confidence!
14. Practice Gratitude
It’s so easy to point out the things that you don’t like. How about you start to call out the things that you’re thankful for?
Go ahead and thank God for three things right now.
15. Remind Yourself Of Who You Are
There’s only one you and you are amazing. Shower yourself with kind words. Get creative when speaking of yourself. Sometimes you need to hear out of your own mouth how great you are.
Go ahead and encourage yourself Bestie!
This post was all about building your self-esteem.
Remember you’re destined to win because He got up!
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