Self Love Series: How to improve your self-esteem

It was the International Day of Acceptance on 20th January 2019, which fits perfectly with my new blog about how to improve your Self-Esteem!

Many of us have low self-esteem or body image, which is different from body confidence. Self-esteem is how you think and feel about yourself, whereas Self-confidence is how you act when you’re around others. It’s one thing to act self-confident, but self-esteem has a much deeper impact. If we can improve our self-esteem, we will find it easier to be more confident with ourselves and our bodies.

Stop comparing yourself to others – just be you!

Just think about how you feel about your body or your appearance for a second. Where did those thoughts come from? Has anyone ever influenced how you feel about yourself?

If these thoughts are negative, are they actually true or reality? Probably not! Everyone perceives things in different ways.

There are so many things in life that make us feel like we should look a certain way. We compare ourselves to the women we see in magazines and the media and we even compare ourselves to our friends. We want to look and feel good for our partners and we want to feel like we ‘fit in’ and that we’re ‘normal’.

But there is no normal! We need to aspire to be the best version of OURSELVES, no-one else.

Take responsibility for your own thoughts and feelings and feel empowered!

Here are some tips on where to start:

1. Try and change those negative thoughts to positive ones and forget about past experiences. For every negative belief you have about your appearance or your body, see if you can write down a positive statement to counteract it and focus on instead.

2. Ask yourself how you would like to think and feel about yourself starting from scratch. You CAN CHOOSE how you think about your appearance. Do you want to keep telling yourself negative things? Hopefully not! Choose to be nice to yourself.

3. What would your best friend say about you if she were giving you a compliment? You can start by telling yourself small things, like, “I really like my hair today”, “I have nice eyes” or “I love this nail colour”

4. Re-evaluate your friends. Your friends should be making you feel good about yourself – not putting you down. Your friend’s attitude will affect you. If your friends are confident then chances are they will inspire you to be too. This can work the same with Family. Families have a habit of being TOO HONEST TOO OFTEN. Don’t be afraid to tell them off. For example, they may be mentioning your weight to be helpful but if they are continually bringing it up, then they will do more damage then good.

5. Take a step back from Celebrity culture and Social media. We need to remember these are only showing peoples HIGHLIGHTS. For some reason, we are always comparing ourselves to celebrities who have professional make-up artists, personal trainers and probably a lot of photoshop to make them constantly look amazing! The media affects you more than you probably realise.

You are in charge of your life and how you feel, no-one else.

Positive thoughts will help improve your self-esteem. I know sometimes it’s easier said than done. So when you are feeling low remember your body isn’t you. People like you for who you are not your body. Remember the good things about yourself. What are you good at? Are you smart, talented, fun? Think about all the different aspects of your amazing personality and the rest will follow.

DO MORE, it is easy to come home from work and just crash on the sofa and watch TV. This, however, doesn’t particularly make you feel good about yourself. Do something you are passionate about or try new things! Go for a swim, sing around the house, dance, read some inspiring books or travel… the possibilities are endless! Having hobbies will definitely help improve your self-esteem, energy and will motivate you to be the best version of yourself.

Only you can change how you feel about yourself and this starts with the little things.

I hope this helps.

Get in contact if you would like to book an empowering photo session, where you are guaranteed to come away feeling fabulous!

Contact me

Thanks,

Ginny x