Last week we talked about what self-esteem is. Self-esteem is how you feel about yourself. If you have good self-esteem, you usually feel good about being you. If you have low self-esteem, you do NOT usually feel good about being you. Having low self-esteem not only makes it harder to be happy every day, but it also opens us up for abuse. If we do NOT feel good about ourselves, we may not realize that people are treating us poorly, or are even abusing us. People who are abused usually have low self-esteem, and may even think that they deserve to be abused.
So let's go over some things YOU can do every day to help raise your self-esteem and feel better about YOU!
- Find what is GOOD about you. If you need help, ask someone you trust that makes you feel good.
- Set goals for yourself and PICTURE yourself reaching those goals. Are you hoping to find a sweetheart? Picture yourself meeting someone special. Are you hoping to find a new apartment? Start imagining yourself in that new apartment. It really does help to create a mental picture or yourself REACHING your goals!
- Look at what you h
ave done RIGHT.
Write down a list of things that you have done RIGHT. Again, if you need help, ask someone you trust that makes you feel good. - Find things you don't know how to do and LEARN how to do them. Find something you've always wanted to do, and learn how to do it! Have you always wanted to cook a nice dinner? Take a cooking class through a recreation center! Have you always been nervous about public speaking? Join a People First chapter and add your thoughts to a meeting! Just get out there and do it.
- Learn to LAUGH at your mistakes, no one is perfect. Really and truly, no one is perfect. If you can't laugh at your mistake, at least stop beating yourself up over it and find a way to learn from that mistake. I'll say it one more time- NO ONE is perfect!
- Keep only GOOD and KIND people close to you. Life is too short to keep mean people around! If someone in your life is negative, mean, critical or just not very nice to you, it is time to end that relationship. There are too many good people out there to keep the nasty ones around!
