How Your Self-esteem Affects Your Life
Having a good opinion of yourself makes a big difference in how you feel about yourself and how well you care for yourself.
All of the advice to believe in yourself, respect yourself, and realise that you can’t fully love others until you love yourself is true.
This means that a happy and successful life depends on how much you value yourself.
What is self-esteem?
High self-esteem is more than just liking yourself. It also means giving yourself love, worth, respect, and dignity. Positive self-esteem also means that you believe in your ability (to learn, succeed, and make a difference in the world) and have the freedom to do things on your own. It means you think your thoughts, feelings, and views are essential.
Self-worth is not just based on one thing or a single set of thoughts. Instead, a person’s self-esteem is based on how they feel about everything that makes them who they are. This includes their personality, accomplishments, skills, abilities, background, experiences, relationships, physical body, and how they think others see them.
Self-esteem vs depression
Low self-esteem is different from sadness. Even though the two ideas are similar, low self-esteem is considered a risk factor for depression.
Depression is an emotional illness that affects both the mind and the body, while self-esteem is how you think and feel about yourself.
What counts most is what you focus on and how much grace and compassion you give yourself when you don’t like something.
Whether you know it or not, your self-esteem is the picture you paint of yourself, the parts of you that you choose to highlight. Henry David Thoreau, a famous scientist and philosopher, said, “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
What it means to have a good opinion of yourself
High self-esteem means that you usually think well of yourself. This doesn’t mean you are perfect or love everything about yourself. On the contrary, even people with high self-esteem often criticise themselves and have parts of themselves they are less proud of or happy with.
But if you have healthy self-esteem, the good things you think about yourself are more important than the negative aspects, and the bad things don’t make you feel less of yourself.
High self-esteem is a way of thinking that lets you enjoy your skills, work on your weaknesses, and feel good about yourself and your life. It helps you see the big picture of your day-to-day ups and downs because, at your heart, you value, trust, and respect yourself. When you have high self-esteem, you can say things like, “I’ve had a bad day,” instead of “I have a bad life.”
High self-esteem also helps you realise that not everything is about you. This makes it easier to avoid taking things too personally and respond quickly. When you have a lot of self-respect, you can look past yourself and feel securein your place in the world.
Interestingly, having high self-esteem doesn’t always match up with reality.
Some studies show that being physically attractive does not indicatehigh self-worth. One study showed that kids with “facial attractiveness” had lower self-esteem than their peers. The person who seems to have it all—a great job, a love partner, good looks, and a healthy body—may not see it that way.
Signs of healthy self-worth
How can you tell if you value yourself well? Here are some indications:
- You’re not afraid to say what you think, even if it’s different from what others think
- You’re confident in your skills
- You don’t let problems hold you back
- A setback doesn’t make you feel bad about yourself
- You love and respect yourself instead of putting yourself down
- You’re ready to set boundaries with people who don’t care about you or treat you respectfully.
Why it’s important to have high self-worth
The American Psychological Association says having a good sense of self-worth is essential for mental health and well-being. High self-esteem is good because it helps you learn how to deal with problems and put the bad things in their proper place.
If you have a better self-concept, you also don’t focus, blame, have self-doubt, feel hopeless about, or put too much weight on the parts of yourself you don’t like. You can also better deal with stress, anxiety, and pressure, whether it comes from school, work, home, or friends.
A person with high self-esteem is less likely to feel lost, stuck, or not good enough because of what they see as “failures.” Instead, they are more likely to look for what they can change or improve.
On the other hand, someone with low self-esteem is likelier to feel bad about themselves for a long time. A study shows that feeling good about yourself and treating yourself with respect, especially as a child, goes a long way towards helping you deal with life’s challenges.
If you have a healthy view of yourself and respect yourself, you can see that it’s not the end of the world if something goes wrong, someone refuses you, or you make a mistake.
Self-esteem and stress
Studies have found a link between positive self-esteem, motivation to reach goals, self-efficacy, and self-control.Better academic performance is also linked to higher levels of self-esteem.
High self-esteem boosts overall well-being
High self-esteem also protects you against many mental health problems, like depression and worry, and overthinking.Studies have shown that being happy with your life and maintaining a good mood even when things are hard are directly linked to high self-esteem. Research also shows that people with a higher sense of self-worth are happier at work and have better relationships with others.
Feeling low vs poor self-esteem
Low self-esteem is more than just having a bad day or mood. Everyone feels sad when bad things happen, but these feelings usually go away, and for people with good self-esteem.
People with low self-esteem have a persistently negative view of themselves. While it may change with the good and bad things that happen in their lives, for the most part, it doesn’t change over time, no matter what.
Your personality, how you feel, your genes, your upbringing, who you hang out with, and what happens in your life may impact your thoughts. However, having a shallow sense of self-worth can put you at risk for many mental health problems.
Low self-esteem and mental health
There is a strong link between low self-esteem and mental health problems.
Surprisingly, a study shows that low self-esteem makes people depressed, not the other way around. This means that sadness doesn’t make people feel bad about themselves. Instead, putting yourself down makes you more likely to get depressed.
Studies also show that people with higher self-esteem are less likely to have mental health problems. This is likely because they have better coping skills, are more positive, and are more resilient.
Low self-esteem makes you feel bad about yourself, making it harder to live a fulfilling life, reach your goals, and have good social and intimate relationships.
Studies show that depression, anxiety, emotional problems, substance use, stress, eating disorders, and thoughts of suicide are strongly linked to low self-esteem.Research also indicates a strong link between low self-esteem and anxiety disorders.
How to build up your self-esteem
Building your self-worth and ability to bounce back from setbacks isn’t easy.
But you can do it – it will make a big difference in your life!
It’s important to realise that a big part of your self-esteem is how you think, focus on, and how optimistic you are, not just the facts or events of your life.
It’s about what you see and tell yourself when you look at your body, skills, achievements, or prospects.
To build up your self-esteem, you must work at it, be determined, and be willing to look at and change any negative thoughts about yourself. You also have to think positive thoughts about yourself actively. It’s important to be kind to yourself, let go of things that worry you, and work on what you can (and want to) change.
If you have a high enough sense of self-worth, you know that you deserve to take care of yourself. This can help you try to do things to boost your self-esteem. If you don’t like yourself, taking care of yourself is hard.
Studies show that forgiving yourself for things you regret can also help boost self-esteem.26 Basically, it’s about accepting and loving yourself as you are.
When to Get Help
If you have low self-esteem, working with a mental health professional can help you change the negative things you say to yourself and improve how you see and value yourself.
How to feel better about yourself
Working on your self-esteem takes time and effort, but it’s worth it because there is a clear link between self-esteem and quality of life.
Some ways to help you think more positively about yourself are as follows:
Accept Compliments
Notice when you want to turn praise back on the person who gave it to you. Research shows that having trouble accepting compliments is directly linked to low self-esteem.
Be fair to yourself
Forgive yourself for making mistakes, and stop telling yourself bad things. No one is perfect or happy with every part of themselves. Ask yourself if you’re being fair to yourself or being realistic when you start to feel bad.
Love yourself, even with your flaws
Yes, you may have things you wish were different, something you want to change, or things you don’t like about yourself, but you should still love and respect yourself.
Embrace who you are
Accept yourself as you are right now and find value in that. Find and be proud of what makes you different, happy, and valuable.
Know how important it is to have high self-esteem
Once you see how your thoughts affect your happiness and well-being, you may be more likely to change how you feel about yourself and value yourself more.
Seek Support
Cognitive-behavioural therapy can help you work on problems that might begetting in the way of having a positive view of yourself. It can also help you learn to stop negative self-talk and have a more positive idea of yourself.
Consider yourself a friend
When you think about a friend, you’re likely to be more patient, kind, encouraging, helpful, and proud of them than yourself. So, the next time you’re being hard on yourself, take a step back, change your point of view, and look at yourself as a friend.
Take care of yourself
If you don’t like something about yourself or your life, think about what you can do to change it. Then, make a plan for how to make those changes.
A Word from Hope Trust
To be happy in life, you need to have high self-esteem. Some people find it easy to think this way, while others have to work at it. No matter your self-esteem, you can improve your opinion, support, kindness, and love for yourself.
Your connection with yourself may be the most important in the long run. It gives you the strength, confidence, kindness, motivation, and love that shape the rest of your life and helps you be the best person you can be.
It would help if you also talked to a therapist who can teach you the skills to boost your self-esteem.
Click www.hopetrustindia.com for an instant online or in-clinic appointment with an expert.