9 HABITS THAT BOOSTED MY SELF-ESTEEM

Happy Monday! Today’s post is dedicated to knowing how to boost your self-esteem, based on my personal experience. Low self-esteem is a thinking disorder in which an individual views themselves as inadequate, unlovable, or incompetent.

Generally, low self-confidence makes a person doubt their abilities and prevents them from taking risks, setting ambitious goals, and acting on them. It also lowers their quality of life because it’s an aspect that can prevent them from thriving, from reaching their full potation or from living a happy life. This is something that I personally suffered from but that I’ve also seen my friends struggle with. It’s an issue that I’ve noticed touches many people and that deserves more attention. Note: This post is not meant to replace any professional help. This is what worked for me and I wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone.

Now, let’s get into it, and don’t forget to check out my previous post: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO SPIRITUALITY.

Not wearing makeup everyday

The first habit that helped me boost my self-confidence is not wearing makeup every day. Makeup can be a form of expression for many people. It can help enhance features and make you look your best. Nonetheless, makeup had a different effect on my mental health, and choosing to stop wearing makeup altogether helped me accept who I was and actually, find myself beautiful without the need to fix myself.

Refusing to cover my acne

The next habit is accepting my skin imperfections, more precisely, my acne. If I choose to wear makeup, I always opt to show my acne instead of concealing it. Acne was the one thing I struggled with as a young adult. Everyone around me liked to pinpoint my bad skin and it has always been an insecurity of mine.

But to be honest with you, acne never truly bothered me, it’s more the looks and the insults that affected me. I found that not hiding my acne and embracing it, helped me overcome my insecurity and helped me actually love my skin as it is. Acne is a skin issue that you can totally cure, and I am happy to say that I don’t struggle with acne as much. However, it was still important for me to love myself with imperfect skin. Plus, I do get the occasional breakouts. It’s normal.

Enhancing the features I love and taking care of my appearance

Another habit that boosted my self-esteem is enhancing the features I love about myself and taking care of my appearance. Whether it’s my face, hair, or body, I chose to highlight those little things about myself that I adore. For instance, I choose to put focus on my eyes when I wear makeup, because it’s my favorite thing about myself. I choose to wear certain outfits to enhance my body type and shape. This habit has truly made me look at myself in a positive way. I know to certain people, appearance doesn’t matter but it does to me. I love to look good. Not for others but for myself. This actually brings me to my point: having a skin, body and hair care routine.

Having a skin, body and hair routine

Taking the habit to care for my skin and making it a ritual every morning and every night, not only improved my skin condition but made me love myself even more. Again, my acne was my biggest insecurity and I could not afford going to the dermatologist when I moved to Canada so I had to do my own research and heal my skin myself. After years of trials and error, I finally got it and finally understood what my skin truly wanted. Having a skincare regimen allowed me to improve the look of my skin and actually love my face without makeup. Same with my face, following a body and hair care routine helped me boost my self-confidence seeing that my body felt softer, and more hydrated and that my hair felt healthier and stronger.

Eating well and exercising

The next practice that boosted my self-esteem is eating well and working out. Eating healthily and exercising on a weekly basis can not only maintain your health, but also keep your gut healthy. A lot of studies suggest that having a healthy gut results in good skin. Both also help you to stay in shape and according to numerous studies, working out releases dopamine, which can improve your mood. Overall, working out and eating well is a way to cherish your physical self and treating your body like the temple that it is.

Journaling

The next habits that helped improve the perspective I have on myself goes on a more spiritual level and one of these habits is journaling. Journaling is a therapeutic practice I personally started on my self-healing journey, specifically my self-love journey. I use this practice to write down what I am grateful for but also, what I love about myself (physically and mentally), how I can improve as an individual, my personal achievements and so forth. Doing that every night has helped me see myself as a worthy and overall, wonderful person. It allowed me to hype myself up! In general, by writing a thought down instead of just saying it out loud, you are allowing your mind to visualize what you want.

Starting a self-healing journey

Starting a self-healing journey has also contributed to boosting my self-esteem. One of the main reasons I decided to start a spiritual journey is to learn how to manage my anxiety but also, to love and accept myself. Growing up, I struggled with a low self-confidence and self-love. I didn’t really accept who I was and did not have faith in my capabilities. This issue followed me until I graduated from university. So, starting a self-healing journey was much needed. It helped me discover my inner self, acknowledge my past traumas, be intune with my body and just overall, be at peace with myself. Last week, I shared an article on spirituality, the different practices and positive impacts. I highly recommend reading if that is something that interests you.

Being kind to myself

Like the saying goes, we are our own worst enemy. That is notably the main theme in the psychological thriller movie “Black Swan”. In the film, Nina obsesses over the thought that a fellow ballerina is trying to sabotage her career while in reality, she’s doing that to herself. The main theme of the movie is that at the end of day, the only thing standing between ourself and our goals is our own ego. As a matter of fact, negative self-talk can influence the way we think and how we perceive ourselves. We are strong advocates for putting our thoughts into existence by either physically writing them down or verbally saying them out loud. So, talking to yourself in a kinder way will affect positively your self-confidence.

Cutting out negative people from my life and surrounding myself with positive energy

The last practice to improve your self-confidence is to surround yourself with people who hype you up. If you constantly stay around people who judge you and see the worst in you then yes, this will strongly impact the way you see yourself. Choosing to cut those people out of your life and surrounding yourself with people who love you and see the best in you will help you overcome your personal issues. Personally, having loving parents, supportive siblings and caring boyfriend has truly overweighted the toxic people at my school and university and enhanced my self-love.