One of the best things about life is being able to put ourselves first. Sure, it is always good to help others and ensure that our actions aren’t negatively affecting the people around us, but at the end of the day, we need to live our lives so that they benefit us and place us at number one. By making sure we do what is right for us and making decisions that will benefit us and our life, we can then start to truly love ourselves and feel good about our life choices.

However, loving ourselves isn’t always as easy as it should be. That’s because it can sometimes be easier to find reasons to hate ourselves and put ourselves down. More often than not, this causes low self-esteem and poor self-confidence. Low self-esteem can have many negative effects, especially on our mental health. If we suffer with it for long periods of time, it can transform into anxiety disorders.

If you are suffering from low self-esteem, then you will no doubt be busy trying to find a solution to all of these negative feelings. Most experts believe that the best way to deal with any self doubts is to find the cause of them and tackle them head on. So, this begs the question: what are the causes of low self-esteem? Here are some of the most common ones and what you can do about them.

Smile!

Toxic Relationships:

Bad relationships can be the cause of a lot of grief and heartache. Unfortunately, they can also often lead directly to feelings of self-doubt and low confidence. Not only that, though, but it can also cause issues with trust. When we enter into a relationship with someone, we put all of our trust into them. When they abuse this trust, we can often feel worthless and like our trust means nothing. However, that is very much not the case. The best thing that you can do in this situation, is to get out of the toxic relationship as soon as you can.

Even if you still love your partner, it is important that you remove yourself from the relationship so that your confidence and mental health isn’t damaged any further. Just keep on telling yourself that you deserve someone who truly loves you and won’t throw your trust back in your face. Don’t forget that this toxicity doesn’t only apply to romantic relationships. Friendships can often turn bad. If you think that your friends are bringing you down and causing you self-esteem problems, it could be a good idea to move on from them.

#byebye

A Poor Body Image:

Some people struggle with their body image, and they find that their poor body confidence ends up dragging down their self-confidence as a whole. If this sounds like your main problem, then it is worth trying to change how you see yourself and working on improving your body confidence. There are a few things that you can do which will help this. First of all, you should stop comparing your body to others. We are all made differently, so there are bound to be lots of different shapes out there. And there isn’t a perfect or ideal one – that is just something that the media came up with to try and sell more gossip magazines!

As well as not comparing yourself to others, you should also ignore what the media has to say about body shapes and sizes. They only print what they do to sell more copies of magazines and newspapers, and get more clicks on their sites! One other way that you can give your body image a boost is to surround yourself with people who love you for who you are and who will fill you with confidence. If you find that the people who you hang out with are trying to get you to change the way you look or the clothes you wear, they aren’t doing you any good and they certainly aren’t your friends.

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The Aging Process:

You aren’t born with self-confidence issues. Sometimes, they come and go throughout life. Some women find that even if they were super confident throughout their twenties and thirties, once they hit middle age, they lose all of their self-esteem. And that is largely due to the aging process. No one wants to get older. Not only that, but many people find it hard to deal with the physical changes that their body undergoes as they start to grow old. So, there’s no wonder that many people try to hide the tell-tale signs of aging, such as under eye lines and crow’s feet. If you find that you are feeling down about getting old, you might find that changing your mindset to a more positive one really helps improve your feelings and helps you come to terms with aging.

Always try and make the best of the aging process!

 

Feeling Guilty:

We all make mistakes as we go through life, but some of those mistakes seem to haunt us for longer than others. Having this guilt hang around our heads constantly can get us down and will eventually lead to very poor self-esteem. If at all possible, you need to shake away the guilt. One way around these negative feelings is to try and think of all of the positive things that came from making these mistakes. For instance, perhaps a particular mistake actually opened up some doors for you in your life and were able to bring you more opportunities. Plus, it is important to remember that mistakes can be learned from and help you grow and develop as a better person. I’m sure that some good came from your mistakes. Focus on this positivity and forget about the guilty feelings!

What weighs you down? Most of us carry around stuff that we no longer need. Typically, people hold on to feelings of fear, guilt, worry, disappointments or regrets. Maybe we hold on https://t.co/WZcwqvJRSR #Therapy pic.twitter.com/GCf8QvOona

— Carrie (@_carrienet_) April 19, 2018

 

Setting Goals That Are Too Big:

Another problem that most people have to deal with is a self-imposed one. The majority of us set ourselves targets and goals in life to stay as productive and motivated as possible. Then, when we achieve them, we can feel proud and successful. However, it is very important that when you do think about our life goals and targets, that they aren’t too big and unachievable. Otherwise, they will be impossible for you to reach, and you will end up extremely frustrated and unfulfilled in the process.

As a result, you may end up thinking that you are not really good enough. Eventually, those thoughts will lead to poor self-confidence and self-esteem. So, the best way to tackle this is to prevent these thoughts in the first place. Rather than setting yourself goals that are exceptionally high, you should consider reducing them to make them more achievable. That way, you can feel good when you work towards them rather than beating yourself up every time you fail.

Bullseye!

Traumatic Experiences:

Sometimes people go through traumatic life experiences and, even though they are able to make a full recovery, they are often left plagued by low self-esteem. The best way around this is to sign up for some therapy sessions. During each session, you will be able to speak to a therapist about your ordeal, and they will help you come to terms with any PTSD or resulting self-confidence issues.

Living life with low self esteem is no way to live life. Begin to tackle your issues and watch yourself blossom!

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