Many people suffer from self-esteem issues because they don’t love themselves enough. They find it difficult to let go of people who have hurt them and said harsh words to them. If this is you, it’s time to grab the reins of your self-image and guide your life in a positive direction. Let’s have a look at some self-love practices that you can put into action to reconstruct your confidence.
Compassion for Others
Have you ever noticed how compassion for others blossoms the lotus of compassion for the self? We feel better about ourselves when we tread the path of compassion and mercy. This love spills over into love for ourselves. You focus on loving someone else because it feels good, and the act brings greater happiness into your life.
When you make a difference in the life of someone else, you contribute to your own feelings of well-being. One of the most valuable offerings that you can give to someone, you give without the expectation of a return. Through this strategy, we refocus the attention from ourselves to lifting up someone else. As you do this with greater frequency, you will see an improvement in your confidence.
Care for Yourself
You can overdo this, but we have to look at this as a balancing act. For those who invest tons of energy in others and still feel ineffective, you may find it beneficial to put some attention on yourself. This doesn’t have to become a selfish act. It only becomes a selfish act when it neglects and harms other people. In fact, self-care can ensure that you have enough to give other people.
Use this time to strengthen your weakest points. For example, you might feel like you need more rest. You can sleep longer to shore up these weaknesses so that you have more to give. Additionally, think about taking care of your mental health.
Invest in Yourself
If you can ever hope to have real confidence in yourself, you must invest in yourself through positive channels. You can do this through multiple directives, but some of the possibilities include:
- Learn an instrument
- Get into a new hobby
- Start a business
- Learn how to paint
- Take a yoga class
- Get involved in your community
Source: ShutterstockYou invest in yourself when you expend energy on your education to grow as a person in some way. Perhaps you want to feel more fit? If your lack of confidence stems from poor body image, you can improve yourself by sending the weight scale to the left rather than the right. Take control of the creative process because much of the fun comes from designing your own plan for betterment. You don’t have to do this based on someone else’s design.
Define Yourself
Too often, we let others write the story of our lives. We hand them the pencil to say whatever destructive things they want about us and treat it as written in stone. Don’t act like you don’t have an eraser. You can rewrite yourself into the image you desire at any point. It will inspire wonders and spark the confidence needed for you to live a healthier and more successful life.
As the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius once noted in his book, The Meditations,
“We love ourselves more than other people, but we care more about their opinion than our own.”
You have to learn not to let the opinions of others infect your own view of things. If this means removing toxic people from your life, then do it. Your confidence will thank you.
Self-Love Doesn’t Mean Tearing Others Down
Over the years, narcissistic people have given self-love a lousy reputation. Self-love only becomes harmful when you use it to harm others, or you tear others down, thinking of this as self-love. Don’t mistake it. Self-love focuses inward, rather than looking outward to harm others to get your self-love. If you have to get it from externals, you have an unstable form of self-love that is most likely not even self-love. This goes back to how we build ourselves up through building others up. Compassion makes us feel better than hatred.
You have to learn to compete with yourself rather than others. Everyone’s journey is unique. Look at where you last improved and express gratitude and happiness for your progress. While you may not be the best —yet—, you are better today than you were yesterday. That is where true achievement and self-love come from.
