Fix your self-concept and be truly happier

In this blogpost/video you will have answers to the following questions:

1. How does my self-concept affect me?
2. Have things from my childhood influenced my self-conscience?
3. How can I find symptoms of low self-esteem?
4. What can I do to positively influence my beliefs about myself?

How does your self-concept affect you?

So let’s start with how your self-concept affects you:
Your self-concept is what you believe about yourself on a deep level. It directly impacts self-confidence, self-worth, self-love and self-respect. The relationship you have with your self-concept has a direct influence on the level of satisfaction in life and happiness you can achieve. This makes it so important to understand self-concept and its workings.

Have things from your childhood influenced your self-conscience?

Self-confidence is something we develop in our childhood and our teen-years. The way our parents or caretakers interact with us and respond to our succeses and failures have direct impacts on our self-esteem and self-confidence as adults. So do experiences in school and other social environments. And let’s not forget the influence society as a whole can have on children. Many teens for example feel pressured to look a certain way and many of them are bullied or harassed online, which usually leads to a negative self-image.

How can you find symptoms of low self-esteem?

Look for patterns on your behaviour that you feel are not really normal, they may be an indication that you have low self-confidence:

• are you very sensitive to criticism or do people tell you that you are?
• do you not engage in social activities regularly, do you isolate yourself socially?
• do you have negative thoughts about yourself and/or your abilities on a regular basis?
• is it difficult for you to assert yourself or to challenge yourself?
• is it difficult for you to have eye-contact with people?
• is it difficult for you to have good posture when you’re with others?

If any of the above applies to you, then you could improve matters for yourself.

So, what can you do to positively influence your beliefs about yourself?

Here’s a list of several things you can do to improve your self-esteem:

• carefully practice verbally asserting yourself with people close to you.
• write down all things about you that you consider strengths.
• find something challenging to do regularly, for example every week or month.
• define small goals for yourself that you know you can realise and then go for them.
• practice good posture, stand tall and have eye-contact with a smile.
• stop comparing yourself to others, focus on your own personal strenghts and weaknesses and try to accept and respect yourself more.
• think of one positive thing you are proud of every day before sleep.
• praise yourself every morning when you look in the mirror and feel kindness towards yourself.

These are examples of simple strategies that psychologists propose to clients with low self-esteem and they are usually quite effective. If after several months of applying these actions you don’t feel any improvements, I suggest you find a professional mental health service to help you.

In conclusion I’d just like to say that no matter who you are, YOU HAVE WORTH. We all have. And we all just want one thing: to be as happy as possible. So please, if you have feelings of low self-worth, take action! Get yourself to a better level, find more happiness. You deserve it!