Confidence is your attitude toward yourself and your abilities. It can be extremely high, extremely low, or somewhere in between. While everyone has self-confidence issues occasionally, low self-esteem can make you feel uncomfortable in your skin, anxious and unproductive. If you’re seeking strategies to raise your confidence, you’ve come to the right spot. You might be able to identify certain characteristics that affect it (perhaps you’re being mistreated) or it could be a total mystery.

Problems with self-esteem can harm practically every area of life, including your relationships, friendships, career, and overall health. Luckily, there are ways you can go about increasing your self-esteem. And while everyone faces different problems, and there is no one formula for instantly improving your self-confidence, taking small steps in the right direction can be of great benefit.

Practice self-care

Caring for yourself can be anything that makes you feel good in your own skin. It can be a bubble bath, a cup of mint tea, following a healthy diet, or drinking a lot of water. However, for any of these aspects to work, you need to be consistent and determined.

For example, if you notice that having a skincare routine helps you feel amazing and better about yourself, do it more often. Create a schedule about when and how would you like to do it and stick to that. Get yourself some toner, oils, dark spot peel to ensure maximum skin comfort, or anything else that you may need, and enjoy yourself.

On the other hand, keep in mind that not everything that feels good is good for you. Stay away from alcohol and unhealthy foods in your daily life, and try to exercise and eat as healthy as your circumstances allow you to. Try to make yourself a weekly meal plan and exercise plan and try to stick to it as much as you can.

This way you will not only feel better because of smart food choices and endorphins, but your body will be healthy and more toned. Of course, you can have a glass of wine or a piece of cake from time to time, but try to keep it healthy as much as you can.

Be creative and expressive

When a person does not express themselves in any form, a lot of unpleasant feelings occur. Self-expression usually implies that you have something special inside of you that you want to share with the rest of the world. If you never express all of your positive and enthusiastic thoughts about your ideas, they will begin to accumulate and turn into negative emotions.

Drawing, painting, photographing, singing, designing and creating, and dressing up are all examples of ways to express yourself. The result is evident if you quit doing what makes you happy for any reason.

That’s why you should find the strength inside you to pick up the paintbrush and draw the portrait of your friend you swore you would, sing the song you enjoyed the most when you were younger, and even put on your favorite pearl necklace that made you feel like a Greek goddess or a 1960s movie star.

Never be concerned about what others may think, as they are likely insecure about something as well. And if someone else makes you feel bad about yourself, just ignore them and do what you love to do because your perspective is the only one that matters when it comes to your creativity and expression.

Change your perceptions

Allow yourself to make mistakes because everyone does. They don’t reflect you as a person; rather, they are a reflection of you who should’ve known better but didn’t. And that’s perfectly fine. We can’t always be flawless and know everything.

These memories from the past that you can’t seem to get out of your head are just that: memories from the past that don’t exist anywhere else but in your mind. Why bother if you can just refocus your mind on something that’s in the now?

Instead of dwelling on previous events that no longer exist, focus on the positive aspects of life and motivate yourself to improve. Consider the good things in your life and give yourself recognition for your accomplishments.

Stop seeking perfection and urge yourself to keep going because nobody else will do it for you if you don’t find the incentive to be stronger for yourself. If you’re having trouble figuring out how to motivate yourself and can’t seem to find it in yourself now, try self-discipline.

Final thoughts

Rather than fighting, rejecting, or being overcome by negative ideas or feelings, welcome them. You don’t have to like them; all you have to do is feel them. Negative ideas don’t have to be controlled, changed, or acted on. Reduce the power of negative thoughts and their influence on your behavior.

As you become more conscious of the beliefs and attitudes that are creating your poor self-esteem, you can contradict or change the way you think about them. Express yourself and care for your body and your mind as best as you can. This will help you accept your own value as a person. As your self-esteem grows, so will your self-assurance and self-perception.