You’re in university — a time when you’re trying to figure out who you are, what you want to do, and where you want to go.
But at the same time, it’s easy to feel like nothing is going right. You might not be doing as well in class as your friends or getting along with your roommates. You might be struggling with anxiety and depression. And on top of all that, there’s the pressure of such a big life transition!
The good news is that building self-esteem can help make dealing with these challenges easier. Here are five ways to start building self esteem right now:
Practice self-kindness.
- Recognize the good in yourself.
- Be kind to yourself.
- Take care of yourself.
- Stop comparing yourself to others.
- Don’t be too hard on yourself, and don’t be too easy on yourself either; find a balance between self-compassion and self-criticism that works for you personally.
Don’t compare yourself to others
One of the hardest things about being a student is the constant comparisons you make with other students. You look at your peers or even professors and think, “I’m not as good as them” or “I’ll never be as successful as that person”.
Nothing could be further from the truth! Comparing yourself to others is a complete waste of time, because it can’t give you an accurate representation of how talented or capable you are.
Sure, some people might appear to have more talent than others – but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily more talented. They could just be better at marketing themselves in a way that makes them seem like they’re smarter than they actually are! Also remember: your insides aren’t comparable to someone else’s outsides (and vice versa). Your journey isn’t comparable to anyone else’s journey either – every person has their own unique set of circumstances and strengths, which will affect their success rate accordingly.
Repeat affirmations to yourself every day
Building your self-esteem is also based on changing your self-talk. Self-talk is the voice that you hear inside your head, and it’s usually a negative one. If you want to boost your confidence and feel more powerful, you need to start talking to yourself in a more positive way. While doing this isn’t easy at first, it will become second nature over time if you keep practising.
To create an affirmation that works for you, think about something specific that happens during the day when someone compliments or makes fun of you—maybe they make eye contact with you in class or laugh at a joke that wasn’t too funny. Then write down what happened in detail: what was said or done? How did it make them look good (or bad)? What did others do after this happened? If there weren’t any witnesses around when something embarrassing happened, then use other situations where someone complimented or made fun of them instead—like ones from past experiences or even imagined scenarios created by reading books or watching TV shows! After writing everything down so thoroughly, try saying these thoughts out loud several times until they begin sounding familiar enough for people around campus not only to recognise but respond accordingly, too!
Take a step back and look at your life as a whole.
You are unique, and you have strengths. You have been able to do amazing things before, and you will be able to do them again. Take a step back and look at your life as a whole.
This may sound obvious or even silly, but it’s worth repeating: Don’t compare yourself to others. We all have our own distinct experiences that shape us into who we are today—and those experiences won’t necessarily match up with anyone else’s. Your friends might be more outgoing than you are, or perhaps one day, someone will share their struggles with depression or anxiety with you in an effort to connect with another person who understands what they’re going through (it’s likely happened already!). That doesn’t mean either of these people has more self-esteem than you do; it just means that they’ve found other ways of coping with their emotions and challenges in life than how YOU cope with things! There is no need for competition here; everyone has their own way of dealing with difficult situations—and since there isn’t any right way for everyone on Earth except ourselves (which would make each person equally unique), this means that no matter what kind of person someone seems like on paper or online…they’re still just as beautiful inside regardless!
It can also help if we think about what we CAN DO rather than focusing so much attention on all the things we can’t do well enough yet–because when something feels like an obstacle instead of being able to see its potential benefits.
Find gratitude for the things you are good at
One of the easiest ways to improve your self-esteem is by practising gratitude. Gratitude is a great way to help you see things more positively and appreciate what you have, rather than focusing on what you don’t have.
You can practice gratitude by noticing something that is going well in your life—no matter how small it may be. For example, if it’s a rainy day outside and all of your friends are busy or sick, remind yourself that at least it’s not snowing! Or maybe someone said something nice about one of your posts on social media—that’s awesome!
When we practice gratitude, we’re able to see that things aren’t always as bad as they seem and that even when they are hard, sometimes there are still good things happening too.
Recognise the people in your life that treat you well.
Another step to building self-esteem is recognizing the people in your life who treat you well. You have to be kind to yourself, and it’s not always easy. If someone has hurt or wronged you, it can be hard not to get caught up in those bad feelings and let them affect how you see yourself. But if you’re able to recognize the good things around you, they’ll become more obvious.
How do we do this? By being kinder toward ourselves than others would be (more on that later). And by trying new things—even if they don’t work out right away or at all. If a friend says something that hurts our feelings but we don’t let ourselves feel hurt because of it, then we’ve been kinder than they were!
When we look at ourselves from an outside perspective, it’s easy for us to fall into negative thought patterns about our own worthiness or value as human beings just by hearing other people talk about themselves negatively all the time without stopping them from doing so (or even worse: saying these things ourselves!).
However, there are many ways that one can be self-critical without being mean-spirited toward others who may also suffer under similar pressures; this includes recognizing when someone else has done something nice for us without giving them credit for doing so.”
You can build self-esteem by practising self-kindness, and finding gratitude for what you already have!
Building self-esteem is a lot like building a house. If you don’t have a solid foundation, it won’t matter how strong and beautiful the walls are—the whole thing will collapse.
In order to build yourself up, you need to start from the ground up. And what does that mean? That means taking care of yourself in ways that make sense for your particular situation and personality type!
- Be kind to yourself when you make mistakes (and when others do). For example, if your friend drops their phone on the ground and breaks it, would you shame them? Or would you say something like, “It’s okay! It happens!” Well, guess what? You’re also human! So treat yourself accordingly when something goes wrong; just try not to beat yourself up too much about it because we all have bad days sometimes.
- Find gratitude for what you already have rather than focusing on what you don’t have. Try writing down all of your blessings every night before bedtime and then reading through them out loud so you can hear how many amazing things there actually are in your life!
Try these tips for a week, and see how your energy levels improve. Remember: you are not alone in this journey! We all have different ways that work for us, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different things until you find something that works best. And remember that self-esteem is something we can always work on improving—it’s never too late or too early!