how to help someone with low self esteem

How to Help Someone With Low Self Esteem, A Loved One’s Guide

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It can be incredibly hard to see someone close to you suffering. If a loved one near you is struggling with issues of self-esteem, you may feel helpless–or sometimes even upset or angry.

There is no proper protocol for addressing self-esteem within the confines of a close relationship. Self-esteem issues can be a relationship killer, prompting changes in how you handle conflict and communication. With depression on the rise, emotional states are becoming an increasingly focused-on factor of modern relationships.

While the crux of your partner’s self-esteem issues inevitably lie with them, there are things you can do to help. Support and positive encouragement, among other contributions, can be hugely helpful to someone struggling with low-self esteem.

If you want to know how to help someone with low self-esteem, read on as we talk through just what you can do.

Be There to Offer Support

Loving someone with low self-esteem can be difficult, but the most essential thing you can do is also the easiest.

Offering your time and an ear to your loved one can make a huge difference in making them feel appreciated and heard. Making concrete plans and setting time aside for your loved one is a great way to help show them that their time and company is valued. People with low self-esteem often lack the initiative to instigate plans with others.

While spending time with your loved one, you should discuss with them their life and talk about whatever they feel comfortable talking about. You should listen closely to everything they have to say and maintain eye contact. Really listen.

In turn, you should respond honestly and from the heart. This kind of attentive and honest communication can help to make people with low self-esteem valued and promote a deep and open relationship.

Don’t be afraid to ask your loved one about their problems and what may be wrong. If they ask for advice, give them your honest advice on the matter.

Caring attention can do a lot for someone’s self-esteem and can help to build someone up and guide them towards better self-love, and a better life overall.

Avoid Lecturing or Belittling

More than anything, a person with low self-esteem wants to be heard and feel valued. As tempting as it may be to try to tell them how they should think about things, you should avoid doing so.

You can seriously risk alienating the person you’re trying to help if you attempt to forcefully guide their behavior, or tell them how to think. Instead of disagreeing with a person’s complaints about themselves, attempt to dig deeper into why they feel this way. This might provoke a more significant conversation.

You should be there to affirm their feelings and allow them to be heard, not disagree with them on their feelings. Feeling heard can help an individual feel empowered and make steps towards further progress.

Express & Relate to the Individual

Sharing personal stories of your own struggles is a great way to make another person feel like they are not alone in their strife.

We all live with our inner voices, and it is difficult to know what is normal or abnormal. A person with low self-esteem may feel as if those around them never feel the doubts and fears that they do. If you can discuss your own experiences with the problems they are facing, they may find great comfort in the realization that they are not alone in these struggles.

Individuals with low self-esteem frequently view themselves as outsiders or abnormal. Helping to illuminate the false nature of this belief can give an individual great relief.

Talking to someone about the way you talk and think to yourself can help them understand a more positive inner voice. Model an inner voice that shows the support you’d give a dear friend or loved one, not an abusive one.

Recognize the Realities

Issues of self-esteem are complicated and frequently deep-rooted. Ultimately, self-esteem is a personal matter, and you should recognize that you may not be able to help someone with low self-esteem. The best you can do is to offer encouragement and support.

Loving someone with low self-esteem can be a complicated matter, and you should be sure to value your own feelings and role in the process. If you don’t, you have the potential to make matters worse later.

People with low self-esteem can become easily needy. Establishing a proper sense of boundaries is essential in keeping your relationship with your loved one strong and trusting.

You may feel guilty about establishing boundaries, but these matters help to keep you fully engaged. The last thing you want is to begin to begrudge your loved one for their behavior. They eventually will notice this feeling and this can make matters worse.

Don’t be afraid to gently establish your obligation to work, family, and other friends in your discussions with your loved one. Don’t be afraid to limit the hours when they can call to reach you–or you may receive a 3 AM call when they need to be heard.

Do not accept abuse, verbal or otherwise, from your loved one. Low self-esteem does not give a person a pass to be cruel, and it is important for your loved one to understand this if they are going to improve.

Working to maintain a healthy, mutually beneficial relationship can be its own huge help in aiding your loved one’s return to a healthy mental state.

How to Help Someone with Low Self-Esteem

Helping to build someone up can be a tricky but rewarding task. The least we can do in this crazy world is to help take care of one another, and knowing how to help someone with low self-esteem can make a world of difference in the life of someone who needs it.

Remember to be patient with those struggling–the path to self-love can be a long and bumpy one. With your help, your loved one can and will get there.

Looking for may ways to promote and improve self-esteem? Check out our blog for the best tips, tricks, and advice.

meditation for self-confidence

5 Ways to Use Meditation for Self-Confidence and Improved Self-Esteem

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The potential of meditation holds no bounds.

It’s been used in a wide variety of mental health practices. At its crux is the method of letting go of the “self.”

For many, meditation is an easy way to ground themselves spiritually. They can use it to create a more balanced and peaceful lifestyle and, most importantly, manage daily stress.

Your self-esteem plays a huge role in your mental health, your professional success, and even your physical well-being. For these reasons, it’s essential to maintain a positive sense of self.

Adding meditation for self-confidence into your daily regimen could be a great solution if you need help with confidence. Read on to learn more.

Implementing Meditation for Self-Confidence

Some have described their roadblock with increasing confidence and self-esteem as a struggle with quieting the inner voices that tell them they aren’t good enough.

Meditations for self-esteem can help combat those negative thoughts. It will quiet the inner voices and allow you to train your brain into letting go of the negative and focusing on the positive.

Here are five easy ways to get started on practicing meditation for self-love.

1. Empower Yourself

Begin each meditation session with some focus words or phrases that will guide your session towards self-confidence. Try imagining how you would speak to a child or even your younger self. How would you encourage them?

Focus on short and simple statements that pack a powerful punch. Think of key phrases that you can easily agree with while meditating.

This will allow you to more easily implement it throughout the rest of your day.

2. Recite Positive Affirmations

Meditation for self-confidence doesn’t need to be a formal event that you carve out for your day. Simply practicing the act of positive affirmations can do wonders if you’re feeling down on yourself and need a pick me up.

Write down several phrases that resonate with you. Recite them throughout the day to remind yourself of how amazing and capable you are.

Here are a few examples:

  • I don’t sweat the small stuff.
  • I can and I will.
  • I overcome fears by following my dreams.
  • I am in charge of how I feel today and I am choosing happiness.

Make one of these your mantra and you’ll feel your self-confidence soar.

3. Harnessing Failure into Growth

One of the most common causes of low self-confidence is past failures. Making mistakes, experiencing embarrassing moments, and even failures of epic proportions are all a part of personal growth.

Those times of failure can be long gone, but they may have serious residual effects. They can prevent us from moving forward and can have detrimental consequences.

Try and think of a time when you failed that still haunts you today. You may not think it, but that failure may keep you from moving forward. Areas of your life like a positive career move or finding love may be tinged with discomfort or sadness.

Practice a form of meditation where you resurface those feelings in times of failure. Take this time to redefine what that experience meant.

Why did you fail? What did you learn from that experience? How are you a smarter and stronger human being because of that moment?

Everything happens for a reason, especially failures. Take those moments and turn them into a guide on how to practice self-love in the future.

4. Consider the “What If?”

Building off of learning from failures, it’s equally important to consider the question of “what if?”

What if you got the promotion? What if you found the love of your life? What if you had an amazing night because you stopped worrying about your appearance?

This statement can also be implemented into your daily meditation practice. Ask yourself questions like:

  • What if you followed these meditative guides to take you on a path towards self-love?
  • What if you implemented these tools to find a confident new self?
  • What if these meditations towards self-confidence led you on a path to a happier and healthier you?

Consider these questions when you’re considering your meditative practice and your personal definition of self-confidence.

5. Envision Your Confidence

Similar to empowering yourself and positive affirmations, visualization does wonders to meditation.

What does confidence mean to you? Confidence has a wide range of definitions to different individuals.

It could mean feeling comfortable in your own skin. It could mean having a sense of calm in the workplace. It could also mean having the courage to ask someone on a date.

No matter your definition, envision that confidence. Think of a time when you were feeling especially confident. Think of a character or personality that exudes confidence in a way you would like.

Harness those feelings of confidence into this meditation to eliminate your insecurities. The more you implement this practice, the more natural those feelings will become. In time, they’ll spill into your everyday life.

Next Steps to Self-Worth Meditation

The key to any practice is diligence and discipline. Engaging in just one self-worth meditation session isn’t enough.

Practice meditation for self-confidence as often as you can. Think of this as a full lifestyle change that will affect your day-to-day life. It’s a top priority to practice as often as possible.

Ideally, these tips will lead you to a healthier and more confident lifestyle quickly and efficiently.

What’s great about purposeful meditation is that you’ll notice the positive benefits of your practice immediately. You’ll begin to be more aware of your emotions and will start acting out your confident actions daily.

Soon, these actions and feelings will become second nature–a new part of your personality and lifestyle.

Self Esteem Solutions offers a variety of tips and resources to implement positive self-esteem practices into your everyday life. Check out our resources and guides today for more information on how to practice self-love.