Healing Your Self Esteem Part 2

Healing your self esteem is just plain hard work. Sorry to break that to you. But I also know that you have what it takes inside of you to change your state and become a much happier and fulfilled person. After all there are so many famous people we know who have overcome extreme adversity in their lives to go on and become world changers – you are able to be one of those also.

Practical Steps to Healing

In Part 1 we looked at the benefits and some of the challenges of beginning the journey into self esteem wellness. I want to now give you a few practical things that helped me.

1.  I learnt how to become assertive in my behaviour and communication instead of passive or passive-aggressive. I have to say that this was one of the keys to boosting my self esteem.
2. I read books, lots and lots of books.  Books such as I’m Ok, You’re Ok by Thomas A. Harris, MD. Books that improved by self awareness, gave me insight and understanding into how people ticked, and enlarged my world view.
3. I learnt how to handle social situations that I found awkward. I planned out beforehand what I would do, what I would say when I introduced myself, had questions prepared I could ask people to get conversations going. After a while it wasn’t so scary and helped me feel much more confident.
4. I began to pay serious attention to my thought life and to catch myself thinking negative things. I wrote out affirmations that answered those negative thoughts.
5. I got counselling from people I trusted. I asked for their perspective on my world. Often it wasn’t as bad as I thought my world was.
6. I wrote down a vision of the kind of person I wanted to be, what was important to me, what my values were etc.
7. I’m not a journal keeper, but I did write poetry during this time, which helped me to express some of the really deep things.  Perhaps journal-ling would be a help to you.
8. There were some people that I actually needed to go and apologise to and ask for their forgiveness, because I knew that I had been an absolute snot. That was very freeing.

Make a plan for your healing. Be intentional about it. Write down the things you would like to change and find a way to go about changing them.

I would love to hear about strategies, activities and tips that have helped you to build your self esteem and confidence.

All the best on your journey to wellness and wholeness.

Fiona