1 ‐ Eat Some Chocolate

Be careful here. This is not a free license to pig out on some unhealthy, highly processed candy bars or 2,000 calorie desserts. The self‐esteem boosting move here is to eat some natural dark chocolate, without added sugar, preservatives and other ingredients. The chemicals in dark chocolate cause the same reaction in your brain that you experience when you feel loved and appreciated.

Studies show you only need to eat two or three small pieces of dark chocolate to boost your self‐esteem and feelings of overall well‐being.

2 – Keep a Self‐Esteem Journal

One of the easiest ways to recognize what is causing you to feel poorly about yourself is to track your experiences. As soon as you begin to question yourself and think negative thoughts about who you are and what you are capable of, break out your journal. The things going on in your environment may be unconsciously causing your low self‐esteem.

What can you smell? What do you see? Who are you spending time with? What physical environment are you in right now? Did you just try to accomplish something and fell short of success? Keep these and any other thoughts and feelings in your self‐esteem journal. You should also record what is happening when you feel high levels of self‐love and self ‐appreciation. You may be surprised to find there are patterns which you can avoid to keep from second‐guessing yourself and knocking your self‐esteem.

3 – Practice Gratitude and Self‐Love in the Morning and at Night

When you are daily grateful for the things around you, you will find yourself feeling better about who you are and where you are in the world. Each morning when you arise and just before you lay your head on your pillow, think about the wonderful things you currently enjoy. These can be friends, experiences, gifts or abilities. Then think about the wonderful gifts you are grateful for in your past, even if they may not be present now.

Doing this each morning and each evening is a simple way to develop powerful self‐esteem which can get you through the day, no matter what life throws at you.

4 – Set Goals And Create Routines, Rather Than Just Taking the Day As It Comes

Routines, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and patterns are like nirvana to the brain. Your brain loves recognizing patterns and then habitually and automatically responding.  When you have some purpose to your day, the odds that you will complete that day with a sense of self‐worth and self ‐appreciation are higher than if you simply let life happen. The more routines, goals and SOPs you can create in your life, the better it is for your self‐esteem.

5 – Make a Positive Spin

We all fail. We are never going to be 100% successful at anything, and that is just a part of being human. If you were to write down every failure and lack of success you have experienced in your life, you would probably be staggered by the quantity. However, this is no reason for knocking yourself for feeling bad about who you are in any way. Failures are simply things that happen. They do not quantify you are as a person.

The next time you experience a failure or lack of success that has you questioning your abilities and knocking your self‐esteem, think positively. There are probably incredible lessons you can learn from that failure. Be happy your failure has taught you these lessons, and learn from them in the future. There is always some positive spin to the many failures life is going to hand you, and when you learn to look for them, your self‐esteem improves.

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