5 Ways to Increase Your Self-Worth

What is Your Self-Worth?

Your self-worth is the value which you place on yourself. It is your acknowledgement that you deserve more and that you are good enough. Do you sabotage opportunities which come your way, because you feel that you’re not good enough? Or do you aim high in life, setting yourself goals because you know that you deserve more?

Your self-worth is slightly different to your self-esteem. Which in comparison is what you think, feel and believe about yourself. Your self-esteem can change quite often, depending on the situation. For example if you received a compliment, your self-esteem would increase.

The Benefits of Increasing Your Self-Worth

When you love yourself, you take pride in who you are and what you have to offer. Unfortunately it seems as though a lot of people have a low self-worth. In order for yours to flourish, you need to work on yourself first. If you do not understand how to appreciate yourself and your worth, how do you expect others to? By building your self-worth life becomes simpler. You won’t drag yourself down over little mistakes or for not reaching perfection. By placing a high value on yourself you are less likely to look to others for attention and validation. Most importantly, by increasing your self-worth you will be happier!

“Sometimes you have to forget what you feel and remember what you’re worth”

So now we know what self-worth is and its wonderful benefits, but how do we increase it? Below I have shared some easy and effective ways to improve and maintain a high self-worth.

Positive Thinking

Don’t underestimate the power of positive thinking. Having the right mindset can have magnificent benefits on your self-worth. Your mind controls your thoughts, your behaviours and your habits- which means you have the power to change the way you perceive things. A brilliant way to practice positive thinking is to use affirmations. Affirmations can help you develop a more positive perception of yourself and your life, especially if made into a morning ritual or habit.

Conquer Your Inner Critic

Sometimes it seems like we have two inner voices. A positive voice which supports our desires and a critical voice which makes us feel bad about ourselves. When we listen to our inner critic and its negative comments we harm our self-worth. Instead we must try to see this voice as an enemy rather than a true point of view. A helpful exercise is to write down your inner critic in second person. You can then work out where the voice originated from. For example “you’re annoying” might be your sibling’s voice from childhood. Which your inner critic has taken with you to adulthood. Once you understand where the voice has come from, you can work on letting it go.

Create a Positivity Journal

Creating a positivity journal is a great and fun way to increase your self-worth. Firstly, you get to treat yourself to a cute journal, which you will then fill with positive words such as affirmations or a daily gratitude list. Try listing all of the compliments you received today and all of the compliments you gave to others. The ideas are endless! This journal will always be there when you need a little pick me up!

Surround Yourself with Positive Influences

It will be difficult to increase your self-worth if you are surrounded by negative influences. These influences could be an unsupportive person, who dismisses your ideas, or someone who only inputs negativity. Try to limit your time spent with anyone who drags you down. You deserve to be surrounded by people who make you feel happy and who support your life. Negative influences could also come through the media. Think about your Instagram feed, do you follow accounts which make you feel happy or do their images make you feel inadequate? Put your needs first by surrounding yourself with positive influences.

Focus on Your Own Journey

One thing which we are all guilty of doing is comparing ourselves to others. By doing this we steal the happiness and pride from our own accomplishments. Life becomes a lot easier when realise that not everything is a competition. There will always be someone who is wealthier, smarter or faster than you – but that doesn’t matter. Comparing yourself to others is damaging. To increase your self-worth, you must stay focused on your own journey.

Your self-worth comes from one thing, knowing that you are worthy. Thank you for reading! I hope you’ve found these points helpful.

Last Updated on February 27, 2024