This is a thought provoking exercise, read and then think deeply on each topic and what it means to you.

As stated in the Confidently Improving Self Esteem article there are many factors affecting your self esteem but, we want to focus on the factors that you can change. They just so happen to be the most important factors.

1.     Self image

The best way to improve your self-image is by knowing and understanding who you are.

• Reflect on everything that makes you who you are: your personality, your actions, your bad habits, your talents, your style, your motives and your desires, etc. write them down. This makes it easier to keep up with. Affirm your own worth based off these traits.
• Identify all of your strengths and weaknesses and then develop them.
• Learn to accept who you are, flaws and all.
• Eliminate self-criticism and introduce self-compassion by giving yourself two compliments every time you think one bad thought about yourself.
• Be your biggest fan.
• Appreciate your qualities, your experiences, and your growth
• Know that the self image you have for self out weighs anyone else’s image of you.

2.     Self care

Spend time treating yourself like the Goddess that you are!

• Be selfish and self-centered take time out of your life to be the most important person in your life.
• Preserve your peace- you do not always have to save the day or involve your self in the actions of others, say NO, get more sleep, stay in your comfort zone, be unavailable and place your needs above the needs of others.
• Reduce your exposure to risk factors by removing yourself from all environments that trigger you to devalue yourself or to allow others to devalue you.
• Set standards and boundaries that will benefit you.
• Do activities that interest you.
• Be the first person you think about each morning and the last person you think about each night

3.     Experience

Experience has a huge impact on your self-esteem, and although we cannot control all of our experiences we can control risk exposure, reoccurrence, how we react following each experience, and our mentality around each experience. We do this by:

• Reflecting on each experience and the role we played.
• Forgiving ourselves first and others later, placing our healing above others
• Understanding others role in the experience and where they may have been coming from, so that we aren’t becoming victims
• Staying out of situations that may lower our self worth.
• Intentionally creating experiences that make you feel good about yourself. Example finishing college because you hold college graduates in high regard.
• Always improving and growing.

4.     Knowledge

Understanding is essential for development, and becoming the best version of yourself will definitely help you to improve your self-esteem. Understanding why, for instance, the world has a negative view of some of your traits allows you to dissect it deeply and draw your own conclusions about those same traits. Knowledge allows you to truly understand yourself and the world around you making it easier to accept whom you are. Its also just nice to have amazing conversations with others, and to easily solve problems. You can gain more knowledge by:

·      Reading

·      Researching

·      Talking to others

·      Reflecting or Thinking deeply about a subject

These are a few ways you can improve your self-esteem. Spend this month really thinking about ways to improve your self esteem them implement them into your every day life. Happy growing babes!