Let’s discuss some different ways to build your self esteem. This seems like an ever present need as life goes on but we don’t always feel all right about ourselves. Sometimes bad feelings boil underneath the surface for years and years, and no one even recognizes it. This is obviously not a healthy situation. But beyond health, it is just not fun. It seems to me like the most important thing in life is to have positive self esteem, and everything should follow after that. Unfortunately, we are taught exactly the opposite as we come up in this world. Everything that shouldn’t be a priority is, and what should be the most important is relegated to a secondary status.

In building your self esteem, you are going to want to be a little flexible. It will inherently stretch you beyond your current mental and emotional comfort zones. That doesn’t mean it has to be scary, but only that you are going to have to try some new things. In terms of easy ways to build your self esteem, I can tell you that the easiest is probably to just do some positive affirmations. The only problem is that if this is going to stick and take hold you will have to do it very repetitively over a long period of time. So it is easy in the sense that who can’t repeat some phrases to themselves. But it is hard because you have to be very disciplined and maintain this for a long time.

So let’s look at some other ways to build self esteem. One that has worked particularly well for me is to just “do the right thing”. This simple technique is ancient. It’s recorded in most if not all of the old holy books, and you know what? It still works! That’s right: just by doing the right thing, being good to people, etc. you will start to have a better self esteem. If you don’t believe me, I think you need to analyze yourself a little more and see if you are avoiding doing something that you know you should do. Are you avoiding your responsibilities as a human being? I suspect so: peace comes when we do our duties as we are supposed to. At least, that is what I have seen to be true.

These are just a few scattered ideas. There are many more. In fact whole libraries could be filled with all the ideas on enhancing your self esteem that have been written in the self help books. But I am not so interested in that. Instead, let’s look at what is basic and effective. One of the oldest ways to build your self esteem is to achieve something in front of your peers. This may sound vain but it really works, at least temporarily. It is important to notch achievements onto your belt as life goes on. Whether it be in school, in work, on the athletic field, or in some other endeavor such as family life, we do get a pretty good jolt of good will when we accomplish something and others know about it. Others don’t have to know but that does often help it to really sink in. The positive reinforcement of our friends is vital to our self esteem.

As you can see, there is a common thread here, and it is this: good things lead to high self esteem. No one would dare to suggest that staying in bed for 14 hours a day is the sure road to feeling better about oneself. Instead, it is the exact opposite. It is really important that you dig yourself out of any hole you might find yourself in. Elicit the help of friends if you can, but by all means claw and dig your way out. Don’t think about it just get out and get out quick. Your peace of mind depends on it.

So these are just some of the myriad ways to build your self esteem. Another good one is to try to create positive emotions inside yourself. Most people don’t realize that this can be done but it can. Neuro-linguistic programming deals with this to some degree, though they can be a bit complicated sometimes. The basic premise is that you can kind of hypnotize yourself into feeling better. Replace old stale beliefs with new ones which value yourself. See if you can’t get some inner magic like this working for you. It will really only take some experimenting and maybe some meditating.

Whatever you do, just do something. Nothing should be more important than getting to live your life with good self esteem. Without it, you really have nothing and are just a ghost walking through a party. The party may be happening but you really can’t access it.