I have no self worth
What Are the Signs to Look For and How to Deal with It
Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors
In this Article
- What is Low Self-Esteem?
- Signs of Low Self-Esteem
- Dealing with Low Self-Esteem
What is Low Self-Esteem?
Low self-esteem is when someone lacks confidence about who they are and what they can do. They often feel incompetent, unloved, or inadequate. People who struggle with low self-esteem are consistently afraid about making mistakes or letting other people down.
Having self-esteem issues can be detrimental to your health and negatively affect your personal and professional relationships. There are many reasons why you may have low self-esteem — your genes, how and where you grew up, and other life circumstances all play a role.
A major factor of low self-esteem, however, comes from your own mental state. Your inner voice, or the thoughts in your head, can be constantly telling you that you are not good enough or worth anything, even if there is evidence to the contrary. Negative thinking in general is linked to low self-worth and low self-esteem.
Signs of Low Self-Esteem
There are several signs that either you or someone you know may be struggling with low self-esteem. Those signs of low self-esteem include:
Sensitivity to Criticism
If you have low self-esteem you may be extra sensitive to criticism, whether from others or yourself. You see it only as reinforcing your flaws and confirming that you are incapable of doing anything right.
Social Withdrawal
Declining invitations to go to a party or meet up with friends, canceling scheduled plans last-minute, and generally not wanting to be around others are signs of low self-esteem. You may not have any desire to hold a conversation or talk about your life because it will only reinforce the depression and anxiety you are already experiencing.
Hostility
For someone with low self-esteem, lashing out or becoming aggressive towards others is a defense mechanism.
If you feel that you are about to be exposed or criticized, attacking whoever might criticize you can be a sign of low self-esteem.
Excessive Preoccupation with Personal Problems
Consistently worrying about your own personal issues takes up a lot of time for someone with low self-esteem. You may struggle to help or empathize with someone else’s problems because you are too preoccupied with your own.
Physical Symptoms
Low self-esteem has been shown to lead to mental and physical health issues like depression, anxiety, and anorexia. It can also lead to unhealthy habits like smoking tobacco, alcohol abuse, or drug use.
Dealing with Low Self-Esteem
You can overcome low self-esteem with the right support, mindset, and change in behaviors. Start with these steps to begin improving your self-esteem:
Identify Troubling Conditions and Situations
Take a moment to think about certain conditions and situations in your life that seem to always deflate your self-esteem.
It could be giving a work presentation, dealing with a difficult family member or friend, or facing a life-changing event, like a job loss or a move.
Become Aware of Your Thoughts and Beliefs
After you’ve identified the times in your life where you have felt low self-esteem, evaluate your thoughts about them. How are you interpreting what happened? These thoughts could be either positive, negative, or neutral. They can be based on facts or irrational and false ideas.
If you take a moment to notice what you are thinking, you can begin to understand whether or not your reactions to what has happened are appropriate and useful.
Challenge Negative or Inaccurate Thoughts
It is important to ask yourself whether your thoughts are consistent with facts or logic. There could be another explanation for a situation that is truer than your interpretation. Sometimes it is hard to break from long-held beliefs that have become part of your reality.
Understand that it can take time and patience to overcome any negative preconceived notions toward your life that you’ve built up.
Adjust your mindset
You’ve been able to identify the times where you’ve felt a blow to your self-esteem. You’ve become self-aware about how and why you have the thoughts and feelings towards those events. Now you can take a step back and analyze those thoughts and emotions. You now have the power to change your thought patterns to raise your self-esteem.
Remember to think and feel hopeful statements, focus on the positive aspects of all situations, and not be afraid to relabel upsetting thoughts. And most importantly, don’t hesitate to forgive yourself. No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. It doesn’t make you a bad person—it just makes you human.
The Real Reason Your Self Worth is Low - and How to Fix It
Photo by Nic Huerta.
Deep down, believe you just aren’t as good as other people? Tried positive thinking and pushing yourself to try new things, but still have low self worth?
The mistake we make when it comes to inner worth
The biggest mistake we make about self worth is we think it is just a thought.
That if we just change our thoughts that we are not worthy, we’ll be better.
Negative thoughts are actually a symptom of low self worth, not a cause.
When we are sure we can ‘think’ ourselves into having esteem, we are mistaking self worth for low self confidence.
Low self-confidence vs low self-worth
Low confidence comes from present day challenges, like a job we don’t have the full skillset for, or something we have actually messed up in the past and are worried we will mess up again, like a presentation.
Our low confidence is rational. And we can then find rational ways to navigate it – get help on the speech from a colleague, or find a mentor.
Low self-worth is not rational. We can have the best job going, good health, tons of money, and still feel worthless. We are convinced we can’t change, that we will keep making the same mistakes again and again.
And low self-worth is not based on present day challenges, either.
So what is low self-worth then, really?
By: brett jordan
Low self-worth stems from unresolved past experiences and emotions.
Instead of a thought, it’s a belief. Those past experiences led to negative beliefs about the world.
And if there was one emotion that drives low self-worth, it is shame. We feel ashamed of who we are and what we experienced.
The real triggers for low self worth
The experiences that lead to having no self-esteem are:
Childhood abuse.
One of the most common reasons for low self worth is experiencing physical or sexual abuse as a child. In an attempt to understand what is happening, a child blames him or herself.
Other childhood trauma.
This can look like a parent or sibling dying, a parent leaving suddenly, losing your home, being bullied, or anything that deeply affected your sense of self and sense of safety.
ACE’s.
Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are a psychological term for very difficult things children live through that might not always qualify as ‘trauma’. This can include things like neglect, growing up in poverty, an alcoholic or sick parent, one parent being violent to the other, a family member going to jail, and your parents divorcing.
Poor parenting.
Blaming all our misery on our parents is not the best tactic. Often parents did the best they can, but didn’t have the right information.
But it is true that poor parenting— frequent punishments and criticism, harsh standards, not being shown enough affection — is connected to low self-esteem.
The Joesph Rowntree Foundation, in a report on low self-esteem, states that, “the strongest influences upon self-esteem are the individual’s parents. Parenting style, physical and particularly sexual abuse play a significant role.”
Poor attachment.
Attachment theory believe that in order to grow up to be an adult who can have healthy, trusting relationships, you need a caregiver in your early years who you can trust to always be there for you and accept you. Without this, we grow up not only with problems connecting to others, but with low self-esteem.
Negative core beliefs.
Again, a lack of inner worth is driven by a set of beliefs that we are no good, all created by experiences like the above. Negative core beliefs sound like:
- everyone else is better than me
- I am unlovable
- if anyone knew the real me nobody would want to know me
- something inside of me is broken beyond repair.
But I have only had low self-worth since recently
By: Kumar’s Edit
You had a breakup, and now you have no self worth. “I was very confident until that narcissist ruined my life,” you tell yourself.
This way of thinking is actually typical in people with low self worth.
Creating a false history, constantly re-writing events, playing the victim and blaming others is a way to avoid facing our long history of inner pain.
Facing up to the fact that we’ve been struggling to feel good most of our lives and deep down don’t like ourselves takes a lot of courage. This cycle of denial and blame can be easier.
But it leads to more pain in the long run. Until we deal head-on with our past, we will always be running from our very selves, and creating the same difficult pattern again and again.
A 2018 study showed that in fact people with low self-esteem actually sabotage relationships with their poor skills at asking for support. Backhanded methods like whining, acting sad, and sulking lead to negative responses from partners.
What does low self-worth lead to?
Common red flags of low self worth are:
- difficulty with intimacy and relationships
- defensiveness and blaming others
- a lack of life purpose
- poor personal boundaries
- treading water with your career
- addictions – alcohol abuse, party drugs, overeating
- eating disorders
- secret self-harm
- suicidal thinking
- victim mentality
- anxiety and depression.
What can actually help me like and value myself?
For starters let’s look at what WON’T help. Positive thinking, pushing yourself harder, pretending you feel better about yourself than you do, ignoring how you feel and hoping it will just go away.
Low self-worth has deep roots, and deep roots require committed digging. There are methods you can start working with yourself as soon as today. These include
- stream of consciousness journalling
- mindfulness
- self compassion
- learning to set boundaries
- a gratitude practice
- self help books.
But to truly move forward it’s highly advised to seek support. A professional counsellor or psychotherapist creates a safe space for you to work through what is behind your low self worth. He or she will also help you with integrating new ways of relating and being, that gently but surely raise your esteem.
Ready to get serious about getting some self worth? We connect you with London’s top talk therapists in central Locations.
Not in London or the UK? Use our booking platform to find a UK-wide registered therapist or talk from anywhere with online therapy.
Still have a question about self worth or want to share your personal experience with other readers? Use the comment box below. Note that all comments are moderated to protect our readers and we do not allow advertising. Also note that this is not a free therapy service.
Where does low self-esteem really come from and how to fix it?
Health
Low self-esteem (which is formed due to childhood traumas, biological characteristics and bad life experiences) can be dealt with. The scientific director of the psychological center "Quality of Life", a specialist in the field of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy Alexander Erichev told Sobaka.Ru what steps will help to do this.
Reasons for low self-esteem
People with low self-esteem always have negative core beliefs about themselves.
They appear in the process of life experience - including if a person has faced a large number of punishments, prohibitions, insults, neglect. The first group of such beliefs is associated with defectiveness ("I'm somehow not like that"), the second - with helplessness ("I'm weak") and the third - with the lack of love ("they don't like me").
Negative beliefs often arise when childhood is not satisfied basic needs. First of all, the need for love and acceptance. For example, at the time of the birth of a child, maternal feelings did not awaken at the mother, and the father generally disappeared in an unknown direction. Another situation is emotional deprivation from parents. For example, they were not used to expressing warm feelings, were less emotional than other families.
Quite often people suffer from low self-esteem, who seemed to have quite good support in the family, but got into a situation of prolonged bullying. For example, at school, such a situation can seriously change the perception of oneself.
The man, remembering the time of persecution, says that he felt fear and helplessness. He was in a state of chronic stress for a very long time, and this negative experience stuck with him.
When a person's self-esteem is distorted, he finds even more evidence in events that he is bad
There are also biological preconditions for low self-esteem to become fixed in a person. For example, a dandelion baby and an orchid baby can be born in the same family. "Dandelion" will grow through the asphalt and will be less sensitive to environmental factors. Such a child will more easily cope with the same bullying. And the orchid child, who, for biological reasons, is more vulnerable and shy, will not be able to resolve this situation, perhaps he will not even seek support from his parents. We must not forget that we all have different types of nervous system. We are different from each other even at birth, and then life also leaves its serious imprint. The production of hormones changes, stress reactions are fixed.
Distortions in personal thinking play a huge role in our self-esteem. We all perceive the same situation differently. Recent studies show that even our memories should not be trusted, because they are seriously distorted, including under the influence of our emotions. So, if a person has a distorted personal self-esteem, and he feels weak, helpless, defective and lazy, then he will also perceive all the events that happen to him in a distorted way. And find more and more evidence that he is bad.
One person with low self-esteem will avoid contact with the opposite sex out of fear, while another will have a huge number of casual relationships
What bad thoughts about ourselves lead to
in addition, the person himself tries to protect himself from them by a set of rules. That is, he seeks to prevent the confirmation of his fears and fears. For example, if he thinks that he is unloved, then what strategies of behavior will he demonstrate? They can be completely opposite.
One will avoid contact with the opposite sex for fear of being rejected anyway. The other will choose a different behavior: on the contrary, he will have a huge number of casual connections, and he will perceive each acquaintance as a trophy. In appearance, he will seem confident and impudent, but in fact, behind this behavior, hide his negative attitudes towards himself. Such rules that a person has created for himself can be different. For example, a person decides that he must always be polite. Or if he is criticized, it immediately means that he is bad. And if he doesn't try his best, he won't achieve anything.
A person with low self-esteem attributes all failures to himself, and success to chance
To assess your self-esteem, ask yourself a series of questions. Has your life experience taught you to value yourself for who you are? Do you have a good opinion of yourself? Do you take good care of yourself and take care of yourself? Do you like yourself? Do you value both your strengths and weaknesses equally? Are you quite satisfied? Do you feel entitled to other people's attention and time? Do you judge yourself the same way you judge others – no more, no less? Are you more inclined to encourage yourself than engage in self-criticism?
When working on self-esteem, one should not strive for it to become inflated and fly away into space.
This is also not good. When we deliberately make unrealistic demands of ourselves and declare something like “I am the king of the world,” the more often reality tells us that something is wrong with our beliefs about ourselves. High self-esteem is often unstable, so external circumstances can easily unsettle a person. And you need to strive first of all for stability and learn to support yourself.
A person is more likely to conditionally “get” depression or an anxiety disorder if he attributes all failures to himself, and attributes all positive things to chance. Namely, this is usually done by a person with low self-esteem.
Unfounded criticism in your address is easy to track and stop
What to do? Stop criticizing yourself, punish yourself
Psychotherapists distinguish several modes, that is, emotional states, which we enter from time to time. One of the unhealthy is the regime of a critical or punishing parent.
In it, we force ourselves to experience feelings of inferiority and guilt, point out that we owe something. At the same time, we criticize for such trifles for which we would never scold others. And we punish in those moments when we really need help.
You can easily see how this mode turns on. He additionally supports low self-esteem or even lowers it even more. For example, when you say to yourself: “Could have done better”, “Why is this not so good?”, “Is that all you did?”, “Others can, and you can”. You also present the results of your work as some kind of nonsense. Others praise you, but you think: “No, it seemed to them, I just got lucky.”
Learn to turn off your inner critic mode and be more supportive of yourself
The good news is that we can easily detect and stop unreasonable self-criticism and devaluation in ourselves. This skill is quite possible to develop even without the help of a psychotherapist.
Although it can take a decent amount of time. Try to observe your critical parent for at least a week. You will most likely notice that he appears even when you shouldn't be scolding yourself.
Try to translate self-criticism into self-compassion. Instead of the desire to punish and condemn yourself, you should switch to the desire to correct the situation and achieve a better result. Instead of looking to the past, look to the future and try to figure out what can be done now. Shift the focus from your mistakes to your strengths and resources, and instead of frustration, anger, and anxiety, try to be supportive of yourself.
Learn to express emotions, both negative and positive
Stand up for your boundaries and rights
Develop assertiveness - the ability to stand up for your boundaries and rights so as not to destroy someone else's personal space. It is believed that assertive behavior quite clearly correlates with adequate self-esteem.
What does it include? Open and sincere expression of positive emotions, as well as open (but adequate) expression of negative ones. We need to learn how to properly express our negative emotions - this is very important. Assertiveness also includes the ability to self-defense and the ability to say “no”. Quite often, when we feel anxious and helpless inside, we agree to things that are obviously unpleasant for us. And then we begin to blame ourselves: “How could you, you definitely had to refuse, why didn’t you refuse, you could pull yourself together!” Assertiveness also includes initiative, the ability to offer, ask, respect one’s own dignity - now this is beautifully called such a term as “proactivity”.
Often we can't say "no" to a person and end up blaming ourselves for it even more
Practice assertive behavior other than "You're a rag, come on!" , but in the style of "You're worried, but let's try to take a small step now." It is also worth praising yourself for trying, even if it has not yet been successful.
For example, you failed to deny, although you tried to do so. Or you said “no” but the other person insisted that you say “yes”. But this is already a reason to tell yourself that you have practically succeeded, although not yet completely.
Take care of your needs
Learn to take care of yourself and your needs (again, without overstepping other people's boundaries). This is probably the most difficult advice, because it requires a fairly good level of awareness. You can learn this slowly - you feel that you want to drink water and drink it. Try to listen to more ambiguous needs and feel your desires.
Imagine praising yourself as your favorite child
Learn self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is the extent to which we are aware of our ability to cope with certain circumstances. If we feel that the world is so inexplicable and cruel that we cannot do anything, then naturally we will evaluate ourselves worse. If we perceive our ability to act, this gives us significant help and support.
For me, a good example of self-efficacy is independent travel. At first you are scared, and then you get the feeling that the world around you is quite friendly, that you can easily deal with the transport network and find yourself a place to sleep.
Support yourself and celebrate your achievements
It is important that support and praise in your address does not turn into something like: "I'm so cool." Think about what you can support yourself for today? What good did you do during the day? Imagine that you yourself, as your beloved child, say good words. At the same time, praise can be not only for certain successful actions. For example, I survived a difficult situation, I coped with it - this is also a reason for praise. It will be good if it becomes your tradition to notice your achievements.
Build goals in accordance with personal values
To reinforce an adequate and stable self-esteem, you need to learn to look for your values.
Note that values are not goals. For example, buying a car is a goal. And what could be the value here? Freedom of movement, travel. The goal can be achieved and after that it will not be. And the value is unattainable, this is a certain stage of the path. It is very important to understand what your values are and, if possible, build your life in this direction. But do not turn it into a radical search for "one's destiny." This is a dangerous and wrong situation.
Some of our values may conflict with each other. For example, it is important for you to travel and develop, while you dream of children. Then at some point you will have to learn how to travel with children, and not in splendid isolation. In addition, values may change throughout life. Do not be afraid of this - the main thing is to be flexible. Also try to get together with the people closest to you and describe your values and goals. You can turn it into a tradition.
Do not set yourself global, hard-to-reach goals and don't focus on the funds you don't have.
It is better to gradually complicate the tasks than to immediately set the bar too high. And cheer yourself on the way to their implementation.
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Author:
Katerina Reznikova,
Low self-esteem: where does it come from and what to do with it?
People with low self-esteem have a hard time - including at work. It is difficult to believe in yourself, to say “no”, to take praise personally. What is the joy of work?
We believe that productivity is higher for those who are comfortable at work. Low self-esteem is one of the causes of discomfort, and it needs to be worked on. That is why we wrote this text. It contains not only practical advice on what to do with low self-esteem, but also theory - you cannot do without it in this topic.
How do you know that you adequately evaluate yourself? Where does low self-esteem come from? What to do if your subordinates underestimate themselves? A psychologist helped Clover figure this out Nelli Yakimova .
— When I hear that someone's self-esteem is too low or too high, I wonder: is there a way to measure self-esteem, or is it all subjective? Let’s say I don’t understand whether my self-esteem is adequate or not, what should I do?
- Don't look for an external scale to check against, but listen to yourself. The main sign of adequate self-esteem is acceptance of yourself in the moment without trying to change. Other signs are the ability to trust and rely on your feelings, creativity, independence, willingness to admit your mistakes and correct them, generosity, flexibility, the ability to dialogue and cooperate.
— And inadequate?
- Constant doubts, unrealistic, often naive ideas about oneself, others and the world as a whole, fear of change, the desire to control everything, hostility, defensive behavior, or, conversely, the desire to adapt to others, to be convenient for them.
- I read that self-esteem is not something stable: it changes under the influence of external factors.
Today a person may think that he is capable of anything, but tomorrow a failure occurs, and he does not believe in himself. Then time passes, and confidence reappears. It turns out that there is no stably low or stably high self-esteem?
— “Self-esteem of a healthy person” is generally stable: he knows that he is worthy of love and respect, that he is good and valuable in himself, regardless of his achievements and successes. He is confident that he has the right to say “no” and do as he sees fit. This does not mean that such a person is bulletproof. His self-esteem can fluctuate under the influence of internal crises and external events - for example, a divorce or layoffs from work. But healthy self-esteem is restored when the crisis is over, either on your own or with the help of a specialist. By the way, good self-support skills and the ability to accept help are also markers of adequate self-esteem.
The self-esteem of a person with narcissistic traits is subject to noticeable fluctuations.
Such a person is highly dependent on external evaluation, reacts extremely painfully to criticism. His sense of self is highly polarized: either I am a star and the king of the world, or a nonentity and the last loser. It is very difficult for him to restore self-respect after major failures, because it is shameful to ask for help (“he failed”). Self-support comes down to devaluing what you want (“I didn’t really want to”) or other people (“I am surrounded by idiots”).
— How does low self-esteem manifest outwardly? Let's say I'm a leader. How can I understand that my subordinate underestimates himself?
- A person with low self-esteem constantly compares himself with others - and not in his favor. He makes decisions with difficulty, reacts extremely painfully to criticism, expects approval and praise from others, but can hardly rely on positive feedback. He spends a lot of energy trying to please others and please them. It is difficult for him to refuse, so he often does what he does not like and does not suit.
If we talk about external appearances, then a person with low self-esteem will not choose a job that interests him, will not apply for good positions. Rather, he prefers the one with which, in his opinion, he can handle.
In severe cases, low self-esteem can lead to depression, nervous breakdowns and addictions.
— Where does low self-esteem come from?
— The foundation of our self-esteem is laid in early childhood. The strength of this foundation depends on how the parents perceived the person, with what eyes they looked at him. If from birth the baby was a source of joy for them, they sincerely admired him, praised and recognized his achievements, the child will feel significant and unconditionally loved.
If parental love was conditional, if mom or dad constantly criticized the child (“you are bad, sloppy, stupid”, etc.) and compared him with others, he will grow up feeling that he is not good enough. In adulthood, he will try to hide his "worthlessness" and do everything to achieve the approval of others.
If the foundation was initially fragile - with gaping holes in the place where there should be self-confidence and a sense of self-worth, it will be very difficult to build something stable on it.
Of course, not only parents are involved in the formation of self-esteem. Throughout life, we receive a lot of feedback about who we are, what are our strengths and weaknesses. If the authors of these statements are authoritative for us, their opinion will form the next brick on the basis of our knowledge of ourselves. Later, our achievements and successes are laid on this foundation.
The upper part of this "building" is the ability of a person to accept himself, not to reject the uncomfortable or unloved sides of his personality.
— What else affects self-esteem? Is it possible to change it when you have already matured?
— Self-esteem is subjected to severe trials during periods of crises — life or age. At this time, our idea of ourselves and the world is changing, it is, as it were, being calibrated.
A good example is adolescence. During periods of major life changes, our self-confidence can also be shaken. Self-esteem can be influenced by the microenvironment. For example, an intellectually gifted child from the provinces feels like a star at school, but then enters a university in the capital, where there are a whole sky of such stars, and he has to reconsider his opinion about himself.
- I just want to ask about the competition - in schools and universities in IT specialties it is quite high. Because of this, some often compare themselves to others and want to constantly prove that they are the smartest. They argue about and without, they perceive everyone as rivals. Why is this happening?
— An aggravated attitude to competition, the desire to win at any cost also comes from childhood. Most likely, such a child received the message “be the first” from the parents. They could say, “A four is not a mark. You can do better. Be first or don't be at all.
" Perhaps in childhood, such a child had to fight with brothers or sisters for the attention of parents or compete with one of the older relatives. Sometimes adults forget about the abyss separating them from children and start competing with kids in earnest. Of course, a child always loses in such a competition, and this can be very painful for him.
Categoricalness in disputes, unwillingness to listen to the arguments of others is a sign of a child's black and white picture of the world, where there is no place for shades and halftones, but only good and bad, right and wrong.
In order to form a request for change, a person needs to realize that something is wrong with him. Such fierce debaters need to go quite a long way for this. It is others who may suffer from their rudeness and categoricalness - they themselves do not see this as a problem.
By the way, irritation, disgust, envy towards others are often markers that a person does not accept himself and rejects something in himself.
If you tend to judge others, it is not enough just to stop this process. It is necessary to understand why it is so arranged for you and what exactly, again, you are projecting onto others. When you manage to accept this rejected part of yourself, your tolerance will increase by itself.
- People with low self-esteem are constantly worried that they are underperforming, that everyone thinks badly of them. They can go to work with a temperature or sit on sick leave, but work from home. How should a manager deal with such employees? To be productive, but not burned out due to excessive load.
- The manager needs to give such employees positive feedback - about what they are good at, what they are especially good at. Criticism is best kept to a minimum: a person with low self-esteem is a severe critic of himself. It is better to give comments in the form of “what would I have done differently”, not forgetting to add what seems effective in the work of the subordinate.
Sometimes in a relationship with such an employee, the manager has to take on parental functions. Say, if a subordinate went to work with a temperature, it makes sense to send him home by order. A person with low self-esteem cannot resolve this on his own. Sometimes it is important that this permission is issued by an external authority figure. But you need to keep in mind that the leader, in general, is not obliged to do this. And it’s good if such an employee takes responsibility for his condition and seeks professional help.
— Does it seem to a person who is going to see a psychologist, , that his problems are not worth the attention of a therapist?
— If a person does not feel valuable and significant, he, of course, will feel that way in the psychotherapist's office. Still: so much attention, and all to him. This can cause feelings of anxiety, shame, guilt.
— What to do in such a situation?
— The best thing to do is to tell a specialist about your experiences.
He knows how to deal with this information.
- Is it possible to work on self-esteem without outside help?
— If you realize that you have low self-esteem, and you are not satisfied with this, it is best to contact a psychotherapist. Cultivating a sense of self-worth is a long and painstaking task. Alone, without the participation of another person who is friendly towards you, this is difficult to do.
But some things can be done without outside help.
Get to know the real you . Ask yourself questions. Notice your feelings, thoughts, desires, bodily sensations without trying to criticize, evaluate yourself or somehow change your behavior. Just watch your inner life flow. Paradoxically, it is when a person looks at himself honestly and without judgment, accepts himself, he acquires the ability to change, grow and develop.
Develop self-support skills. Praise yourself for accomplishments and acquired skills - even those that seem insignificant to you.
