Live Well: Maintaining Healthy Self-esteem

Your self-esteem can have a big impact on your life. It can affect how you make decisions, the quality of your relationships, and your physical and emotional wellbeing.

Key aspects of healthy self-esteem include:

• A clear grasp of your own abilities
• Realistic expectations of yourself
• Knowledge of your own needs—and the ability to express those needs

Maintaining healthy self-esteem

How can you keep your self-esteem at a healthy level?

Incorporate these practices into your daily life:

• Accept your whole self. Humans are complex beings. Recognize that you are unique—with your own strengths, weaknesses, talents, and imperfections—and accept yourself as you truly are. No better, no worse.
• Avoid negative self-talk. Thinking (and saying) negative things about yourself only serves to tear down your self-esteem. Try to recognize negative self-talk when it arises, and counter it with more positive thoughts.
• Stand up for yourself. Your feelings and needs have value, and you deserve to be heard.
• Try new things. Exploring new places, activities, foods, and so on can help you discover new things about yourself.
• Learn from your mistakes. We all make mistakes—every day. Try to learn from yours instead of beating yourself up over them.
• Do something nice for someone else. Helping another person can do a lot for your own self-esteem.
• Take care of yourself. Factors outside your control can chip away at your self-esteem. Practicing good self-care can help you be more resilient when challenges arise.

You are worth it

Devoting time to maintaining healthy self-esteem is one of the best investments you can make. You deserve it!