To work on yourself and your well-being, it is important to always do exercises to increase self-esteem. Confidence in yourself is one of the keys to living a fulfilling and happy life. Improving and strengthening self-esteem is certainly a long journey, and not always easy. 

You have to work a lot on your awareness, and it is certainly not a short or undemanding process. Increasing self-esteem should rather be a constant and daily work that we do on ourselves.

A stronger self-esteem makes us happier and more self-satisfied people on average. As we have said, it is not a short and simple job, and for this reason it can be useful to focus on a series of exercises to increase self-esteem to do every day and to apply to various life situations.

What Does Self-Esteem Mean?

On the definition of self-esteem, a very high volume could be written, with the banner “work in progress”, since it is still today the object of study by psychology. Wanting to synthesize as much as possible, it can be said that self-esteem is the set of judgments and beliefs that a person has about himself. Again, it can be said that self-esteem answers the question “How much am I worth?“.

Having good self-esteem means knowing yourself, being fully aware of your qualities and limitations and accepting yourself in every aspect. In a certain sense, it means loving yourself, so you take care of yourself, always trying to improve yourself with the awareness of deserving the best that life can offer. Conversely, having low self-esteem can be extremely problematic and cause us discomfort on many fronts of our existence.

How To Increase Self-Esteem?

Is increasing self-esteem an impossible feat? Absolutely not, on the contrary, it’s feasible, even if it’s not something we can buy (not even in ourselves) from one day to the next. There are several strategies that can teach you love and self-acceptance so that you can be more and more aware of your worth and potential.

It must be said that it is like a workout: to do it you should commit yourself every day, to get used to taking care of yourself correctly and thinking positively. Among these strategies, there are some exercises to improve self-esteem, simpler than you think. Try and you will see!

1. Focus On Your Success

One of the exercises to improve self-esteem is to value all the goals you have achieved, as well as becoming aware of your qualities. However strict you may be with yourself, you will certainly have done something beautiful in your life and/or reached a goal that required a lot of effort. You don’t need to have saved someone’s life, just think back to the actions for which, even shyly, you felt proud of yourself. Even small victories have great value!

2. Write Down Moments You’ve Been Happy About

Remind yourself of moments and episodes in which you have been happy and satisfied. This is also one of the exercises to improve self-esteem, as you keep effective memories and thus put positive energies back into circulation. 

Remembering moments when you felt happy in as much detail as possible helps you relive those memories and recharge yourself. Also, if possible, try to introduce those moments into your routine. Even if it was an evening with friends, a walk in nature or anything else. When you do something you love and are with people who make you feel good, your self-love (and therefore, your self-esteem) increases without you even realizing it.

3. Practice Gratitude

Among the exercises to improve self-esteem, there is undoubtedly also gratitude. It starts like this: every day, before you sleep, think about three things you’re grateful for. They can be small things, insignificant to others, but that have value to you. 

You could also create a gratitude journal, where you write down the things you feel grateful for each day. Not only will it be useful for you to recharge when you’re down, but you’ll realize that practicing gratitude helps you multiply joy and puts positive energy into circulation.

4. Make A List Of Your Qualities

The first of the exercises to improve self-esteem is to define the positive image of yourself. Just write the positive aspects of your character. Try to come up with at least 5 positive qualities or adjectives. This may seem difficult at first, because you’re probably used to being too strict. 

If you concentrate, you will see that you will find some qualities in you that you often forget you have because you only think about your flaws. Turn this list of yours into a post-it to keep an eye on: just re-read your qualities to regain self-confidence in the “no” moments.

5. Learn To Love Your Body

Self-acceptance, i.e. accepting and loving everything about yourself, imperfections and defects included, is one of the fundamental steps in (re) building your self-esteem. Try turning the mirror into an indulgent ally who loves you. 

Look in the mirror and start looking at your face, then at your body. Observe yourself and try to identify the details that you like best. Then focus on your flaws and try to reconsider them with a less critical eye.

6. Often Do Something You Love Doing

As mentioned above, start with the things you love to do and are good at. It’s a great exercise to improve self-esteem. Make another list. This time, not about your qualities, but about everything you like to do and feel you’re good at, then make sure you practice them consistently. The best thing is to integrate them into your daily routine, so that it won’t be an effort to remember to repeat them. 

It can also be minimal actions which, however, are able to significantly improve your mood, so you will also improve your emotional perception of yourself. It could be your favorite sport, a walk, cooking something you are greedy for, reading or re-reading your favorite novel, listening to the music you love…

7. Write Down Moments When You Like Your Yourself

Speaking of positive self-definition, get into the habit of making notes (as always, a notebook is fine, but also notes on your smartphone) in which you identify those situations in which you liked yourself. 

They can also be small things or not particularly significant gestures. What matters is that they send you back a positive image of yourself. So you can fall asleep on positive thoughts, and this will also affect your rest and feelings of well-being while you sleep.

8. Challenge Yourself With New Endeavors

Last but not least, in addition to consolidating the things you enjoy and feel good into your routine, try challenging yourself. Trying something new that might cost you a bit of effort is one of the exercises to improve self-esteem. 

Attempting small tests every day that take you out of your comfort zone will make you feel courageous and will lead you to discover that you are able to overcome your limits (or those you think you have).