Want self-esteem activities for women and ideas for building high self-esteem? In this self-esteem article, we list the best self-esteem books and women’s self-esteem activities for building high self-esteem and confidence.
Boosting self-esteem is the first step towards a better life. If you’re looking to build high self-esteem, you’ll find self-esteem books, advice, information and women’s self-esteem activities to help you increase your self-esteem.
What Is Self-Esteem?
According to the best self-esteem definition, it is “an individual’s subjective evaluation of their own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame.”
What is self-esteem in Hindi? Self-esteem meaning in Hindi is आत्म सम्मान or aatm sammaan, while self-esteem in Marathi is स्वत: ची प्रशंसा or Svata: Cī praśansā.
Building your self-esteem and self-confidence is important in almost every aspect of our life, yet sadly, so many of us struggle with low self-esteem, meaning we never achieve our full potential or manage to create loving relationships with other people.
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The Curse Of Low Self-Esteem
According to this low-self-esteem definition, low self-esteem is characterized by a lack of confidence and feeling bad about oneself. People with low self-esteem often feel unlovable, awkward, or incompetent.
Because no one wants to feel this way, a lot of people are looking for self-esteem help, self-esteem information and self-esteem advice to learn how to overcome low self-esteem and build their confidence.
One of the best self-esteem quotes is by Maxwell Maltz who said, “Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-brake on.”
Self-esteem needs are basic human needs for love and acceptance, but if you’re someone who has experienced abuse, trauma or neglect in childhood, you may feel the need to constantly remind yourself that you’re a good human being and are worthy of respect and love.
The Benefits Of High Self-Esteem
High self-esteem and self-confidence are attractive qualities to have. People with high self-esteem and self-confidence tend to inspire confidence in others. So, building high self-esteem is the first step towards a better life.
From the quietly confident doctor whose opinion we implicitly trust, to the charismatic confidence of an inspiring speaker, people with high self-esteem and self-confidence have qualities that everyone admires.
After all, if you have high self-esteem, you will respect yourself and others, and be able to elicit respect from them as well. Having high self-esteem and self-respect will also help you improve your relationships with the people in your life.
In my childhood, I used to be very shy. I used to get nervous whenever someone used to ask me any question in school. That’s why I was often bullied and everyone used to pass comments using mean words.
I lived a very lonely childhood. It wasn’t bubbly and happy. Actually, I lost myself during my school days. But, suddenly everything changed when I entered college.
I made some good friends, gained confidence and life started changing. I started speaking up for myself and answering questions. And when I was selected as the Head Girl in college, I got back my confidence to live a successful life.
But, that was not it. I always used to be a curvy girl and body shaming was one thing that I dealt with regularly. I was used to all sorts of mean comments. However, I didn’t give up. I unlearned myths and made me stronger with time.
I would love to share a message with all my SHEROES sisters that one should never lose self-confidence. Self-belief can take you places.
Read Jisa’s story on the SHEROES App for women and share your own #TakeCharge Story on the SHEROES app.
Raising Self-Esteem In Adults
The good news is that raising self-esteem in adults is possible. However, you need to keep in mind that true self-esteem and self-confidence aren’t acquired overnight.
Rather, it is a gradual process and you can do self-esteem training, attend self-esteem classes and do self-esteem programs or a self-esteem course online to help boost your self-esteem and self-confidence.
All strong achievers have one characteristic overwhelmingly in common – they are self-confident. This free self-confidence quiz will help you discover your current level of self-confidence and how to take action toward building greater confidence in yourself.
When you take this free self-confidence assessment, you’ll learn about your areas of strength and how you can capitalize on them, as well as your areas of weakness and how you can immediately start to improve them to achieve faster success.
In addition, positive self-esteem activities and confidence-building exercises are important in helping you increase your self-esteem at work and in your personal relationships.
10 Best Self-Esteem Activities For Women
There are no quick fixes to boost self-esteem. But there are a number of ways to deal with low self-esteem, and having a sense of purpose and working towards a goal is one way to boost self-esteem.
Here’s a list of self-esteem activities for women to improve their self-esteem and self-confidence.
1. Read Self-Esteem Books For Women
While reading self-esteem books may not, by itself, help you increase self-esteem, these self-help activities can improve your self-awareness and emotional intelligence and help you understand the root causes of your low self-esteem.
The common thread that runs through these self-esteem books is that to heal ourselves and create healthy relationships, the most important quality we must cultivate in ourselves is self-love, self-worth and self-esteem.
- You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay
If you don’t love and respect yourself, there’s no way you can expect someone else to love and respect you. Louise Hay writes how we make ourselves ill by having thoughts of self-hatred.
Her self-help book is for everyone, man or woman, who needs to learn how to heal the wounds of the past – and we all have these wounds, whether we’re willing to admit it or not.
- A Woman’s Self-Esteem: Struggles and Triumphs in the Search for Identity by Nathaniel Branden
Nathaniel Branden has written extensively on the psychology of self-esteem and building self-esteem. This invaluable book offers self-esteem examples in the form of intimate stories of women who have struggled with self-esteem issues.
It also offers step-by-step guidance for women who want to break away from self-sabotaging patterns to transform themselves and create lives that are powerful, energized, and motivated.
You may find many more self-esteem books that will offer self-esteem exercises to heal your self-esteem issues. But these are two of the best self-esteem books for women and reading them will build your own awareness around self-esteem topics.
2. Learn To Love Yourself
Learning to love yourself is one of the best mental health activities and self-esteem activities for women you can start with.
Of course, this is easier said than done, because you may need to unlearn decades of early programming in order to learn healthier ways of relating to yourself.
However, today there are powerful healing modalities like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) that can help you create these changes quickly and without having to spend years in therapy and counselling.
3. Presentation Matters
We’ve often heard the saying “Clothes don’t make the (wo)man”. While this is largely true, what is also true is that how you dress does affect how you feel about yourself.
The manner in which you present yourself does impact the way you feel about yourself. This is because no one is more conscious of your physical appearance than you are. When you’re well-dressed, you’ll feel more confident and self-assured.
So use this strategy to your advantage by taking care of your personal appearance. This doesn’t mean you need to wear designer or branded clothes or be dressed like a mannequin.
But simple things such as bathing daily, wearing clean clothes, and wearing clothes that look good and are comfortable will help a long way in boosting your self-confidence.
4. Work Out Regularly
Along with your personal appearance and presentation, physical fitness has a huge effect on self-esteem and self-confidence, if only because of all the good hormones flowing through your body with regular exercise.
It is also natural for us women to feel insecure and unattractive when we’re out of shape. Women who are fit and healthy tend to be more confident than their counterparts.
You don’t have to undergo drastic weight loss or follow fad diets to feel better about yourself. You just have to learn how to be more accepting of your flaws and cultivate a healthier self-image.
A gentle, low-impact workout like yoga can alleviate depression and anxiety, improve your physical appearance, energize yourself, and make you feel like you’ve accomplished something positive.
5. Maintain Good Posture
Have you observed that self-confident people walk with their backs straight and their chest forward? Similarly, a person who lacks confidence is likely to walk or sit with slouched shoulders.
Studies have found that sitting up straight in your chair isn’t just good for your posture – it also gives you more confidence in your own thoughts.
So, our body posture can affect not only what others think about us, but also how we think about ourselves and the way we carry ourselves demonstrates confidence.
By practising good posture, you’ll automatically feel more confident. So go ahead and show the world that you’re confident. Not only will you feel more alert and empowered, but also make a positive impression on others.
6. Walk Faster
Just as it is with posture, the pace at which you walk goes a long way to portray and build your self-confidence. Experts believe that walking even 25% faster makes you look and feel more important.
A brisk walk can offer numerous health benefits. It can reduce your risk of developing a cold or the flu, help reduce anxiety, depression, and a negative mood. Walking can also boost self-esteem and reduce symptoms of social withdrawal.
Experts recommend that to experience these benefits, you should aim for 30 minutes of brisk walking or other moderate-intensity exercises three days a week. You can also break it up into three 10-minute walks every day.
People who are self-confident tend to walk quickly, so walking faster is one of the easiest self-confidence building exercises you can practice. Even if you aren’t in a hurry, you can increase your self-confidence by putting some pep in your step.
7. Practice Public Speaking
A self-confident person isn’t afraid to speak up and voice her opinion. On the other hand, a person who lacks self-confidence is usually tongue-tied and is afraid to speak up in a group.
Although you may be afraid that people will judge you for saying something stupid, this fear isn’t really justified. Generally, people are much more accepting than we imagine.
Remember that most people deal with the exact same fears that we do, so one of the best self-confidence exercises is to make an effort to speak up in group discussions. Learn how to calm your public speaking nerves and start speaking with confidence.
You could start speaking in groups you’re more comfortable with, such as with close friends, and then extend this to your workplace. Speaking in public is one of the best confidence-building activities you can practice.
8. Find Your Ikigai
A lot of low self-esteem issues stem from being in a profession or job we hate and are not good at. If you lack self-confidence you probably believe that you aren’t good at anything.
But this is not true. Remember that no one is perfect. Even the most confident people have insecurities. Do not allow yourself to be pushed into doing something you hate or you’re not good at.
Everyone is born with talents and strengths and is good at something. You could be good at art, music, writing or sports. One of the best ways of building high self-esteem and self-confidence is to find your Ikigai so you can identify your talents and excel at them.
You need to express yourself through your talents and develop hobbies that bring you joy. Start a personal development program to help you discover your strengths and talents and give yourself credit for them.
Following your passion and cultivating your hobbies and interests also has a therapeutic effect. This is because when you do something that brings you joy, it boosts your confidence and self-esteem.
9. Appreciate What You Have
Last but not least; be thankful for what you have. Focusing on what we lack also lead to feelings of inferiority. Remember… all of us lack something or the other.
By consciously acknowledging and appreciating what you do have helps you combat the feeling of being unsatisfied.
Writing a gratitude journal is one of the best ways to focus on the good things in your life. It will transform your attitude and your life with renewed energy, purpose, and motivation.
10. Practice EFT
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a healing modality based on energy psychology and the theory that our emotions and physical symptoms are linked to the body’s energy system.
Low self-esteem is often created by a belief that we are not worthy or deserving of the best that life has to offer. This EFT tapping practice by master EFT practitioner, Brad Yates, will help you overcome your feeling of unworthiness.
For professional help, connect on the Ask SHEROES free online counselling chat helpline for depression, relationships, careers, health issues and more.
I hope these self-empowerment activities, self-esteem tips and self-esteem activities for women will help in building healthy self-esteem and self-confidence, so you can live the life of your dreams.
Author Bio:
Priya Florence Shah is the Group Editor at SHEROES and author of Devi2Diva, an emotional self-care book for women.
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another good work Pryer. to say that focusing on your weakness disempowers you just hit the nail on its head.
often i have focused on my inabilities and they have depressed and made me feel bad the more. you have reterate some of the things i have read and leant latley about myself. thanks.
Women vs Men. See the differences http://ibmsem.wordpress.com/infographics/group-1/