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How to Improve Teens’ Self-Esteem
Learn to help improve teens’ self-esteem with these suggestions!
What is self-esteem?
Oxford Dictionary defines self-esteem as “confidence in one’s own worth or abilities; self-respect.”
Those with self-esteem are generally happier. They feel more accepted and are more likely to accept others. People with self-esteem are proud of what they have done and what they do.
Those with low self-esteem are much harder on themselves and don’t feel good about themselves.
Kids Health shares that self-esteem comes from people in our lives. When adults praise the good things young people do, those young people tend to feel better about themselves. It becomes difficult for teens to know their worth when the adults in their lives are always hard on them.
Bullying is also a major factor in teens’ self-esteem. The saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words could never hurt me” is a lie. Mean words can stick to a young person’s bones and affect how they think and feel about themselves.
Both of these things combined can cause teens to talk down on themselves. Saying things like, “I’m ugly,” or, “I’ll never be good at anything,” can seriously damage a teen’s mindset.
How Can Teens Boost Their Self-Esteem?
It’s never going to be too late to boost someone’s self-esteem. Kids Health mentions ways to raise self-esteem:
Be with people who treat you well. Some people tend to enjoy tearing others down. Others love to lift people up. Teens must earn to tell the difference with these kinds of people in their lives. It is important to choose friends who help you feel good about yourself. You should always be that type of person for those around you.
Say supportive things to yourself. Try not to be so critical of yourself. Write down affirmations you can say to yourself each morning. Read your new phrases often and see if you can reflect these same affirmations to those around you. Keep going until it’s no longer a habit.
Accept the imperfect. Always do your best. When you always feel the need to be perfect, doing anything less seems like failure. Let yourself feel good about what you can accomplish.
Set goals and work toward them. You must do things that are good for you in order to feel good about yourself. Make goals and stick to them. Make plans for how you will execute these goals.
Focus on what goes well. It’s easy to focus on what’s bad. Next time you find yourself worrying about what’s going wrong, find something that was good instead.
Give and help. Giving to others is one of the best ways to build self-esteem. Make it a habit to be pleasant and open-minded. When you do things that make a difference, your self-esteem grows.