“If you can love, love yourself first.”
Charles Bukowski
Have you ever wondered what believing in yourself or loving yourself actually means? Does believing in yourself magically lead you to success? Well, pain is inevitable in life, but high self-esteem certainly gives you the courage to overcome the negativity. Ultimately leading you to fulfillment, happiness, and success! Today we are here to inspire you to love yourself a bit more and accept yourself as you are! Trust us, when you are satisfied from within, everything else will fall into place! There is plenty of material available on improving self-esteem. But with this article, we are going to discuss an important aspect. How can journaling help you boost your self-esteem, and what are some journal prompts for self-esteem?
Before we continue, we want to establish that self-esteem differs slightly from self-confidence. Keep reading as we dissect this topic in great detail!
What is Self-Esteem in Psychology?
According to a prominent psychologist, Rosenberg, “Self-esteem can be described as an attitude of a person towards themselves. It can be positive or negative, favorable or unfavorable.” It also means how you evaluate your thoughts, feelings, and actions concerning your overall being. Self-esteem measures how much you value, accept and approve of yourself. Certain factors can have an impact on your self-esteem. These include:
- Genetics
- Personality
- Society
- Life Experiences
- Age
- Health
Self-esteem is not considered something rigid. It is flexible and measurable. You can work on it and your self-esteem will improve!
Want to know how your self-esteem stacks up? We have dug out a free pdf of the self-esteem scale by Rosenberg!
Self-Esteem Vs. Self-Confidence
People might confuse these two, and they are often used interchangeably. But there are differences between them! Self-confidence is trusting one’s own abilities in a certain situation. It is more related to the outside environment than a person’s inner values.
Suppose you are good at riding a bike. When someone asks you to do it, you are likely to hop on it and show your skill. It is because you have “self-confidence” that you can ride the bike.
However, self-esteem primarily relates to your inner self. It is a somewhat stable belief about one’s worth. A person can have a lot of self-confidence in a specific skill or area while having low self-esteem.
Signs of Low Self-Esteem
Although self-esteem is not definitive, certain signs can indicate one has low self-esteem. These signs are apparent in actions, thought patterns, and feelings. If you see or experience the following signs, you need to work on elevating your self-esteem:
- Being overly critical toward yourself.
- Taking a negative perspective towards life.
- Ignoring successes and focusing on your failures.
- Thinking that you don’t deserve happiness or love.
- Fear of failure and rejection.
- Avoiding new challenges in life.
- Not being able to take criticism.
- Hating your attributes or traits.
- Being extremely sensitive to others’ opinions and remarks.
- Blaming yourself for external circumstances.
- Trying to please others unconditionally.
- Doubting your decisions.
- Difficulty in forming healthy boundaries with people.
- Struggling in social situations.
- Constantly comparing yourself with others.
Check out this informational YouTube video to learn more about the inner workings of self-esteem:
What Builds High Self-Esteem?
A lot of attention in research is given to low self-esteem. But talking about the characteristics of high self-esteem is equally important.
People with higher self-esteem are not afraid to accept their personalities, looks, and traits. They are curious, open to new experiences, and enjoy life more. Such people tend to seek opportunities, grow and improve their life.
Characteristics of High Self-Esteem
As with low self-esteem, there are certain characteristics of a person with high self-worth. Some of them are:
- Appreciating themselves and others.
- Having an open mindset.
- Maintaining healthy relationships and boundaries with people.
- Seeing the world with a realistic perspective.
- Knowing and forming their own values.
- Talking assertively.
- Not excessively dwelling on the past or worrying about the future (being mindful and in the present moment).
- Creating a balance between work, personal life, relationships, and hobbies.
- Accepting others without trying to change or control them.
Can Journaling Help With Low Self-Esteem?
Self-esteem is crucial for enhancing your quality of life, increasing success, and achieving your goals. Fortunately, a technique as simple as writing a journal can help elevate your self-esteem.
Don’t worry if you are not in the habit of journaling. We’ll introduce journal prompts for low self-esteem to guide you!
How Journaling Improves Low Self-Esteem
According to a clinical psychologist, Christina G. Hibbert, there are four levels of working through low self-esteem. These include:
- Self-Awareness
- Self-Acceptance
- Self-love
- Self-Worth
Journaling is a tool to express your feelings, thoughts, and insights. You can write freely about stuff that comes to mind without fearing judgment.
Now, if we look at these levels, journaling can better equip you to move through each stage. Such as knowing yourself better, challenging negative thoughts, developing a compassionate perspective, and appreciating your true self.
Furthermore, writing positively impacts a person’s overall psychological health. Here is how maintaining a journal can help you overcome low self-esteem:
Emotional Catharsis
Journal writing helps you express all pent-up emotions, fears, pain, and conflicts. Writing things down frees up your mind.
This process is cathartic. It relaxes your mind and body. Sometimes, negative emotions are rooted in our subconscious and we are unaware. Once you let it all out, you get closer to knowing yourself.
Cognitive Processing
Letting negative thoughts float in your mind can be frustrating. This reduces productivity and drives you further away from emotional clarity.
While writing, you make sense of things. When you brain dump, you can look at the page and understand what’s meaningful. Hence you can easily disregard the useless information creating a mental block.
Confronting Negative Feelings
Usually, we try to mask our negative feelings and fears. However, this requires extra effort, further stressing the mind and body.
Journaling provides a way to get in touch with negative feelings. Confronting them develops acceptance and understanding.
What Should I Write in my Self-Esteem Journal?
By this point, we hope you are convinced to start a self-esteem journal! So, here are some ideas of what to write in it.
We recommend journaling for increasing self-esteem because it is all rooted in the mindset! The purpose of writing is to reflect on the positive aspects.
Write About Your Strengths
Every individual has a unique set of strengths. You can reflect on and write about your strengths. Write your strength and the behavior, action, or situation that best describes it.
Talk to Your Internal Critic
We are our own worst critics! With journaling, allow your compassionate self to reflect on the internal critic. Here is how you can do it
- Write the criticism (the negative thought you direct towards yourself).
- Leave a blank space below it.
- After writing all the critical remarks, go back and reflect on them.
- Now write the answer to those remarks in the blank space but from a sympathetic point of view.
Example
Critique: I made a mistake again. I am such a stupid.
Sympathetic Reflection: Everyone makes mistakes, but I am learning and improving.
Reflect on Your Achievements in Life
It is quite natural to remember failures more than our achievements. But, reflecting on your accomplishments will make you realize your self-worth.
Brag a Little
We criticize ourselves too much, so why not try bragging a little? It can be a fun and useful strategy to build your self-esteem. Talk about your best qualities, greatest achievements, and special talents.
For instance, consider these prompts:
- I am an expert in ……
- I am extremely good at ……
- People admire me because ……
10 Powerful Journal Prompts to Boost Self-Esteem
If you are new to journaling, ideas might flow slowly. But there is no need to get intimidated by blank paper! Use these ten journal prompts for low self-esteem as your starting point:
- What do I love/ admire/ like about myself?
- What are my skills?
- When do I feel the happiest? Why?
- What are my three strengths?
- What am I grateful for in my life?
- What characteristics make me unique?
- Why am I a valuable being?
- What would I like to do if I didn’t fear failure?
- Do I accept myself as I am? Why not?
- What can I do to become more compassionate towards myself?
You can also see journal prompts for confidence to work on your self-confidence!
Book Suggestions to Improve Self-Esteem
Self-esteem keeps developing from childhood, but you can always work to enhance it. Good reading material is the most effective way to gain knowledge on it. We have made a list of the greatest books on self-esteem that you should take advantage of!
The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem by Nathaniel Branden
Why not hear the techniques for building self-esteem from a trained psychologist? Nathaniel has incorporated his study and experiences of clinical practice in this book. The author mentions six pillars, which are the six action-oriented strategies for elevating self-esteem.
The good part is that this book benefits people of different backgrounds equally. From teachers, and therapists to parents and teens, the book has useful insights for everyone.
Ten Days to Self-Esteem by David D. Burns
Do you need to get to the root of low self-esteem? Hint: It all leads back to our thought patterns! Ten Days to Self-Esteem is about setting a goal and consciously challenging your preconceived notions!
David Burns has eloquently described how our thoughts impact our mood, behaviors, ideas, and even our perspective toward ourselves. Therefore, all you need are simple techniques to change your mindset.
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
This self-help book is a New York Times best-seller, and rightfully so! The Gifts of Imperfection pleasantly invites everyone to embrace their shortcomings. And also to find meaning in the best possible way.
It is okay to feel low or unworthy at times. But the key is to get out of this self-destructive mindset and deal with it. Self-acceptance is the first step to becoming complete. Read the book and enjoy the excellent guidance presented by the author.
Online Communities/Websites To Help With Low Self-Esteem
Feeling overwhelmed? Support groups are a go-to technique suggested by experts to deal with challenges in life. You can find some great online support groups for managing low self-esteem! Here are a few options:
Herd
The herd is a website with multiple online support groups. These also include self-esteem and self-awareness. One such weekly group is self-discovery and awareness. It is focused on getting to know yourself and developing healthier bonds with others.
Meetup
Meetup is another great site that connects people with similar interests. There are multiple groups on confidence and self-esteem for you to choose from. You can join the group you like and even meet up in person with the people near you.
Support Groups
The site features a platform for like-minded people to join and form groups. You can also request access to any group on the site. Post questions, talk to members, or share your stories! The people here are non-judgemental and will help you overcome any obstacles.
Final Thoughts
How can you value anything else if you don’t value yourself? Self-esteem is the fundamental aspect of finding peace and satisfaction in life. It depends on numerous factors, from genetics to life experiences.
Fortunately, it is not a rigid belief but a skill you can enhance. Journaling is a powerful tool for working on self-acceptance and self-esteem. Writing gives you an outlet for emotional catharsis and managing your thought processes.
The key is not to fear the blank pages, as you can always use journal prompts for low self-esteem to get started.
Along with daily journaling, reading good books on self-worth and joining an online community will yield amazing benefits!
