The Link Between Self Esteem and Your Overall Health

Self-esteem refers to the opinion you have of yourself. While self-esteem may seem like an unnecessary thing to worry or think about, having high or low self-esteem could be having a bigger impact on you than you think.

Many of us may have heard of the importance of loving yourself and being your own biggest cheerleader, but what does that actually look like on a daily basis? What happens when you have low self-esteem? 

In this blog, our expert team at The Modalities Group located in Bowie, Maryland, answers these questions by telling you what positive self-esteem looks like and what can happen if your self-esteem is too low.

Taking a closer look at self-esteem

While self-esteem does describe the opinion you have about yourself, it encompasses so much more than that. 

Positive self-esteem means that you see everything about yourself as generally positive. This includes your ideas, feelings, and opinions. Having high self-esteem means believing that all these things have worth and that you can afford yourself value, love, dignity, and respect.

On the other hand, having low self-esteem means that you have a poor opinion of yourself. You may have feelings of not liking yourself very much, assuming that others don’t like you, and thinking of yourself as unworthy or unlikeable. 

Not feeling confident about something you’ve done from time to time is pretty normal and isn’t considered low self-esteem. Having low self-esteem means that you have persistent negative thoughts about yourself and you find them difficult to combat or change.

How your self-esteem impacts you

When you have high self-esteem you’re better able to develop good coping skills, handle adversity well, and put anything negative that happens into a better perspective. You also are able to better handle stress and pressure from different environments like school, home, or work.

However, if you have low self-esteem you’re at a much higher risk for developing anxiety and depression. You may also start to self-isolate and maybe even consider harming yourself or misusing substances. If you’re feeling poorly about yourself, you may also not feel the need to take care of yourself as you should, leading to poor physical health.

Building high self-esteem

If you have low self-esteem, it’s more than possible to build those levels up if you put in hard work and determination. It takes a lot of work to replace entrenched negative thoughts with positive ones.

Some things you can do to work on building your self-esteem include:

• Learn to accept compliments
• Give yourself room to make mistakes
• Love and respect yourself no matter what
• Start a gratitude journal

If you’re struggling to do some of these things on your own, seeking support through therapy is a great next step.

If you feel you need help getting started on your journey to higher self-esteem, don’t hesitate to contact our team to get an appointment set up so we can make a plan on how to best help you take those next steps. To schedule an appointment, you can give us a call at 240-599-3500 or use our online booking tool today.