The most important relationship in your life is the relationship you have with yourself.

Why? Because it sets the tone for every other relationship throughout your lifetime. And not just with people, but with all things and ideas. The respect and admiration that you hold for your own being affects everything; from money to physical health, how you view the world and the people in it.

So how do we cultivate a healthy self esteem?

How To Improve Your Self Esteem And Live A Life You Love

Get to know yourself.

Accepting that your current measure of self esteem is less than you’d like is the first step toward changing it. Be honest with yourself about where you are right now. Forgive yourself and give yourself permission to grow. Start slowly and do things that make you feel happy. Travel, either abroad or just to the beach! Exercise, meditate, spend time with people you love and who love you back.

Don’t compare.

With a low self esteem, it can be easy to think that other people are ‘better’ than we are, and get stuck in the cycle of comparison. The truth is though that no one is better than anyone else, nor are we equal. Everyone is unique, with beautiful qualities and gifts to share with the world.

Practice gratitude towards yourself.

Dark clouds always pass and always have a silver lining. Life, too, is temporary, so even though the greyness of life may sometime occupy the majority of your existence, you can always practice gratitude towards who you are today. Start by writing down all the things you like about self. List all of your strengths, your funny quirks, the parts about yourself that you think are beautiful. Remember that it’s these qualities, and your appreciation of them, that will deliver you from difficult times.

Be of service to others.

A powerful way to increase your self esteem is to turn your focus away from yourself and pour it into others. Even when we are going through a challenges in our own lives, we can always find someone else who has a burden greater than our own. Being of service reminds us how to love others and therefore how to love ourselves.

To choose to create a healthy self esteem is one of the greatest journey’s you can take in this lifetime. It won’t be easy, but it will most certainly be worth it.