Are going through a rough patch in life? Do you feel worthless and unable to think positively? So, How to feel better about yourself and cheer up?
Life is a mixture of highs and lows. Some days you feel as if being on top of the world. While on others you merely get up in the morning and have breakfast only to find yourself sulking in bed again after an hour. Everyone goes through this experience. Ups and downs are a part of life but, it’s important to realize when you are feeling low and try to overcome those feelings.
Staying in that negative state for a longer period of time will only inhibit you from growing and achieving what you wish for. If you are someone who is not able to fight the negative emotions on days that are clearly not your best, we have some remedies to help you fight that feeling.
7 Amazing Ways to Feel Good About Yourself
Feeling good about yourself is imperative to growth. On days when you struggle with having a positive approach toward the life you usually end up being hard on yourself. To avoid that self-loathing feeling here are some tips that will definitely make you feel better.
1- Avoid Comparing Yourself to Others Frequently
We all frequently compare ourselves to others. While comparing yourself to others is innate to humans according to the Social Comparison Theory of psychology, it’s better to not indulge in it frequently if you are someone with low self-esteem. On days when you are already struggling to get a hold of things, this attitude can be detrimental to your mental health.
According to psychologist Leon Festinger humans continuously compare themselves to others in order to better evaluate themselves. On one hand, it might be beneficial to better know about yourself but, on the other hand, it comes with numerous consequences. Comparing yourself to others makes your life seems less worthy.
When you compare yourself with someone doing great at times when you are facing challenges you feel like a complete failure. Along with this, it gives rise to disgust and animosity which are highly poisonous attributes to possess.
In this digital world when you can easily have a look at other people’s lives, you get swayed by what they display. Comparing your body, your house, or your job to a celebrity on Instagram is a common practice nowadays. This upward social comparison can add the fuel to the fire and increase your stress. Moreover, comparing yourself to the less fortunate ones gives rise to indifference and meanness.
So, avoid comparing yourself to others. The moment you start comparing yourself to others is the moment your brain looks for a hundred ways to make sure that you feel worse about yourself.
Train your brain to find the positives in every situation. Because you will always be in an advantaged or disadvantaged position as compared to someone else. Turn the disadvantage into an advantage by training your brain. Only you have the power over your brain!
Related; 7 ways for self-improvement
2- Get Out Of Bed And Spend Time Outdoors
While living in a metropolis might be a compulsion for most of us, it is better to spend some time out in nature instead of staying indoors the whole day sitting in front of a computer. Nature can be the instant elixir that your self-doubting self might be in need of.
According to the Business Insider post, spending time in nature has some significant health benefits. It not only reduces stress and improves your blood pressure but also improves your short-term memory. Spending time in nature even for 10 minutes daily can drastically improve your sense of self and your approach to life. It is for this reason that people living in the woods have such youthful skin and are energetic even in their old age.
So, if you want to feel better about yourself you might consider spending time in nature as stress therapy. It will improve your focus which in turn shifts your attention to the positive aspects of your life. Go out, just wander about in a park or consider spending a day or two at a hill station. You’ll come back with improved self-esteem and a better version of yourself!
3- Be Your Own Best Friend
‘You are your own greatest friend or your worst enemy.’ – Bob Marley
You might have heard people saying it frequently. But, why is being your own best friend important? Let me explain why and how you can be your own best friend. We all do badly at times. Some days are not as great as others. Some days we fail to perform to the best of our abilities. We have set some expectations for ourselves, but when to fail at them we blame ourselves for everything that went wrong.
You blame yourself for wasting time. You blame yourself for not putting in the extra effort. In short, you talk to yourself in a way that is utterly unacceptable. When you are in an unhealthy relationship with yourself you can’t feel better about yourself. If you constantly say unkind things to yourself or remind yourself of your past mistakes you can’t move ahead.
Just imagine, will you do the same things to a friend if had performed like you? Will you be that mean and unkind to them as well? No, you won’t! Whether your friend does well or not, you won’t ever be mean to them. You’ll always try to encourage and cheer them up.
So, try to be kinder to yourself than you would be to your friend. Be less hard on yourself. Forgive yourself because you are your greatest asset! Your thoughts can either break you or make you.
4- Surround Yourself With Positive People
The people you interact with have some significant effects on your life. You might have heard the maxim,
‘A man is known by the company he keeps.’
This only is sufficient enough to compel you to change your company in case you have a negative one! The reason being is that the people you surround yourself with immensely affect your perspective of life. You start viewing the world through their lens. Their mood affects your mood. According to Tony Robbins, the expectations you have of yourself are highly influenced by the people your surround yourself with.
You might have noticed that when one of your friend or colleague vents about anything constantly, you start focusing on that aspect of your life as well. When someone talks to you about the problems they are facing in their relationship you start analyzing yours with the same yardstick too. Therefore, the company you keep matters a lot.
If you surround yourself with positive people you’ll be less likely to focus on the challenges that life presents to you. Even if you do, you’ll brace yourself and adopt a can-do attitude instead. Negative people make life seem like an enemy that is constantly against us and we can’t do anything about it. But, optimistic people tend to find a ray of hope even in the darkest of times.
So, to avoid a pessimistic approach toward the life you need to surround yourself with positive people. People who inspire and empower you instead of those who bring out the worst in you. Change your company today to feel better about yourself every day!
Related; 10 Smart Habits For a Positive Mindset
5- Have the Patience to Feel Better About Yourself
There is a reason why the maxim, ‘Patience is the key to success,’ exists! The most underrated virtue these days, but nonetheless its importance in life can’t be undermined.
Patience is essential for a happy and healthy life. Life is not a smooth road to success. It changes its course along the way. You plan something else but life has a different plan for you.
In times when life doesn’t go according to your plans, patience becomes vital. It makes you persist in the face of hardships. It makes you hopeful that no matter what’s happening now, everything will fall into place eventually.
Along with that, patience makes you strive harder and work consistently in the pursuit of your goals. According to Sarah A.Schnitker, a fuller theological seminary, patience motivates you to pursue your goals and enhances satisfaction, especially when struck with hardships.
People often ask me, how do I make myself feel better? There would only be a one-word answer if I had to sum it up and that is ‘Patience’. To feel better about yourself on days that are not so great you need to be patient and kind towards yourself. You have to think wisely instant of reacting in the spur of the moment and being impatient.
Impatience only adds to our dissatisfaction. It only makes you feel worse. However, patience makes you stick to your goals. It makes you believe that a seed sowed takes time to grow and reap. Hard work doesn’t go unnoticed by nature. It is rewarded in one way or the other.
So, be patient in the process of life. You’ll feel better about yourself and more in control once you start practicing this virtue.
Related; 7 Ways to Stay Positive in Tough Times
6- Practice Gratitude to feel better every day
Gratefulness is a quality that highly lacks in our society these days. We often consider it our right to get something from others. Whether it is the love you get from your parents or partner, the money they spend on your education or anything they do for you, you consider yourself worthy of all these entitlements.
This is why we are highly unsatisfied with our lives. You never think of anything as sufficient. In short, our life is simply devoid of gratitude.
On the contrary when you see your life through the lens of gratitude you look at it as more of a blessing and less of a curse. Gratitude shifts your attention from the negatives of life to the positives in it. It makes you more content with what you have instead of craving more. It makes you realize that what you have is more than what you deserve.
Gratitude is an immensely beneficial trait to possess. When you start looking at life from this perspective you’ll be less stressed about it. You’ll be better able to cope with the stressors of life. Moreover, you’ll feel more confident and motivated to achieve your goals.
In a nutshell, gratitude is vital to living a content life. It not only affects your psychological well-being but also improves your physical health. It lowers the stress which in turn lowers your blood pressure. Thus grateful people have healthier hearts. So, be grateful for what you have before that is gone too, and feel better about yourself.
7- Have Some ‘ME’ Time
Last but not the least, spend time with yourself and on yourself. Treat yourself in a way you would treat your loved ones with. Pamper yourself with little gifts every now and then. It may be a cup of coffee in your favorite café after a hectic workday. Or, it can be a Saturday movie night in the comfort of your home with a pizza alongside!
Being happy with yourself first is important to be content with life in general. You spend the most time with yourself so you should be able to enjoy your company and feel better about yourself too.
Being content with how you look, how you behave, and what you are is important to stay humble and grounded. This level of content can only be achieved when you own yourself and feel better about yourself too. We all go through us and downs in our lives. It is how we treat ourselves on the downs that determines how we behave when life flips again.
So, instead of getting annoyed and frustrated with yourself for not being good enough be friends with yourself. Be your own greatest caretaker. Treat yourself as precious as you consider other people or things around you. The way you treat yourself is an indication of how others should treat you.
Wander about and have adventures in life alone because life is so much more than just sitting in a corner feeling bad about yourself. The time you invest in yourself will manifest into better psychological health and improved relationships too!
Related; 11 Simple Ways to be Happy
Conclusion;
Feeling better about yourself is the first step to feeling content about life in general. However, on days that generally don’t go as planned, we end up being hard on ourselves. Bear in mind you are the only person who can make yourself feel better. Stop relying on others for your happiness and satisfaction.
Practice these 7 amazing tips that will not only make you take control of your life but also make you feel better about yourself. Now you won’t have to think about how to feel better about yourself anymore!
