Millions of people struggle with low self-esteem. As a result, they cannot thrive and live happily and authentically. The good thing is that you don’t have to live with low self-esteem forever. There are many things you can do to boost your self-esteem.
Journaling is one of those things. It can help you connect with yourself, get a handle on your emotions, and foster a more positive outlook on life. Let’s dive into how journaling can help boost your self-esteem in more detail below.
Improve Your Mental Health
Developing authentic self-esteem is one of the most significant challenges anyone faces. Too many people struggle to believe in themselves. They lack confidence due to negative self-talk, envy, fear, and the constant pressure to live up to other people's expectations. And mental health issues may play a part.
Journaling not only helps you develop authentic self-esteem and confidence, but it can also drastically
improve your mental health. You can document your symptoms, what’s triggering them, and what you do to cope.
Discussing your mental health issues in your journal openly will help you get on a path to a healthier mind and
better self-esteem.
Develop Versatile Soft Skills
Journaling can help you develop your skill set too. Writing often can help you
grow versatile soft skills that inspire more confidence in your personal life and work. Emotional intelligence, effective communication, and leadership are just a few soft skills you can develop through journaling that benefit your self-esteem.
Become More Self-Aware
Self-awareness is critical for self-esteem. When you’re self-aware, you appreciate your personality, how you think and behave, and your purpose in the world. In addition, when you know yourself, you can better navigate life's difficulties.
Committing to a journal entry daily will help you unveil things about yourself that you can use to facilitate self-love and higher self-esteem.
Practice Gratitude
Many people live with low self-esteem because they’re constantly comparing their life to other people's lives. You’ve probably heard this before, but we’ll repeat it here: “Comparison is the thief of joy.”
You can’t enjoy who you are and be grateful for what you have when you’re pining after someone else’s life. Integrate a gratitude exercise into your journal daily, and you’ll start feeling better about yourself and your circumstances.
Learn to Reflect and Resolve
If you want to boost your self-esteem, you must be able to reflect on who you are and what you’ve done. In addition, being able to actually resolve challenges will strengthen your self-esteem even more. Journaling gives you that avenue for reflection and resolution.
Journaling Exercises to Try for Boosting Self-Esteem
There are many
journaling exercises out there that can help you boost your self-esteem. Try any of the six below to get you started.
Write about what makes you unique
Many people suffer from low self-esteem because they aren’t comfortable with what makes them different. They think they must fit in with a particular crowd to be noticed and celebrated. But it’s much better to honor what makes you unique.
This journal exercise requires you to write about what makes you unique. Dive into the qualities and strengths that make you, you, and praise them.
Reflect on a recent success
You’ve done many things in your life that you should be proud of. Reminding yourself of this constantly and genuinely celebrating it will help improve your self-esteem. Journal about a recent success and talk about why you’re proud of the accomplishment.
List what you’re grateful for
Often, we spend more time addressing the challenges in life or being sad about what we don’t have, and it’s killing our self-esteem. Make a list of things and people you’re grateful for to help you cultivate a
more positive mindset and, in turn, boost your self-esteem.
Write about people who matter most to you
Sometimes, writing about people who matter most to you in your journal is the best thing you can do for your self-esteem. For example, you could write about yourself through a loved one's eyes or about how much you appreciate certain people for how they make you feel about yourself.
Visualize your future
It’s a good idea to journal about your future to help boost your self-esteem. Write about what a perfect day looks like in your future. Detail what the weather is like, where you are, who you’re with, what your career is, and so on.
It’ll give you something to strive for and help you look at yourself positively.
List what made you anxious and what really happened
Anxiety can make you torment yourself with “what ifs” all day. Always feeling and thinking something bad will happen can negatively affect your self-esteem.
Do this journal prompt to help relieve the anxiety provoked by obsessing over what might happen. Draw a line down the middle of the page. On one side, write what made you anxious throughout the day. Then, on the other side, list what actually happened.
Most of the time, you’ll find that you did all that worrying for nothing.
Conclusion
Everyone deserves to have high self-esteem in their lives. When you feel good about yourself, self-awareness, soft skills, gratitude, improved mental health, and an ability to reflect and resolve follow. Try one of the above journaling exercises to get started on your journey to better self-esteem.