(ARTICLE) Understanding Female Self esteem (Part 4/6)

Many women in society suffer from lack of self-confidence and are prone to self-doubt, leading them to dislike themselves eventually.

Sometimes they are ashamed to "respect" themselves in certain situations. Before knowing the answers of these questions, a woman needs to understand the definition of the word
“self-esteem”.

Definition:

self-esteem is defined as a person's overall sense of personal worth or value.  

In other words, self-esteem means how much you appreciate and like yourself regardless of the situations that you are in.

Self-esteem includes your beliefs and your emotional states such as victory, misery,
self-pride, and guilt. 

It is important to know your self-worth and think well for yourself because this motivates you to achieve things to your full potential.

What Influences A Woman's Self Esteem

Your beliefs, your upbringing, your environment at home play a huge role in influencing your
self-esteem. Parents play a significant role in self-esteem and are the primary source of
negative or positive experiences in you.

Types Of Self Esteem

Broadly, there are two types of self-esteem.

1. High self-esteem 

People with high self-esteem love themselves and accept who they are. They trust their abilities and are confident in their approach.

2. Low self-esteem 

People with low self-esteem think of themselves as below average or inferior to
others. They do not trust their abilities.

How To Identify A High Self Esteem Person

You can easily spot a person who has high self-esteem. 

A person with a high self-esteem displays the following behaviours:

• Confident in expressing what they want and stating their opinions in front of others.

• Confident in their ability to make decisions ( In personal and professional life )

• Successful in forming secure and honest relationships.

• Do not stay in unhealthy and insecure relationships.

How to identify a person with low self-esteem?

A person with a low self-esteem displays the following behaviours:

• Doubts their abilities or worthiness. 

• Constantly self-criticising leading to negative feelings of sadness, depression, anger, shame or guilt.

• Fear of trying – avoiding taking up challenges and eventually getting withdrawn.

Reasons for women’s low self-esteem

A woman with low self-esteem may feel uncomfortable because she received negative information about women from culture or relationships.

The combination of violence and cultural concepts can weaken women's self-esteem. 

Abuse is also common, crossing all socio-economic boundaries, which inevitably sends useless signals to victims. 

Some women say that an  insult hurts them more than any physical act.  

Women who have been harassed since their childhood have the weakest sense of their identity and dignity.

Consequences of low self esteem

Health

Low self-esteem in women can lead to depression and anxiety. Her physical health will
also get affected. 

Many times, women with this problem will not receive regular check-ups, don't exercise or spend their personal days alone because they really think they are not worth the time.

Relationships

Relationships also have effects. Their partners did not meet their needs because they felt that they were not worthy of being satisfied, or made uncomfortable demands. 

If children fail to effectively restrain themselves, set boundaries, or
demand the respect they deserve, the relationship with the children will be affected.

The worst thing to know is low self-esteem can pass from mother to daughter. 

The mother is able to shape what a woman is. She also set an example of an ideal woman for her sons by showing them what a wife is.

At work

In the workplace, women with low self-esteem often humiliate themselves, downplay their
achievements, or let others take credit for their work. 

Give this is a listen: https://youtu.be/WbydY-RTbR4

Friends

They cannot say no to their friends.

When they don’t like themselves they settle for less. They do those things which they do not want to do or don’t have time to do. 

Finally, they  go where they don't want to go with people.

Solutions

In general, it is observed that women have lower levels of self-esteem than men.

Women who have low self-esteem are unable to control their lives. But this can be changed. 

These women can get help and emotional level healing therapy.

1. Praise yourself: 

Say how much you like yourself. 

Stop being overly 'humble' & accept compliments from others and don't refuse. 

Will you refuse a gift? Praise is a gift, so accept it and say thank you.

2. Upgrade your social circle: 

Build a friend system. Find someone you can trust and share your thoughts. 

Participate in those social activities that elevate you to become a better person than you were a few days, weeks or months ago.

3. If you change yourself, you will change your life. 

The way you speak to yourself determines your lifestyle. 

Your words and pictures are your reality. Choose how you want to see reality.

Lastly, talk to yourself nicely. 

For whatever reason, people are sometimes inclined to beat themselves up. Whether it's for the stupid thing you said to your crush, or the mistake you made at work, no matter what, there is still always a way to stop thinking negatively. 

Pretend you are the best friend you always wanted and treat yourself exactly how you would treat them. It sounds weird, but you need to be best friends with yourself before you can be best friends with anyone else.

Be more aware of the thoughts that you keep having. When you are more conscious of your negative thinking, you start to realise just how often those thoughts can pop up. 

Listening to yourself is the first step before saying anything at all.

Till next time.