Have you ever come across the feelings of complaint and dissatisfaction with yourself? Did you ever think that you do not possess the value that others have? If you've gone through or are still facing these feelings, then you are not alone in this predicament. The feelings and thoughts of self-hate can be faced by people from different ages depending upon their experiences and quality of life. The people with these feelings and thoughts are prone to have low self-esteem.

The undervalued self-esteem, lack of confidence, and absence from social life occur when you tag yourself to be a pessimist by degrading and insulting your own decisions and forming negative opinions about yourself.

Root Causes and Influences

It is significant for you to know what low self-esteem is before highlighting the root causes and influences of it. You must bear in mind that no one is born with low self-esteem. It is something that is adopted. It is the result of filtering comments, suggestions or actions of others through your own feelings and self-image.

It is significant for you to know what low self-esteem is before highlighting the root causes and influences of it. You must bear in mind that no one is born with low self-esteem. It is something that is adopted. It is the result of filtering comments, suggestions or actions of others through your own feelings and self-image.

1. Causes

• Poor academic performance

Poor academic performance is not your inborn fault, but being unable to perform in academics can compel you to undermine yourself to have negative thoughts about your capabilities.

• Bullying, harassment and humiliation

Bullying plays a vital role in degrading and discouraging yourself. It has a strong and long lasting impression on your personality, including your physical looks and abilities. Regular or unwanted embarrassment at job and continuous bullying in the friends circle or locality are sure ways to demoralise you and make you an antisocial person.

• Negligent parents

Lack of confidence is directly proportional to the lack of care from parents. The more your parents show that they care for you, the more confident you will be. Similarly, if your parents are not aware of your needs and don't look after you properly, you are definitely going to fall prey to lack of confidence.

• Negative thought patterns

When you get used to feeling, thinking and talking about yourself in a negative way, it becomes a habit. Thinking negatively brings your self-confidence to zero in all aspects of life.

2. Influences

• Believing you have nothing to offer

In case you're dealing with influences of low self-esteem, you may make up your mind that whatever you say and do is undervalued by others and believing in self-created thoughts can lead you to loneliness and hesitation to engage with others.

• Being a people pleaser

Lack of self-confidence leads to become a people pleaser. Your self-liking is at the bottom when you are unable to have clear boundaries and are unable to say "no" to others which will make you feel obligated to make sure that others feel good.

• Seriously impair academic and job performance

Having damaged self-confidence influences not only your personal life but also academic and job performances. This can make you badly stressed out during study or job and bring forth poor grades in academics or termination from a job.

Ways to Raise Low Self-Esteem

In a nutshell, self-esteem is your opinion of yourself and your abilities. It can be high, low or somewhere in-between, but in order to cope with this issue you must ask yourself, "Why is my self-esteem so low"? And "What can I do to get rid of this problem?"

1. Intrinsic ways to raise self-esteem

• Be nice to yourself

The first and foremost way to raise self-esteem is to respect yourself. It is the simplest and quickest way to resolve the issue. Talk to yourself the way you talk to your mates. Agree with yourself rather than disagreeing all the time.

• Stop making comparisons

Making comparisons with others is a sure way to feel inferior. You need to focus on your own goals, targets and achievements, rather than measuring somebody else's achievements. It is significant to tell yourself that you are not achieving goals to compare with others but to satisfy yourself.

• Nobody's perfect

Always try to deliver the best in anything you do, but it is significant to remember and accept that perfection is an unrealistic goal. You need to remember that perfection should not be your goal, but rather working with full devotion to satisfy your inner self.

• Set small goals and achieve them

Winning and celebrating small victories is a great way to build self-confidence and start feeling content. Small goals will ultimately lead you to achieve higher goals and achievements, so be patient and start working on your small goals rather than just sitting and demotivating yourself.

2. Extrinsic ways to raise self-esteem

• Surround yourself with a supportive squad

Keep yourself surrounded by people who make you feel good and confident about yourself, rather than those who tend to demotivate you to trigger your negative thoughts. Be helpful to others so that you get satisfaction by doing good deeds.

• Talk to a therapist or counselor

You must bear in mind that going to a counselor is not a thing to feel ashamed of. It is natural that when there is a problem, there must be its solution as well so going to counselor for counselling is a positive way to care for yourself.

• Start reading books

Reading books not only enhances your knowledge but also is helpful for cognitive mental stimulation and brain exercise. By reading biographies of successful people you can stimulate a sense of passion in you and your cognitive functions work better.

Everyone in this world is made different for different purposes. Learn to be content and satisfied with what you have and who you are. Do not wish that you were someone else because if you do not want to be yourself, you're ignoring an amazing person. So, do the best, think the best and be the best you can be.