subject: Overcome health problems caused by low self-esteem [print this page] Overcome health problems caused by low self-esteem
Health problems are often due to low self-esteem. If you have a low self-esteem you will not get motivated to take care of your health. When you do not consider yourself important, you do not consider your body important either.
The first thing you need to do in order to overcome your health problems that spring out of low self-esteem is to realise the important link between self-esteem and health. If you would consider yourself valuable (that is, if you had high self-esteem) you would think that your body is valuable too. You would want to take care of it in an as optimal way as possible every single day. If you have low self-esteem you will not feel inspired to take good care of your health. To improve your health condition you therefore have to raise your self-esteem. Because health and self-esteem are so closely linked your self-esteem will rise as you start to take better care of yourself.
Think about a person that you love very much. If you were responsible for this person's health how would you care for it? I suggest that you pretend that your body belongs to this person that you love. Each day, what are you going to do to maximise this body's well-being. You will need to think about well-being both in the long term and in the short term. I guess that you would want the person that you love the most to eat healthy meals, exercise regularly, sleep and relax etc. This is what you will have to do to yourself as you imagine that your body belongs to the one that you love the most.
Relaxation is an underestimated activity that is important for both building your self-esteem and for improving your health. When you relax you give yourself time to listen to yourself. In this way you raise your self-awareness. The more self-aware you become, the easier it will be for you to raise your self-esteem. Relaxing raises your self-esteem because you get to know yourself better. When you relax you also show yourself that you are worthy of relaxation. Relaxing is like a treat that you give yourself once you know that you have already done enough to be a good person (and this is all the time for you of course!). Relaxation is also vital for keeping your body healthy. By adding some relaxation into your daily life you will escape many of the most dangerous illnesses that the modern world knows about.
If you seriously want to raise your self-esteem and to improve your health you need to set specific goals, know why you want to reach your goals and work towards achieving them. This is the same as with any other kind of goals. Ask yourself first "Why do I want to become more healthy?" If you don't have a clear answer to that question you do not have enough motivation to make a lasting change to your health. If you know why you want better health, you need to decide exactly how healthy you want to become. Make the goal measurable so that you will know when you have reached it. Finally, stick to it! Don't give up! Change your life style so that you will get closer to your goal every day.
