Do you like yourself?

Everyone needs to pause for a moment and reflect upon this question. If you don’t like yourself – which actually means you are not comfortable with yourself – you have a low self-esteem and you don’t deliver your best.

How can we become more comfortable with ourselves? Here are five ideas that might help:

1. No one is perfect. We often make the mistake of looking at the lesser parts of ourselves – physical appearance, relationships, possessions – and feel miserable. Let’s get into the habit of looking at the glass as half full rather than half empty.

2. Make a list of things that make you uncomfortable about yourself. Reflect upon each. Discuss with a close friend. You will end up dropping many from the list as they may not be real or may just be insignificant. Only you may be thinking about them while others may not even notice them. Dropping the unnecessary baggage always makes sense.

3. You may be left with just a few issues that make you uncomfortable. Ask yourself a question. Am I the only one facing this/have gone through this or there are others as well? You will find that you are not the only one and this will make you feel lighter. But also think how have people worked on their shortcomings rather than living with a feeling of self-pity. You can also do the same.

4. Do things that are good for self-esteem. Pursue a hobby like a sport or music, upgrade your knowledge and skills by doing some short term courses.

5. Take care of your health. Eat well, sleep well and be regular with your exercises. Don’t we feel better the day we have had a good workout in the gym, had a good game of tennis or just had a long walk?

Finally, Like yourself but don’t take yourself too seriously. Very often, this becomes the root cause of our level of discomfort about us.