I have low self-esteem.

[Jersey Domino]

Thanks to everyone who posted I'm going to take these lessons to heart.

 

[CudDULL]

Best way that helped me with my self confidence was to stop caring what others thought about me. All my life I was scared on being judge. When I came out I knew I had a whole life ahead of me where that was going to happen and I realize I'm not the one with the issues, its the ones that judge me that do. SO once I stopped caring about everyone else I started caring about myself. I took the risk and I was happy finally to do what I wanted to do. It gave me self esteem and an ego boost to know that I could be me and not care. It was kinda a vicious cycle I had to break to just gain some self respect/confidence of who I was.

 

[jizzeater]

Low self-esteem is because of your appraisal of your own worth. Others may have conditioned you with things they said in the past or present, but you continue to condition yourself to have it by what you focus on and what you say to yourself. The only way to get rid of it and raise it is to find value in yourself and what you do, and then tell yourself what you need to hear. You don't even have to believe it at first--you just need to start telling yourself what it is. A belief forms because of repeated exposure to the thought. What you dwell on is what you get. Find what is good about you and/or do more things that you value as being "good," and then acknowledge yourself for having done them.

That's the only way to raise it--by focusing on something different than the message you're currently playing in your head.

Yes, IMO, low self-esteem is a result of negative self talk. It's in all kinds of self-help books.

You have to make a habit of catching yourself having negative thoughts about yourself. Say you're getting dressed in the morning and you see your reflection. You think "I'm fat" or "I look like shit". You have to recognize when you're doing that, stop that thought, and replace it with a new positive thought.

As Killjoke said, you don't even have to believe it completely at first. Practice this and your thoughts will begin to change along with your mood and level of self-esteem.

You could also try parenting yourself by writing a letter praising all your good qualities. Bring it out to read when you are feeling down.

Even better would be to tape that list of good qualities up and read it every day. That list should include things that you WANT to be true about yourself as well. As newguyj said, "fake it till you make it".

By the way.. just in case people think that low self esteem every really goes away..

I still think I'm a short...

I liken one's mind to a car. It is always moving, going somewhere. If you take your hand off the steering wheel, it will likely end up somewhere you don't want to be...a ditch or off a bridge. Negative thoughts and low self-esteem are a ditch.