No matter how far along you are on your path to recovery, it's vital to set aside time to focus on yourself and reclaiming your self-esteem.
Addiction can strip us of our sense of self-worth. When we feel bad about ourselves seeking outside help and trying to better our lives may not feel like a battle worth fighting.
It is for this reason that rebuilding your self-esteem is a vital part of the recovery process.
Unsure of how to take back your sense of self-confidence and respect?
Here are eight tips to help you begin rebuilding self esteem as you continue working toward your recovery from addiction.
1. Forgive Past Mistakes
Addiction can wreak havoc on your judgment and impulse control. Because of this, people who are battling addiction sometimes do or say things they later regret.
Everyone makes mistakes. And while these mistakes may be in the past, you cannot forget them the same way you cannot let the guilt that likely followed them consume you.
If you have already sought forgiveness from the people you have wronged, you now must look inward and forgive yourself.
Continuing to punish yourself for things that happened in the past will only hinder your recovery or lead to a relapse.
Take some time to think about the things you regret doing, accept and acknowledge what you did, and then forgive yourself and move on.
2. Start Making Changes
Deciding to take on your addiction is a significant change in and of itself.
Change is part of the world and part of human nature. The moment something no longer works, change occurs.
When trying to recover your self-esteem, you may need to make a few changes in your life. These changes don't need to be drastic they can be small once a day or once a week occurrences.
Everyone has something they would like to change about their life. But, there's no need to take on everything at once. Recovery happens in stages, after all.
3. Accept Compliments
It can be second nature to brush off compliments -- especially if you suffer from low self-esteem.
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the person complimenting you doesn't mean it.
The next time someone pays you a compliment before dismissing it, try to tell yourself that they mean it.
Acknowledge and accept the kind things people say about you. If you think about what they're saying, you'll realize that it's true.
4. Take Care of Yourself
No one understands our biggest fears or our strongest insecurities like we do. Because of this, we are often our own greatest bullies.
Understand that you will never be comfortable in your skin unless you allow yourself be comfortable.
While having a healthy support system can make your recovery smoother, you need to be able to rely on yourself too.
Your primary job should be taking care of yourself. Once you do that, you'll begin to rebuild your self-esteem.
5. Set Attainable Goals
Everyone has dreams they'd like to achieve. But, it's important to remember that recovery is a slow, step by step process.
It's going to take some time before you can tackle certain mountains.
Instead of despairing over dreams that seem too far out of reach, set small more attainable goals for yourself.
Make these goals realistic. Give yourself a limited amount of time to achieve them and make sure you can track your path to success.
There is no such thing as a small success. Be sure to take pride in all your accomplishments, no matter how minor they may seem at the time.
6. Pick Up a Hobby
Finding a hobby or favorite activity can also help you reclaim your self-esteem.
It doesn't matter whether it's a new activity or an old pastime, find something to occupy your time that makes you feel good about yourself.
You could join a yoga class, get into woodworking, or you could even volunteer. It feels good to pick up a new skill, and filling up extra free time with something productive will also help boost your self-esteem.
Get creative and explore every activity you've ever even thought about trying.
7. Do Something Kind
There's nothing quite like making someone else's day.
It doesn't take a lot of extra effort to be kind to others and earning a genuine thank you can do wonders for your mood as well as your self-esteem.
As part of your recovery and your quest to rebuild your self-esteem, you should strive to do something kind every single day.
You could go for grand gestures like volunteering at a local animal shelter or donating to charity. But, kindness also exists in much smaller actions as well.
You could assist with choirs unprompted, hold the door for someone, or pay for the next person's coffee at your favorite coffee shop.
Performing small but meaningful gestures every day without prompting will brighten the day of those around you. On top of that, daily acts of kindness will also boost your self-confidence and mood.
8. Create An Affirmation
Finally, one small but powerful action you can take every day to help rebuild your self-esteem is reciting a daily affirmation.
An affirmation is a simple sentence or phrase you say to yourself every day to help you create and reaffirm a positive mental image of yourself.
Daily positive affirmations may not seem all that natural, especially at first. But, repeating them out loud every single day for a few weeks will begin to change the way you look at yourself.
Creating a unique affirmation of your very own is easy. Think about who you'd like to be, or, more importantly, how you would like to view yourself, and put that image into words.
It can be something simple such as, "I am strong," or it could be something more specific to your circumstances and goals.
Rebuilding Self Esteem After Addiction
The road to recovery is long and arduous, especially so if you have low confidence.
While reclaiming your life, it's important to take time to work on rebuilding self esteem.
Having high self-confidence will help make your journey to recovery that much smoother. On top of that, having good self-esteem can help ensure that all the progress you make lasts.
Are you looking for ways to celebrate hard-earned sobriety?
We have anniversary and affirmation tokens and chips, as well as several other symbols to help mark each milestone. Contact us today.