Self Love And Health: What’s The Relationship?

Estimated Read Time:  3.5 minutes 

Summary: In this blog we detail and explore how bettering your self esteem can directly contribute to improved health. We’ll discuss what self esteem is, how it links to your health and why self confidence is worth investing in. Read on to discover more about self esteem, and how it can positively effect your health…

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How Do You Improve Your Self Confidence?

What Is Self Esteem?

Self esteem is an overall reflection of our self worth; our general self perception. When our self esteem is relatively high, we are usually better at managing and positively experiencing our daily lives – a lot more than when it’s low.

All of us can experience occasional periods of poor self-confidence. But, a lack of self confidence over sustained periods of time can have a negative impact on our physical and mental health. And, effect the way we choose to live our lives. 

Low self esteem can be attributed to many things, and these may have first been experienced during childhood. These include:

• Worries about what you look like (skin, hair, weight gain and other aesthetic issues)
• Being subject to prejudice, stigma or discrimination
• Issues at work, in school or college
• Having poor physical health
• Having poor mental health
• An important relationship ending: romantic, familial or friendship
• Worries around money or housing
• Experiencing bullying, abuse or violence
• Losing your job

But, whatever causes low self esteem, it’s essential to recognize the devastating impact this can have on our overall health! So, if self confidence is so important it begs to question: What exactly are the positive effects of self esteem on health?

What Are The Positive Effects Of Self Esteem On Health?

Well, there have been studies around whether self esteem directly correlates to better physical health! 

This study compared 239 college students, made up of both sexes, with an average age of 23. According to their self evaluations, those who believed they had good self-esteem also believed they possessed better physical health. When scientists then examined the hippocampus (the central, curved area of the brain’s base where it’s believed self-esteem can be measured from as well as being associated with some physical diseases like diabetes), they found that self-esteem and physical health was associated. Those with higher self-esteem were better at coping with stress and mitigating perceived threats, which in turn buffers the body’s negative physiological responses. 

And, many studies have supported that finding. The higher your self esteem is, the better your mental health and emotional wellbeing is, which can then support and protect your physical health.

This study found that the higher your self-esteem is, the less likely you are to blame yourself, doubt yourself or have negative feelings about yourself if something doesn’t go your way. A person with high self esteem is more likely to look for ways to improve rather than feel like they’ve failed in any perceived, personal shortcomings.  

The lower your self-esteem is, the more likely you are to experience depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, self-harm and abuse substances – all of which are proven to negatively impact your physical health and wellbeing. 

What Are The Best Ways To Boost Self Esteem?

There are many things that can help boost self-esteem and it’s seemingly worth investing in – it’s arguably a key factor for emotional and physical wellbeing and overall life satisfaction.

As well as improving your diet, your exercise habits and how much sleep you get (which are basic lifestyle habits that are a simple way of showing your body and mind love, and thus help instil self worth), you can also begin to practise daily gratitude journaling/listing, getting better at accepting compliments, invest in support via talking therapy/counselling and to start treating yourself and talking to yourself as you would a friend. These are all great ways of helping boost self-esteem and in turn help promote your health too!

For more detailed ideas around working on your self worth, read our blog on ways of improving and boosting self esteem here!

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Mental Health & Hair Loss: What’s The Psychological Impact?

Sources

nature.com

Very Well Mind