Sometimes in life we are hard on ourselves. We want to be perfect and excel in everything and get disappointed when that doesn’t happen. It’s understandable to have those feelings sometimes; however self-loathing and hate shouldn’t become an everyday habit because encouragement works better than discouragement. Self Loathing affects your self-esteem and motivation to accomplish things in life. If self-loathing is something you do more often times than not, here are some steps to move forward and treat yourself in a more healthy and positive way.
- Forget Perfection. Many times we fall into a cycle of self-loathing due to a distorted view of ourselves. We hold ourselves to unrealistically high standards that make achieving our goals difficult. Stop comparing yourself to other people and their accomplishments and focus on your own personal self-growth. Recognize that your uniqueness is just as important as everyone else’s.
- Discover your self-loathing triggers. Certain situations and behaviors can trigger your self-loathing thoughts. Work to identify what those triggers are and avoid or address those situations. Doing so will help you handle and decrease your self-loathing behavior.
- Use positive coping mechanisms. Most self-loathing thoughts are attached to unhealthy and negative coping mechanisms like drinking or over-eating. Replace these mechanisms with something more positive like exercise or meditation.
- Practice daily affirmations. Giving yourself daily encouragement verbally, mentally or in the written word will really combat your self-loathing. Everyday affirm something positive to yourself and carry that with you throughout the day as a reminder to not self-loath. An example would be “Although I make mistakes sometimes, I know I’m a good person”.
Written By: Jenai Muhammad, graduate level intern, Loring Therapy, LLC
Edited By: Charity M. Loring, LMSW
Adapted from: http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Hating-Yourself
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