Beyond Likes: Building Rock-Solid Teen Self-Esteem

Teenagers are used to hearing from every side how wrong, unfair, and unjust their lives are and hurling a never-ending stream of self-criticism from their inner voice. These relentless bombardments can soon take their toll on confidence.

Don’t worry: there are valuable tools teens can employ to quiet the inner critic and develop bulletproof confidence. This guide will equip you with Modified ways to combat harsh self-talk: Identify your inner critic and develop strategies to diminish its power with positive self-statements and realistic self-assessment. The power of self-compassion: Pause and become mindful when you direct self-criticism. Take a deep breath and watch your thoughts from outside of yourself. Everyone messes up sometimes. Be kind, forgiving, and understanding to yourself. Cultivating a self-audience: Enlist a ‘hype squad’ of friends, family, and mentors who encourage and believe in you. Celebrate your strengths and achievements: claim your talents, accomplishments, and positive qualities and acknowledge them. This builds your self-esteem. Mindfulness and self-care techniques: Try activities such as meditation, deep breathing, journaling, etc., to reduce stress, cultivate self-awareness and self-compassion, and calm your inner world. Remember, though, that all increasing-confidence strategies are a way of life. Each of these recommendations, if consistently adopted, can be a very effective muzzle for your inner Critic On/Off switch. It can reactivate your fledgling dreams.