Self Esteem and Confidence

Self-esteem and self-confidence overlap, but they are different.

Self-esteem refers to whether you appreciate and value yourself. Your self-esteem develops and changes as a result of your life experiences and interactions with other people.

Self-confidence is your belief in yourself and your abilities. This can change depending on the situation. It’s normal to feel quite confident in some circumstances and less confident in others.

A healthy amount of self-esteem is necessary to have the self-confidence to meet life’s challenges and participate in things you find enjoyable and rewarding.

With Low self-esteem or low self-confidence, you may find that individual negative or disappointing experiences affect how you feel about yourself. This can cause a self-perpetuating cycle of negative thinking where negative expectations for the future discourage you from trying. This leads to disappointing outcomes.

Low self-confidence can result in:

  • Shyness
  • Communication difficulties
  • Social anxiety
  • Lack of assertiveness.

Your self-esteem is how you think and feel about yourself. Your self-esteem can affect how much you:

  • like and value yourself as a person
  • believe in yourself and the things you can do
  • stand up for yourself when under pressure
  • are willing to try new or difficult things
  • move on from mistakes without blaming yourself unfairly
  • believe you matter and are good enough
  • believe you deserve happiness.
If you have high self-esteem, the way you think and feel about yourself is likely to be positive. But if you have low self-esteem, you may find that the way you think and feel about yourself is more negative, and you may feel less able to stand up for yourself.

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