Aging brings difficult milestones and one of these is losing your confidence. As you become older, your body changes and you may face life-altering events, like retirement, health issues, and loss of loved ones, which consequently can impact your self-esteem and confidence. Harvard Health cites a study which suggests that “a person’s level of confidence and self-esteem typically follows a bell curve. It gradually rises during the late teen years, peaks during middle age, and tends to decline after age 60”.
Boosting self-esteem can lead to living longer safely on your own and an overall greater feeling of happiness and well-being. Your goal should be focused on regaining confidence by reminding yourself of your capabilities, addressing the problems, and working around these problems. Here are ten tips that can help build or restore your confidence and self-esteem as you age:
- Stay social: One of the best ways to remain confident and happy is to stay social. Socialize by engaging in activities like playing golf, getting together with friend and family for dinner, and so on. Having those you care about around you and engaging with them can boost your confidence.
- Dress well and look good: When you dress well and look good, you always feel good. Take pride in your appearance, practice good hygiene, and dress well. If you want to try out new looks, don’t hesitate. Doing so could give you a kind of satisfaction and improve your confidence.
- Volunteering: A great way to increase your self-esteem is to help others. Doing good deeds will make you feel proud of yourself.
- Exercise: Regular exercise is beneficial for both physical and mental health. It will help build confidence in your ability to be active. Set small challenges with mini goals that you can realistically complete.
- Engage in hobbies you love: Think about the hobbies you enjoy and set up activities around these hobbies.
- Challenge limiting self-talk: According to a blog from SIXTY+ME, “Low self-esteem is often the result of limiting self-talk- that dialogue in our heads that consistently puts us down. This self-talk may appear when we look in the mirror.” In many ways, negative self-talk can be more powerful than insults or negative comments from friends and colleagues because we are far more likely to believe our own thoughts than others. If negative thoughts about your appearance or age surface, pay attention to situations that trigger them. This will help you find ways to challenge each specific thought through logic or reasoning.
- Healthy binging: You might feel better about yourself when you eat healthy and exercise.
- Pursue a new passion: A great way to gain confidence is through learning new things. Learning is a powerful activity as it can create new pathways in the brain, forging fresh memories and circuitry (https://sixtyandme.com). You can learn to paint, play an instrument, study a foreign language, start dance lessons or writing classes or anything that makes you happy. All these can help you build self-confidence and will also help you to master a new skill.
- Stay connected:Socializing might become a challenge as you age as you might feel uneasy to interact or communicate with people, especially if you are less confident. Staying connected can help you overcome this problem. According to Harvard Health, studies show that personal connections help reduce the risks for depression and anxiety often associated with feelings of low self-esteem.
- Seek help: If you feel something is affecting your confidence, then you can ask for a group therapy or one-on-counseling to work on it. Never be afraid to seek professional help, especially when you need it very badly.
Confidence and self-esteem doesn’t have to lessen while you age. Eliminate harmful stereotypes and thoughts and stay engaged.
