Over the next few weeks, I am looking at common thoughts that people with low self-esteem have, found within this Buzzfeed article, and how we can possibly address them. For the full list, click here.

When you have low self-esteem, you often cannot see the point in making yourself look good. It becomes far easier to fade into the background than risk being ‘seen’ and rejected after making an effort. You don’t believe you are good enough, that you are beautiful, that you are worth much…so what would be the point of taking care of your looks?

This becomes a vicious cycle:

• You don’t take care of yourself e.g. not treating your body well
• You don’t feel good about your looks or general self
• You feel like you’re not good enough
• You do not think you are worth making an effort for

and back to the top again…thus maintaining your low self-esteem.

How to address this issue?

• Take small steps to put in more effort. You needs to break the vicious cycle outlined above but if you’re feeling really low about yourself, it will probably be difficult to suddenly put in lots of effort. Take small steps to break your habits instead. For a start, put the sweatpants aside if this is your current go-to outfit!! Leave them for lounging around the house – it sounds silly but I promise you’ll feel better for it. Style your hair, or put on a small amount of make-up. The key point here is that you will start to break the cycle, and once you start, it will become easier to continue.

• Get to the bottom of your low self-esteem. It’s hard to take care of yourself and start raising your low self-esteem when you don’t understand it yourself. Many of the websites listed here have sections on self-esteem, its causes and how to start addressing your feelings. You could also consider counselling to work through your low self-esteem – this is a route I took and would highly recommend. Look at this page for more general tips on raising self-esteem.

• Stay sociable. If you are not taking care of yourself, I am guessing you are not feeling particularly sociable either, at least those two things went hand-in-hand for me. Honestly, the worst thing you can do is to avoid contact with people, particularly your friends and family. Getting out and about will force you to at least shower, get dressed and look presentable for the outside world, so make sure you take at least some opportunities to socialise. If there are no opportunities or none that you are keen on, arrange to go for a quick coffee with one friend you feel comfortable with. Talking always helps!

• Buy yourself something or treat yourself – NOW! No excuses here, even if you only have a fiver to spare, you can buy something to treat yourself. Do not buy anything edible for this as the point is to get you feeling good about your physical self, and sitting on the sofa bingeing on chocolate will not do this! Ideas: new nail varnish, face mask, fresh razors, new pair of shoes, t-shirt, pyjamas, underwear etc etc. Treating yourself to something new is telling your inner self that you deserve good things – and it needs to be told!!!

I hope these tips get you started on making yourself look and feel as good as you deserve to…