Why Love Yourself?

Self-worth is the opinion and value you have on yourself. For instance, you might believe that you are a terrible person that deserves bad consequences, but you can also believe that you are an amazing person who can achieve almost everything. It is important to have a high sense of self-worth because it will develop a healthy balance of valuing for yourself but also recognizing that you can grow. Additionally, people with a high self-worth are more likely to be happy, have a better social life and work through difficult situations.

In contrast, a person with low self-worth will tend to be associated with more negative outcomes. They do not feel like they have many worthy characteristics and may feel ashamed, embarrassed, or even angry about themselves. This will lead them to deserve in negative, self-defeating ways. For example, one may convince themselves they aren’t smart enough to pass a science test because he believes he isn’t capable of getting a good grade. He doesn’t put much energy or effort into preparing for the test. He then fails the test, mainly due to the lack of studying. This failure then is interpreted, incorrectly and makes him feel its further proof that he is indeed bad at math, which leads to him being discouraged and most likely never trying to improve.

For physical education (P.E. class), grade 10 students were given the opportunity to host a campaign on mental health and my group (Robbie H., Jeff H. and Sean P.) decided to focus on self-worth. We had a strong connection to this topic and our goal was to spread awareness and possibly increase self-worth among students in our community. On April 19, we passed around self-worth stickers to reach this goal. Additionally, we will host an affirmation activity for the grade 10 homerooms on April 29 to 30, where students will be given the opportunity to write nice things to their peers. If this turns out successful, we will try this activity with other grade levels even though our P.E. unit is coming to an end.

There are many methods to increase self-worth; such as learning to eliminate self-criticism and exercising regularly. We tend to further decrease our self-worth when we know that we have a low self-worth. To increase self-worth, you must substitute self-criticism with self-compassion. When self-criticism kicks in, ask yourself what your real qualities are and focus on them. Doing this will help build up your self-worth. Additionally, according to Debbie Mandel, author of Addicted to Stress, “Exercising creates empowerment both physical and mental, especially weight lifting where you can calibrate the accomplishments.”

Make a list of qualities you have that are meaningful: loyalty, humor, intelligence and even your appearance! Choose one of the qualities on your list and tell yourself the importance of the specific characteristic or value. This is an exercise that has been proven to increase self-worth. Improving self-worth is possible for anyone!