Countless people around the world struggle with insecurity, but very few are willing to speak about it. Due to the silence surrounding this topic, it can be easy to get lost in a sea of self-doubt and low confidence. Even worse, it’s possible to think you’re the only one experiencing this!
The truth is that insecurity is a normal part of life, and there are plenty of ways you can free yourself from the hold it has over you. However, there’s no one way to tackle this problem: moving past insecurity involves a holistic approach to your entire life. If this sounds daunting, don’t worry: it’s not as hard as it seems.
Identify The Root of the Problem
When you’re experiencing insecurity, it can be really hard to have a clear picture of the world around you. These feelings can cloud your judgment, perception, and self-image. That’s why it’s vital to find a way to take a step back, and find an objective view over your situation. Something, somewhere in your life, is causing you distress. Your job now is to pinpoint it.
According to Psychology Today, there are three primary causes of insecurity.
- Insecurity stemming from failure or rejection
- Insecurity caused by social anxiety
- Insecurity fueled by perfectionism
Take stock of your life in an objective way, and ask yourself whether any of these three causes resonate with you. The fact is that there are tried-and-true methods for handling each one, so take comfort in the fact that insecurity isn’t a life sentence! There are ways to move past it by targeting the roots.
While this approach is the most direct, there are other factors in your life that can make the problem far worse. Addressing them is central to a holistic approach towards tackling your insecurity. Let’s take a look at where you can begin.
Take a Look At Your Routine
Exercise, sleeping enough, eating healthy and drinking in moderation are all things that contribute towards reducing your insecurity. While it may not seem like your self-critical feelings are related to how much you slept last night, the truth is that the condition of our body dictates a lot of our emotional state.
Simple habits for better mental health like these go a long way towards tackling anxiety. This involves a broad effort across many different elements of your life, but the fact is that this is key to tackling anxiety: a multi-front approach. You won’t get anywhere by changing only one thing. You have to take an active approach towards improving the quality of every part of your life.
Unfortunately, if you’re not careful, bad habits accumulate and solidify. Once they do, it’s much harder to undo them. For example, exercising to prevent weight gain is far easier than exercising to achieve weight loss. Be proactive, get healthy, and kick those bad habits to the curb. You’ll find that your confidence and self-image will have improved considerably!
Pinpoint Negative People in Your Life
We all know people who are seriously and unendingly negative. Often, they can’t help it! It’s as if complaining, criticizing, and groaning is built into their DNA. Their ability to turn any mundane event into a reason for fear and regret is almost impressive. There’s no two ways around it: avoid these people.
Insecurity includes, in part, a defeatist outlook on the world. When you’re surrounded by people who constantly preach that life is terrible, and that nothing is worth doing, it can go to your head and make your struggle with insecurity a lot more severe. This is doubly true for those who can’t help but criticize you constantly – the serious effect of this behavior on your mental health is not something you should take lightly.
However, what if you can’t walk away? Often those who drag you down the most are your very own family members, or a particularly cruel boss at your workplace. In these cases, you may simply have to confront them. For example, according to Lensa if your boss makes you feel incompetent, it’s important to stand up to him or her in a professional manner, even if it jeapordizes your employment!
This is because putting your foot down about your boundaries and your mental health is vital. If standing up for yourself in a professional way means you may lose your job, then you’re probably better off finding a different place to work. When it comes to those who drag you down intentionally or unintentionally, they can’t be higher on your list of priorities than your own mental health.
Take Care of Your Body
While the real work that goes into tackling insecurity happens through changes to your mindset, habits, and environment, it’s important to find a way to embrace your physical beauty as well! Putting effort into the way you present yourself to the world is a great way to improve your self-esteem.
Check out our article on 5 tips for a more confident you. Using some of these tricks, you can remind yourself that you are, in fact, beautiful! Simply feeling your beauty can help wash away insecurity, and strengthen the core self-image that gives you confidence.
Find Perspective
At the end of the day, remind yourself that insecurity is a normal part of life. Everybody experiences it, and often it’s simply a sign that there’s something in our inner selves or the world around us that we’d like to change. Instead of feeling resentful towards this negative emotion, think of it as a warning system that’s on your side.
Insecurity is simply your brain trying to tell you that something doesn’t feel right. As soon as you feel it, look around at your life, and determine the problem. Once you do, it’s far easier to take steps towards fixing it. Insecurity isn’t something you need to fight, instead it’s a sign that there’s a battle to be fought elsewhere.
