Many people in this world suffer from a lower self-esteem. There are different ways to solve this problem. First of all you can try to get somebody else to help you. A doctor, a psychologist, a friend, a relative etc.

Secondly you could try to fix yourself a place: going on holiday, changing your domicile, simply getting yourself out of your house. Thirdly, you can try to use a “thing” to raise your self-esteem, for example, a new car, another kind of toy, make up, a new handbag, a new games console, or you could choose a drug, alcohol or sex. All of these things do serve a purpose, in that they can reward you and they can and they do make you feel good. However these are all short-term solutions.

While a short-term solutions? Because they come from changing your externals, they are dealing with the effects, and you want to deal with the cause, and the cause is an inside job. Actually, you don’t need to go back to your childhood through psychiatry or psychology or medication.

You don’t need to to buy that one more big thing which will make everything okay, that will give you that security, also you tell yourself. No new lover, no change of location is going to really make things better on the inside. That’s the honest truth and at some level we all know that.

So how do you go about this inside job then if you don’t want to use the methods already listed, i.e. you realise that this is something that you need to do and it’s something that you need to do alone so that you can help others by truly helping yourself, raising your self-esteem and becoming a happy person who can live by example.

Step one is to relax. Relaxation into letting go, allowing the your cells to function optimally giving your muscles and your mind at rest. Paradoxically, in relaxation, where there is no effort, you can take the most powerful actions of which is mental action, and it is effortless, and it feels wonderful. To raise your self-esteem, you’re going to raise your self ideal, and to do this you are going to imagine your ideal self.

When you go to do this, picture in your mind, but he would look like if you had a high self-esteem. Imagine that you were able to achieve and maintain your ideal body weight, put a nice relaxed smile containing genuine happiness on your face and eyes and wear the clothes that make you feel you’re most confident, all in your mind. Seeing yourself like this, notice how you feel. You should be feeling much better. If not, perhaps brighten the image, make the little changes that you need, to make yourself feel good.

Finally, step into that new you, and see how that feels. Imagine what you will be saying to yourself. Imagine how others will treat you now that you are relaxed and have a high self-esteem. Notice how you feel that you deserve better things to happen. And say to yourself, I believe something wonderful it could happen to me today. By doing this exercise often, you are guaranteed to raise your self-esteem.

This article is from the ezine author Sam Beatson who runs http://www.successfulinspirations.com - the vision board software website. Go there now to create your first “vision board” - click here - http://www.successfulinspirations.com