Your self-image—the way you view yourself and your beliefs about how other people see you—is important to your overall mental health. It affects your self-esteem, anxiety levels, relationships, and ability to achieve goals. Improving your self-image can help you to live a happier life, but unfortunately, many people have thoughts or experiences that lead them to think poorly of themselves. You can turn this around by embracing the process of building up your self-image with these simple steps:

Accept Imperfection

Nobody is perfect, so resist the urge to be overly critical of your mistakes or flaws. Instead, look at them as an opportunity to learn and grow. As you overcome challenges and learn from mistakes, you will learn to see yourself as a strong, motivated person who is always trying to become better, by paradoxically, accepting your flaws.

Be Honest with Yourself

To improve your self-image, it’s critical that you learn to be objective, open, and honest with yourself about who you are. Pay attention to your conscience, but be careful of your inner critic—that voice that says you aren’t good enough. Destructive thoughts like this are lies. When your inner critic starts to talk, evaluate what it says and rephrase it honestly and positively. For example, if your inner critic says, “I’m no good at this. I’ll never be smart enough to get it,” tell yourself, “That’s not true. This is something new that I’m learning. I will get better at it as I continue trying.”

Change What You Can Change

As you’re honest, you will probably identify things you don’t like about yourself. We all have them. If this is something you can change—work on it! If you’ve honestly assessed yourself and believe you need to make a change, look for small, demonstrable ways to make it happen, even if the results aren't immediate. If you recognize that you have a quick temper for instance, try doing something each day that has a calming effect, and practice apologizing if you say or do something you shouldn’t.

Let Go of What You Can’t Change

Sometimes you’ll identify something you don’t like about yourself, but can’t realistically change. It’s important to accept these things about yourself and move on. Realize that things like this are okay, and they don’t affect your value as a person.

Improving your self-image is a process, but it leads to a healthier, happier, more vibrant you. As you learn to love yourself, you’ll find that you’re better able to treat others with kindness and compassion too, and you’ll be less worried about what other people think. Rather than let media or other influences define who you should be, you’ll be able to project your positive self-image to the rest of the world, so they can see the good and unique person you truly are.

There are many ways of expressing love, and most people have one or two ways that they most commonly demonstrate affection. These are also usually the same ways that they best identify and understand love when it’s offered to them. It’s important to understand how you and your partner feel and show appreciation, so that you can recognize when they are showing love, and adjust your own way of offering love to them so that they can truly feel it. Below are the most common five ways to express love.

Gifts

Some people express and feel love through gift-giving. Giving flowers, clothes, a favorite treat, or a handmade item is one way people demonstrate that they are thinking about you.

Acts

Another way to express love is to do something kind or helpful for another person. By doing a chore or making a meal for your loved one, you can show them that they are important to you.

Time

Spending quality time together is also an expression of love. When a person gives you their undivided attention, or makes time to take a walk or do another activity together, they are expressing that you are a priority in their life.

Touch

Love can be expressed through physical affection. Holding hands, giving a back rub, embracing, or kissing are often used to express love and attachment.

Words

Some people feel and demonstrate love through words. Giving compliments and encouragement, saying “I love you,” and leaving notes of affection and appreciation are all ways of letting people know how much they mean to you.

If you and your partner have different ways of expressing and feeling love, it can lead to misunderstanding and frustration in your relationship—but it doesn’t have to. Most couples do love each other and want their partner to feel that love. Understanding how the other person shows and feels affection, and being willing to express your feelings in the way they best receive them, can help both of you to feel loved and fulfilled in your relationship.

Setting goals is a great way to increase your happiness and productivity—if you can stay motivated to accomplish them. It isn’t easy to exercise self-discipline, but there are things you can do to stay motivated to reach your goals.

Identify Your Why

What is the reason behind your goal? Knowing why you want to accomplish what you’ve set out to do is a powerful motivator that can help you stay focused and give you the strength to resist distractions and overcome obstacles.

Make it Visual

Put your goal in writing, draw a picture of it, or print out an image or quote that reminds you of what you want to accomplish. By keeping it in front of you you’re more likely to think about your goal and feel motivated to keep going with it.

Declutter

Distractions and clutter in any form can bog you down and prevent you from pursuing the things that are important. Identify things that may be distracting you from your purpose. Then remove those things, or move them to where they belong in the order of priority.

Expect Obstacles

Any goal comes with potential problems that could derail you. Instead of allowing this to happen, expect problems to arise and make a plan to deal with them. As soon as you encounter an obstacle, figure out if it’s something you can influence or not. This will prevent you from wasting energy on things you can’t control and moving forward even when the going gets tough.

Be Positive

Whether things are going smoothly or you’ve hit a bumpy patch, always engage in positive self-talk. Optimistic thinking will subdue doubts and self-criticism and instead increase your confidence and affirm positive belief in yourself.

Reward Yourself

A reward doesn’t have to be big or cost money. You can use stickers on a chart or schedule time out to do something you enjoy. Recognizing when you’ve made progress increases your feelings of happiness and gratification, and motivates you to continue moving forward.

Remember, goals are there to help you grow and become the person you want to be. If a goal is no longer serving that purpose, you can discard it without guilt and set a new one. But if your goal is a good one and you simply feel that you need more motivation to accomplish it, try some of these ideas to keep you motivated as you pursue your journey of personal growth.

Mental health is important at any age—and it’s important to continue to pay attention to mental health as we or those we love grow older. Some of the mental health challenges that older adults face are shared by the rest of the population, but some mental health issues are unique to an older demographic.

Risk Factors

As people age, risk factors such as reduced mobility, chronic pain, and physical health problems can increase. Stressful life events such as losing a loved one may also be more likely to occur during our golden years. Because physical health, mental health, and life circumstances all affect each other, these types of situations can increase the risk that older adults may become depressed or experience feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Types of Mental Health Problems

The most common mental health difficulties faced by people over 60 are depression and dementia. However, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and self-harm also affect smaller percentages of the older population. It’s important to know the most common types of mental health problems people may face as they age, so that early diagnosis and treatment can help to improve quality of life as soon as possible.

Promoting Good Mental Health

A strong social network is key to good mental health at any age. Because older individuals are more likely to become isolated, focusing on social relationships is an excellent way to promote good mental health through the years.

Taking time to pursue hobbies and interests is another great way to stay mentally healthy. One of the benefits of retirement is extra time to do the things we enjoy. Resuming old hobbies, trying new activities, and volunteering or joining groups with similar interests can lead to increased well-being.

One of the simplest things you can do to promote good mental health is simply to learn and be aware of the unique mental health situations that older people face. This can help you to anticipate difficulties, practice good mental health techniques, and seek help for yourself or your loved one if the need arises.

For many people, the new year is a time for new resolutions. Because of this, it’s the perfect time to evaluate your mental and emotional health and set goals that can help you to live a happier life. Here are just a few mental health goal ideas for the new year.

Boost your self-esteem

Set a goal to show yourself that you are of value. Pursue a favorite hobby, learn a skill or subject that interests you, and engage in positive self-talk.

Take care of your body

How you feel physically affects how you feel mentally, so make an effort to eat balanced meals, drink enough water, and get plenty of sleep and exercise.

Surround yourself with positivity

Try to weed out negative influences in your life and instead surround yourself with good people and things that uplift and inspire you.

Give of yourself

Altruism can powerfully boost your mood. Choose a way that you can regularly volunteer even a small amount of time to help others.

Make time to meditate

Meditation and other relaxation and calming techniques are easy to learn, generally don’t take much time, and can contribute to your sense of well-being.

Learn how to deal with stress, anxiety, or depression

There are many great tools for learning how to manage the ups and downs of mental health. Pick one or two ideas to try and learn new ways to cope if good mental health is a struggle.

Seek help

If you feel that you could use some help in improving your mental health, make it a goal to seek expert advice. Our licensed therapists and counselors can help you on the path to greater mental health and guide you through the journey.

Whatever your mental health goals for the new year, we’re here to provide encouragement and support for a healthier, happier you.