Many people have more anxiety during the holidays and feel less control. These 5 tips will help you feel less anxious during the holidays this year.

Being overly critical of yourself goes hand in hand with low self-esteem as well as other mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Constructive criticism can be appropriate, healthy, and helpful at times; however, being overly critical is not. When you’re overly critical, you might have unreasonable expectations, exaggerate the negatives or you might be extremely judgemental of yourself. For a healthy self-esteem, it’s important to see yourself in a healthy, balanced way. To do that, you need to stop being overly critical of yourself.

How does someone appear confident and feel secure? Is there a look or a secret behind why some people exude confidence? The answer may surprise you. It isn't about what you're wearing or what you look like, it's about how mindful and prepared you are (How Mindfulness Can Increase Self-Confidence). Expressing yourself with others may be anxiety provoking but doesn't have to be with these tricks on how to appear confident and feel secure. 

Cancelling plans can be easy to do when your confidence is low. You may be anxious or uncomfortable, and those feelings will probably intensify as the plans draw nearer (take the Social Anxiety Disorder Test: Do I Have Social Anxiety?). Fear and anxiety can be overwhelming and negative thoughts take over. Negative feelings can get so uncomfortable, and pulling out of your plans may seem like the easiest thing to do. However, cancelling plans or not showing up can make things worse. It’s important to stop cancelling plans because of low confidence.

Does your relationship with food need help? Do you worry or become anxious about all the mixed messages about diets? Improve your confidence with food now.

Creativity can help you to build self-esteem, improve your mental health and boost your wellbeing. There are many ways that you can be creative and it doesn’t matter what you do. For example, it can be anything from writing, art, design, playing music, cooking, scrapbooking, pottery, cake decorating, knitting, sewing, woodworking, photography, gardening or dancing. Here are some reasons why it’s worth trying creativity to build self-esteem. 

It can be hard to feel motivated and confident even on good days. Learn how to feel motivated with this DBT skill. It will get you feeling motivated and more confident fast.

It’s important to do the things you’re not comfortable with to build self-esteem. That means stepping outside of your comfort zone and challenging yourself. Naturally, you may resist doing this because it might make you anxious, fearful or just plain uncomfortable. Stepping outside of your comfort zone does take effort and it might seem easier to do nothing. However, sticking to what you’re familiar with can keep you stuck and it can damage your self-esteem. In order to create change, you need to challenge your negative feelings and do it anyway. Do the things that you’re not comfortable with and build your self-esteem.

It’s important to stop quitting the things you enjoy just because you're not confident. If you’re like many people, you may be depriving yourself of things you enjoy simply because you’re not good at them or feel inadequate. Perhaps you don’t try something because you’re afraid of exposing your weaknesses or imperfections, you fear making mistakes or you fear failure. Perhaps you compare yourself to others or worry too much about what others think. You might feel vulnerable and that can be very uncomfortable. However, doing things for the sake of enjoyment is important for your self-esteem, mental health and overall wellbeing. Stop quitting the things you enjoy just because you're not confident.

Identifying your good qualities can be challenging when you believe you’re worthless or have low self-esteem. When you’re feeling worthless, your negative thoughts distort your perception of yourself and you overlook the positives. However, they’re not the truth even though you might believe it. No matter who you are, you are not worthless and you do have good qualities. Identifying your good qualities even if you feel worthless can help guide you to the things you’re suited to, find meaning or purpose in your life, and most importantly, to see your own worth so you can build your self-esteem.