do this intro with me okay hey everyone this is erica Johnston welcome back to
my channel if you're looking for ways to improve your self-esteem especially if
you're transitioning right now to gray hair then this is the video for you
alright, before we get started I'm just going to give you a little bit of
background information into my own life and my own experiences with self-esteem
but if you're not interested in watching this no worries you can just skip and
fast-forward to this minute right here I'm gonna get open and honest with you I
have actually suffered from self-esteem issues for a very very long time don't
worry I'm not gonna make this like a long harrowing tale or anything like
that I just want you to know where I'm coming from and that the advice that I'm
giving you actually has been things that I've tried myself and that have worked
for me I think it doesn't matter how old we are we can suffer from self-esteem
issues anytime during our lives right and it's always nice to have strategies
to be able to cope with different things that happen to us for me it started in
middle school and you know that movie Mean Girls yeah I was Lindsay Lohan in
that movie why don't I know you I'm new I just moved here from Africa
but I just remember getting teased a lot and I found you know I grew really fast
so I was extremely tall a lot taller than my friends I'm 5'11" right now I
don't know I think it was like grade 9 some of the boys drew a giraffe picture
over my yearbook photo and it was absolutely devastating for me it was
horrible and so I think you know as I got older I sort of held on to all of
those experiences that I had in middle school and in high school and you know
it was almost like that was me like even as an adult and I have to say to you
that growing out my silver hair was such a test to my self-esteem and it's one
that I can feel really really proud of all right so here we go here's six
different ways that you can boost your self-esteem
the first one is meditating and I'll tell you something
has been so helpful for me so I personally use the app headspace they
have different programs to meet your needs
so I'm actually doing the self esteem program right now it's a 30-day course
and it's amazing and so it uses techniques of visualization also noting
if you start to think negative thoughts you aren't fighting it you're just
basically thinking like oh yeah there's that negative thought and you're just
sort of letting it go so meditating is an amazing technique to
help you recognize when you're falling down that sort of negative thinking Road
I guess your thoughts are not you all right so the second way to boost your
self-esteem is and this may sound really like cliche but it's to not try to be
somebody else and you know I mean especially with social media now we can
scroll through our Instagram and we see all kinds of pictures of beautiful
celebrities and models and all this and you know we're having a bad day we're
sitting on our couch and no makeup and you know I've got two big zits on my
face and it's easy for us to look at someone and think oh my goodness you
know I would like to look like them I'd like to you know emulate their style and
I think it's important to figure out what our own style is and what our own
gifts are that we have to give to the world all right so the third thing is
and this goes hand-in-hand with not trying to be like somebody else is not
trying too hard so do you ever find when you are trying to be like somebody else
like you're your style you're trying to change it up or something and you're
dressing in a way that you're not fully comfortable and I've done this before if
I am not comfortable it comes across I just read this recently and it's really
interesting you know when you're really desperate for something and it never
seems to come and then as soon as you move on
and your thoughts go somewhere else that's when you seem to attract whatever
it is that you wanted in the first place you know there's something to be said
about that so whatever it is maybe you are trying to lose weight and you are
just not happy with yourself but you're over focusing on it right and you're
thinking like oh I gotta do this and go do this I can't eat this I can't
have that I can't whatever and you're over focusing it and then you feel like
you've become a failure and your self-esteem plummets because of that
when you take some of that pressure off of yourself and just be and you know
just try your best there is something very amazing and liberating about that
and that brings me to number four do try to get out of your comfort zone okay
so it's important especially right now you know we're all inside our houses
it's safe you know and it's easy to just kind of fall into a rut so you need to
figure out something to excite you and to motivate you you know when you
accomplish these little things in turn that will boost your self-esteem right
and you don't need to you know be writing the next Pulitzer Prize
winning book or anything like that the tasks and goals that you
make for yourself can just be small and attainable and if you start doing these
little tasks every day then they build up over time and you just feel so much
better about yourself and that brings me to number five live for the day don't
dwell on the past don't dwell on what has happened before or what's going to
happen in the future think about the here and then now right and if you're in
you're living in the present there is just this sort of peace that comes with
that but that brings me to the sixth and final way that you can boost your self
esteem and it's to care less about the opinions of others and this one is one
that I struggle with all the time and is one that I probably will struggle with
for the rest of my life so it's hard you know I'm putting myself out there on
this channel and I've definitely had moments where I thought that's it I'm
just going to shut this down I can't do this anymore
you know who am I on this big huge platform called YouTube like you know
you've got Nikol Johnson who's amazing you've got a Elisa in Montreal you've got
Annika Von Holdt to look at for Instagram photos but the reason why I
continue this channel is for those of you who say to me please I
want more support and that's why I keep doing it
alright so I hope that those helped you a little bit I know it's really tough if
you're going through the gray hair transition right now to keep yourself
esteem up but just do your best and know that this too shall pass and I'm here
for you any questions that you might have and know that I struggled as well
and I still do with self-esteem issues so it's something that a lot of us need
to work on and you're not alone alright so I hope that you have a wonderful rest
of the week and until next time bye for now I put some jeans on for you which I
never get because you can't see them in this video so just probably take them
off now hi everyone this is Erica Henry Johnston and Lenny no that's so stupid
sorry Lenny I guess just relax and be you know is different
hopefully it's filming okay okay the thing is is No oh my god is it shaking
the entire time I'm doing this
all right so I hope that those ways helped you and Lenny and I say good