Hurtful words can cause life long damage and are the cause for low self esteem in many people, especially children. Words can become very powerful weapons and can be devastating when used to hurt someone. Many people do not realize that the words they speak can have an affect not only on them, but on others as well.

If these words are spoken often enough, they can destroy our self confidence and lower our self esteem. When our subconscious mind believes these words about us to be true, this is where your low self esteem begins.

The first step in repairing your low self esteem is to forgive the person who so thoughtlessly said the hurtful words to you, and begin the healing process. You should not let this fester; the longer you go without addressing the problem, the worse it gets.

The only way to raise our low self esteem caused by someone's hurtful words, is to change the negative thoughts about ourselves to positive thoughts. All negative self talk must be stopped immediately, it is damaging your self confidence and self esteem. Try replacing all negative self talk with positive self talk such as affirmations.

When you start to have negative thoughts about yourself, (such as - I'm so dumb or I'm so ugly), replace these thoughts with positive affirmations (such as - I'm a wonderful person or I'm a happy person, everyone loves me). Take time out to write out some positive affirmations that will make you feel better and improve your low self esteem. Repeat these affirmations to yourself often during the day. Eventually your subconscious mind will believe these words to be true. This is one of the easiest ways to improve your low self esteem which was caused by someone's insensitive and hurtful words.