Self-confidence

Self-confidence is defined as a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities and judgements. Self-confidence is important to your health and mental well-being. Having a healthy level of self confidence can help you become successful in your personal and professional life.

It is not always easy to be confident in yourself, particularly if you are naturally self critical, or if other people put you down.

Having self-confidence can bring many benefits — at home, at work and within your relationships. Everyone admires a self-confident person. We may even envy a little. Self-confident people seem at ease with themselves and their work. They invite trust and inspire confidence in others. Here is a look at a few positive effects self-confidence can have on your life.

• Openness to try new things — When you believe in yourself, you will be more willing to try new things. Whether you apply for a promotion or sign up for a cooking class, believing in yourself is key to putting yourself out there.
• Better performance — When you feel confidence in yourself, you are able to devote your resources to the task at hand. Rather than waste time and energy worrying that you are not good enough, you can devote your time and energy to your efforts. So ultimately, you will perform better when you feel confident.
• Better resilience — Confidence, or believing in yourself, can enhance your resilience, or ability to bounce back from any challenges or adversities you face in life.
• Improved relationships — Having a healthy dose of self-confidence can help you keep your relationships healthy and happy. People with self-confidence tend to set stronger boundaries, prioritising their work on needs and emotions.Having self-confidence not only impacts how you feel about yourself, but it helps you better understand and love others. It also gives you the strength to walk away if you are not getting what you deserve.

It is confidence in your bodies, minds and spirits that allow us to keep looking for new adventures.

- Oprah Winfrey

Whether you lack confidence in one specific area or you struggle to feel confident about anything, following are few things you can do to boost your self confidence –

• Stop comparing yourself to others — Whether you compare how you look to your friends on social media, or you compare your salary to your friends income, comparative comparisons are not really healthy. It is seen that people who compare themselves to others experience envy. And the more they experience, the worst they feel about themselves. It is a vicious cycle. Be attentive to times when you compare your wealth , position, skills, achievements and attributes. Thinking that other people are better or have more will erode your confidence. When you notice, you are drawing comparisons remind yourself that doing so is not helpful. Everyone is running their own race and life is not a competition.
• Take care of your body — It’s hard to feel good about yourself if you are abusing your body. On the other hand, if you practise self care, you are doing something positive for your mind, body and spirit. You will naturally feel more confident.

Here are a few self care practises linked to higher your self confidence-

• Diet — Eating well comes with many benefits. When you feed your body with the right food, you feel healthier, stronger and more energised, which makes you feel better about yourself.
• Exercise — Physical activities boost confidence. Regular physical activities improve the body image. When the body image is improved, you feel more confident.
• Meditation — Meditation can help boost self-confidence in several ways. For one , it helps you recognise and accept yourself. Meditation also teaches you to stop negative self-talk and disconnects you from any mental chatter that is interfering with your self-confidence.
• Sleep — Good and quality sleep is linked with positive personality traits, including optimism and self-esteem.
• Practice self compassion — Self compassion involves treating yourself with kindness when you make a mistake, fail or experience a setback. Self compassion contributes to more consistent confidence. Thinking, “Everyone messes up sometimes”, as opposed to, “I am so stupid. I ruined everything”, is an example of having self compassion and can help you feel good even if you do not perform as well as you hoped.
• Use the power of positive self-talk — Using self-talk is optimistic and can help you foster self compassion, embrace self doubt and take on new challenges. On the other hand, negative self-talk can limit your abilities and lessen your confidence by convincing your subconscious that “You can’t handle it” or that something is “too hard” or that you “should not even try”.
• Embrace self-doubt — Practice facing some of your fears that stem from a lack of self-confidence. If you are afraid you will embarrass yourself or you think that you are going to mess up, try it anyway. Tell yourself it is just an experiment and see what happens.

You might learn that being a little anxious or making a few mistakes is not as bad as you thought. And each time you move forward you can gain more confidence in yourself.