It can be difficult to maintain a healthy level of confidence for a prolonged period of time. There are so many factors that go into damaging a person’s sense of self-esteem, and this can lead to feelings of loneliness and hopelessness. While shortcuts to confidence can be found, such as social media attention and instantly gratifying activities such as shopping, it is better in the long run to concentrate on achieving a more consistent level of confidence. Here are some ways you can boost your confidence now.
What is Confidence?
Confidence can often be mixed up with other attributes, such as arrogance and selfishness. These two traits are different from confidence in that they often come with underlying low self-esteem, whereas confident people are more accepting of themselves and prepared to treat themselves and others with respect. Confidence is about trusting that you deserve your place in the world, even if you sometimes feel like this isn’t the case. Confidence allows a person to act in their own best interests rather than only listening to others or constantly enforcing their views. It is a delicate balance, but it can be achieved.
Enjoy Who You Are
Learning to appreciate your own individuality can be difficult. It is easy to compare yourself to other people and imagine that they live perfect lives with no insecurities, but this is rarely true. Instead of worrying about what other people might think, choose to value your own opinion of yourself. If you enjoy wearing cowboy boots for men or find it fun to sing while walking down the street, it doesn’t matter how other people perceive you. As long as you cause no harm and have good intentions, being yourself is not a crime.
Appreciate What You Can
Teach yourself how to be grateful the even the smallest things in life. Whether that’s the way the water sounds in the shower or how your clothes feel on your skin, being able to appreciate commonplace sensations and experiences can help make life richer and encourage you to be more confident.
Reframe Your Perspective
How you view the world around you will have a huge effect on how you feel like a part of it. This includes how confident you are when navigating certain spaces, such as work or social situations. It takes time and practice, but you can adjust how you view the world to better suit your personal values. Low confidence can prevent you from seeing reality by obscuring your vision with anxiety. Meditation and mindfulness can be helpful tools for grounding you and reframing your perspective. If you see the world as a negative, judgmental, or threatening place, then you are less likely to feel confident when you engage with it.
Stop and challenge these notions. Take notice of the positive aspects of the world and examples where people aren’t judgemental or unkind. You will gradually build up a bank of evidence that shows you a more accurate version of reality.