Mindfulness can do amazing things for you, more than you could possibly imagine!
Mindfulness makes you more aware of the things around you, helping to ground you and give you a better perspective on reality.
But did you know that it can also increase your awareness of internal factors, too?
If you’re struggling with confidence and self-esteem, mindfulness can be a valuable tool to help lift your spirits and change your mindset to one of positivity.
Here are a few mindfulness exercises that will help to boost your self-confidence today:
Next time you’re feeling glum because of a decision you think you made was wrong or because you’re lacking confidence, spend some time thinking about how you would comfort or respond to someone else going through the same thing.
Take yourself out of your circumstances and look at it from an outside third-party perspective. Analyze the situation, the responses and reactions, and think about how you’d comfort someone else in that situation. Say the words aloud so YOU can hear them—it may feel silly, but it really will do wonders to lift your spirits.
So often, we’re much harder on ourselves than on others. Mindfulness can help you to be more compassionate and understanding of your own faults and failings, and change you to be less critical of yourself. You can shrug off mistakes more easily because you’ve got your own back.
We all need cheerleaders in our corner, people who support us and root for us. The good news is that we can be our own cheerleader.
How do you do that? Sit down and make a list of all the things you’ve done right in the last days, weeks, months, and years. Think about all the smart decisions you’ve made, the choices that have led to success and positive outcomes. List them all and write down some encouraging affirmations after each one.
Any time you’re feeling that low self-esteem hit or you’re lacking confidence, pull out that list and read over the things you’ve done right. Those affirmations of encouragement can help to lift your spirits and give you the boost to be more confident.
Often, the most effective change you can make is a small one: a mindset change.
Unfortunately, most of us tend to be pretty negative with ourselves, and our internal self-talk tends to focus more on our faults, failings, and screw-ups. This is where mindfulness comes in. Pay more attention to the way you talk to your inner self, and notice whether things are more positive or negative. If you see that you trend toward the negative, make a point of changing that self-talk to be more upbeat and uplifting.
Even if you’re already fairly positive, it’s worth putting in the effort to be more positive more often. Set a reminder to go off every hour on the hour, and spend a few seconds (or minutes) using positive affirmations and reinforcements to keep your mind fixed firmly on the good things in your life. You’ll find that repeated practice and mindfulness of your self-talk can go a long way toward changing your internal attitude about yourself and boosting your confidence.
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Our instinctive reactions can tell us a lot about who we are and why we think and act the way we do. They can be the signpost that shows us what we could be doing wrong, which is the first step in figuring out what to do right.
Throughout the day, make it a point to be more mindful of how you react to various circumstances and situations. Be more self-aware and focus inward on your reactions, on your feelings and behavior throughout the day.
Once you’ve begun noticing your reactions, get curious about WHY you react a certain way. Dig a bit deeper to probe at the underlying feelings, worries, or fears that are driving your reactions, and see if there’s any way you can change things up to react better in the future.
Whenever you’re doing something that you know could affect your confidence—such as a big presentation, a meeting, a seminar, a date, and so on—have something there to serve as your token of confidence.
Some speakers like to use a perfume that makes them feel better, and every time they smell that particular fragrance, it helps to boost their confidence. Some people wear a particular item of clothing when going on a date, and it helps to calm their nervousness. Some professionals have a watch or token or coin that they take whenever giving a presentation, and that physical item encourages them to be calmer and more at peace mentally.
Find some token that helps to give you confidence, and carry it with you wherever you go. Any time you need a confidence boost, use that token to lift your spirits.
One of the best ways to increase your confidence is to act like you’re more confident than you believe you are. It’s not that you’re lying to yourself or others—you’re simply mindful of how you truly feel, yet are self-aware enough to ignore those feelings and behave the way you wish you felt.
Anytime you’re feeling a bit shaky, pay attention to those feelings, accept them for what they are, then push past them. Even if that means putting on a “game face” and pretending you’re not nervous or worried, just do it.
You’ll find that after a while, the things that made you nervous are far less nerve-wracking, and you can get through even difficult challenges because your mindfulness practices have enabled you to recognize your failings and push through them anyways.
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